@Keir_Starmer@England England the only nation in the tournament without its own national democracy, parliament, First Minister or even national anthem.
Make England proud by addressing these injustices.
They were certainly the first people ever called it in official, printed documents: “Brittish” identity was born in Ireland, as part of an explicitly colonial drive.
Every home should have Tom Nairn's The Break-Up of Britain. I have every edition 1977 to 2021. It is not just abt Scotland. It is abt the fracturing of the UK, the rise of English nationalism, challenge of Europe pre-Brexit & emergence of 4 nation politics. Still as relevant.
All journalists need to do this. We hear lots of complaints about Englishness, English identity and the politicisation of English national identity by the 'bad people', but journos never ask the 'good people' what they are doing in regard to normalising Englishness.
"We cannot duck English nation building challenge by talking about Britishness instead. Britishness is no longer the unifying national identity it might have been under empire." - John Denham
https://t.co/dffJvOJQ06
Nationalism has surged through Reform’s radical right-wing British nationalism, as well as separatist nationalism in both Scotland and Wales.
https://t.co/CCZL8aHdRz
Buried within Andy Burnham’s Northern manifesto, Head North, is a one-sentence summation of the Nairn-Anderson thesis, put forward as his personal opinion, and utilised for differing ends (preserving the Union through devolution towards cities rather than nations).
If you want to talk about Britain as a whole, don't use 'everyone wearing an England shirt' as an example.
The UK is a multinational state with four national teams.
The SNP's landslide victory, coupled with Plaid Cymru's historic victory, have created a constitutional crisis for the UK Govt.
Northern Ireland has a clear and legal mandate to hold a referendum on their future - it is time the Scottish people are given that same right.
“The whole Russian Empire collapsed in a couple of months in 1989 and if we don’t think the UK can go the same way, we’re in cloud cuckoo land.” James Hawes, author of The Shortest History of Ireland, on @BylineTimesPod@jameshawes2@BylineTimes https://t.co/XQe3WODZLk