OP: Weird one for me, this. "Britishness" isn't something you can point to. I'm happy to be called British but just as happy to be called English, Essex or Harlow with all the connotations of those words too. We're all a jumble!
The problem with the word "British" is that it is too often used synonymously with the word "English". As a Welsh person married to a Scot and living in London, I feel less and less inclined to refer to myself as British because I resent the oft-met assumption that it means English. In an ideal world I would be proudly both Welsh and British, but Britishness is increasingly defined in a way that denies my heritage.
A good way to illustrate might be to consider language. If asked "what is the most spoken language in the UK excluding English?" most people would answer Polish, because it has been widely reported from the last census that it is the most spoken non-native language in the UK. Non-native. That means not just excluding English, but it also excludes Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Scots, Gaelic and Cornish. Most people forget that, and do not realise that the second most spoken language in the UK is actually Welsh, and Polish comes in 3rd.* Yet, I can not tell you how many times I have been told that Welsh is a dead language - too many times. Despite it being demonstrably alive and kicking, I am frequently told that Welsh people should just give up the ghost and just speak English.
Britishness should celebrate all there is about the history and heritage of these islands, but time and again it solely focuses on the English, and occasionally remembers the Scottish. It is no wonder so many Scots wanted out, and no wonder there was so much support for a "Yes" vote from the Welsh and the Northern Irish.
I think the referendum also highlighted an important issue for the English - something I have felt strongly about for many years and applies to most of the UK - which is that UK-wide and English-wide and English-and-Welsh-wide policies are too often inappropriate for large geographical areas of the UK as they are based on a weird assumption that everywhere is like London, which we know is nonsense. There is a real need for constitutional reform which allows much better local representation and decision making powers. Yes, London is important. A lot of people live there, and London is responsible for a good portion of our wealth as a country. However what works there, doesn't work everywhere else, and I feel strongly that the UK needs to find a better way of governing that doesn't see the not-London part of England, as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, shortchanged, whether that is in terms of resources or appropriateness of local policies.
I actually think that with greater devolution of powers throughout the UK, a more united sense of Britishness might well return. That may seem paradoxical, but I think the current geographic inequalities that might be improved by UK-wide devolution (if it is done right - a big if since it is such a massive and complex change from where we are now) are part of the reason for this "erosion of Britishness" as an identity. Those at the sharp end of the stick are inclined to say "but this isn't what we want, we aren't properly represented" and so emphasise the part of their identity that sets them apart from the part of the UK they feel is misrpresenting them, and so the idea of "Britishness" is fragmented and eroded.
*-Polish is actually 2nd in England, and this is also where conflation occurs - someone reads "2nd in England" and erroneously repeats it as "2nd in Britain/UK"
The problem with the word "British" is that it is too often used synonymously with the word "English". As a Welsh person married to a Scot and living in London, I feel less and less inclined to refer to myself as British because I resent the oft-met assumption that it means English. In an ideal world I would be proudly both Welsh and British, but Britishness is increasingly defined in a way that denies my heritage.
A good way to illustrate might be to consider language. If asked "what is the most spoken language in the UK excluding English?" most people would answer Polish, because it has been widely reported from the last census that it is the most spoken non-native language in the UK. Non-native. That means not just excluding English, but it also excludes Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Scots, Gaelic and Cornish. Most people forget that, and do not realise that the second most spoken language in the UK is actually Welsh, and Polish comes in 3rd.* Yet, I can not tell you how many times I have been told that Welsh is a dead language - too many times. Despite it being demonstrably alive and kicking, I am frequently told that Welsh people should just give up the ghost and just speak English.
Britishness should celebrate all there is about the history and heritage of these islands, but time and again it solely focuses on the English, and occasionally remembers the Scottish. It is no wonder so many Scots wanted out, and no wonder there was so much support for a "Yes" vote from the Welsh and the Northern Irish.
I think the referendum also highlighted an important issue for the English - something I have felt strongly about for many years and applies to most of the UK - which is that UK-wide and English-wide and English-and-Welsh-wide policies are too often inappropriate for large geographical areas of the UK as they are based on a weird assumption that everywhere is like London, which we know is nonsense. There is a real need for constitutional reform which allows much better local representation and decision making powers. Yes, London is important. A lot of people live there, and London is responsible for a good portion of our wealth as a country. However what works there, doesn't work everywhere else, and I feel strongly that the UK needs to find a better way of governing that doesn't see the not-London part of England, as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, shortchanged, whether that is in terms of resources or appropriateness of local policies.
I actually think that with greater devolution of powers throughout the UK, a more united sense of Britishness might well return. That may seem paradoxical, but I think the current geographic inequalities that might be improved by UK-wide devolution (if it is done right - a big if since it is such a massive and complex change from where we are now) are part of the reason for this "erosion of Britishness" as an identity. Those at the sharp end of the stick are inclined to say "but this isn't what we want, we aren't properly represented" and so emphasise the part of their identity that sets them apart from the part of the UK they feel is misrpresenting them, and so the idea of "Britishness" is fragmented and eroded.
*-Polish is actually 2nd in England, and this is also where conflation occurs - someone reads "2nd in England" and erroneously repeats it as "2nd in Britain/UK"
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