Indifferent

In the past few days, several senior Conservatives, including Jeremy Hunt, have warned that leaving the EU without a deal would pose a major threat to The Union, with Nicola Sturgeon already ploughing ahead with plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence. David Lammy tweeted out – in a break from his usually ceaseless anti-white tirade – “I don't remember seeing the break up of the United Kingdom on the ballot paper in 2016”. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has suggested that while regrettable, the break-up of the United Kingdom would be a price worth paying to deliver Brexit. 

From whence has come this shirt-rending angst over the precious union? Teflon Theresa, it would seem, in her latest attempt at leaving office without her only ‘legacy’ being that she could not deliver what the British people demanded. British, did I say? I no longer feel British, but I feel - more fiercely than ever - English to the core and it is the English who have the axe to grind with the EU. May has pledged (though it is hardly in her gift) to keep the United Kingdom together. Boris Johnson has gone so far as to state that preservation of this uneasy union is more important than leaving the EU. I beg to differ.

May’s deputy, David Lidington has gone on record to talk about English indifference to the union, as reported in The Scotsman newspaper. But in doing so and just like all the others he does not, or rather refuses to, grasp the reasons why. The Union? Yes, I – we – can see it as a strength and yes, as an island it is preferable not to allow foreign powers to have a border within our shores, but I’m not sure that indifference is the right word; frustration might be closer. What we are certainly not indifferent to is the way in which being English has virtually become a punishable offence. If, as many believe, Scotland should be governed by the Scottish, then why should governance of England not be exclusively the preserve of the English?

Recognising that London is no longer an English city, as John Cleese so rightly remarked, can you imagine the backlash if we were to hold an annual English Pride celebration? Even better, a whole English Pride month; a month in which we could come out of the closet and wear St George emblems and declare ourselves openly English without fear of censure. Well of course it won’t happen; as with the Conservatives, Englishness has been sacrificed on the altar of precarious union and must now only be practised behind closed doors.

Will Boris bring back English pride? Will he strengthen or – as is more likely – widen the divides that exist inter and intra-nation? Whether or not we leave the EU and whether or not the countries of the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland go on to peacefully coexist as independents or maintain close union is, at the moment, simply not germane to the pressing urgency of actually delivering Brexit. Indifferent to Scottish independence? If I’m honest I’m just not that bothered.

A Patriotic Rant

Nicola Sturgeon has said that should the UK do the ‘unthinkable’ and vote to leave the European Union, Scotland would be better off leaving our 300-year union and becoming an ‘independent’ EU member. Quite apart from the oxymoronic nature of that statement – swapping one level of dependency for another, this would make Scotland a foreign power against which a border would need to be erected and enforced. Hadrian was right.

But, on the good side, a significant proportion of those of us in England who would be rid of the EU’s unhelpful restraint on freedom and development, would be equally delighted to see the back of a country whose denizens have long hated us while taking every penny they could wring out of us. It has been suggested that both the Welsh and the Scots, if the UK was divided thus for the referendum, would overwhelmingly vote to stay in. One has to ask why, given that both populations have been allowed for years to be fiercely nationalistic even in their socialism, while the English don’t even have their own anthem, let alone their own parliament.

Bring it on, I say. No, bring it – the fuck – on. I grew up English. By the time I hit my late teens I had to learn to say British and indeed, when I finally got a real passport (a blue one, of course) it told the world I was a Brit. Well, I want independence from Britain, too. I want to be English again and no longer have to care for the poor and under-nourished of other nations. I say ‘care’, like I ever did and I say ‘under-nourished’ because for all of my life as a 'British' man I’ve had to listen to the constant demands from more stridently nationalistically proud folk holding out begging bowls and demanding that English taxpayers give ever more.

So, here’s a plan. Release Wales from its status as a mere principality and let it self-rule entirely. Let the Scots, likewise, be free to roam ‘aboot’ their glens and bonnie braes and let them both be entirely sovereign nations, free to sell their sovereignty for the Euro-shilling. Allow all Scots and Welsh and Northern Irish who wish to leave the EU reside in England and naturalise as English, then get those borders rebuilt; Hadrian’s Wall to be relocated to the current border, Offa’s Dyke to be extended and fortified the full distance. (There’s already a handy proper border between Wales and Scotland and Ireland anyway). THEN hold the referendum.

If we can’t get British independence from the EU, let’s put all our efforts into establishing English independence. In effect, we can start all over again. Why not? As individuals most of us will suffer changes of circumstance, both good and bad, in our lives, which we take advantage of or rise above. Is there any reason why we can’t do that as a country? Forget the European Union, forget any union. Vote for independence, vote to leave. “Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'