The Nationalists, particularly the English Nationalists, seem to have a thing about people talking about Britishness; this is something that I find quite hard to understand, especially given what Great Britain has given the world, and still has to give. One would have thought that it would make people proud to say that they are British, but no it seems that the nationalists are hell bent on rejecting this identity in favour of a more closed and insular identity; and I have to say that I find this quite weird. I am Cornish, not a Cornish Nationalist, but nonetheless Cornish, it is what I am and I see that identity as being a part of the wider identity of being British, which in turn is part of the wider identity of being European. My sense of identity is far from insular, and gives me no sense of a fear of the other (that is those who are different, either culturally or ethnically); in fact I treat people from other cultures and ethnic groups with respect and welcome what they have to offer in terms of knowledge etc.. As far as I can see this fear of the term British is sponsored, and reinforced, by the gutter press (The Sun, The Mail, The Express etc. etc.) and is lapped up by those readers who never bother to stop and think about what they read, and just take it for granted that if it is in the paper then it must be so. All this does is to promote a much narrower, more insular sense of identity; a sense of identity which shuns the different, which excludes “the other”, such people want only those who are “like us”, those who think and act like themselves. This is one of the many reasons that I dislike nationalism of any kind because this kind of nationalist identity leads us in only one direction, that of insularity.
When we should be engaging with the wider world, and with Europe in particular, to give a lead on such things as climate change, there are those who would close our borders, who would withdraw us from such wider engagement with the world, who would basically have us bury our heads in the sand, and who would change it from “Great Britain” to “Britain”, losing the greatness altogether. If the “big” problems, such as climate change are going to be tackled then we have to be in there at the forefront, leading by example; leading being the operative word. It is no good hiding behind the sofa, such problems are NOT going to go away, they are here and here to stay unless something is done, and done soon; we do not have the luxury of time, a couple of decades at most before the situation becomes irreversible. A couple of decades, twenty years, a very short time indeed; and we don’t even have the luxury of using this time, if we are going to make changes they have to start being made RIGHT NOW!
So my message is: forget all of the petty squabbling, who is slagging off who etc. etc., it is time everyone got their acts together and started pulling in the same direction rather than in a dozen different directions. Instead of sitting around and whingeing about the stupid things that define our lives, get out there and do something about the important things that SHOULD define our lives… This is a prime example of the STUPID things that people are letting define who they are; it is this sort of rubbish that attracts the racist’s. bigots, and hypocrites that want to withdraw from the wider world, the sort of people who give the fanatics the fodder with which they feed their hatred. It is this sort of people who turn Nationalism into Insularity. I am not going to comment on this piece because I actually think that there are far more important issues in the world than this bit of nationalist nonsense!
