Our country is not at ease with itself.
In recent years we’ve seen inter-communal violence, radicalisation and diminishing trust in our communities, all of which came to a head during the summer riots.
As a consequence, a frank discussion is needed about the state of the nation. The state of Britain, yes, but the state of England, in particular – as England is where most of the rioting occurred, and it was the St George’s flag that some misappropriated.
We won’t be able to heal our divided nation if we refuse to confront complex issues about identity.
Who we are, and what community we belong to, matters. It gives our lives meaning and purpose. Confidence in our identity reassures and grounds us in a world changing at dizzying speed.
Robert Jenrick speaks at the launch of his bid to become the next Conservative leader. Jenrick wrote in the Mail: ‘We won’t be able to heal our divided nation if we refuse to confront complex issues about identity’
Jenrick writes: ‘Who we are, and what community we belong to, matters’. Pictured: England flags on Kirby Estate in the lead up to the Euro Finals earlier this year
The identities that matter to most people are not their gender, sexuality or politics, but their family, community and – yes – their nation.
Most people in the United Kingdom are proud to be British. And so we should be. We Brits invented parliamentary democracy, pioneered the Industrial Revolution, ended the slave trade, and stood alone against Hitler in Europe’s darkest hour.
But almost all people in Britain have an additional national identity too. Most Scots are unashamedly proud to be both British and Scottish. As are the Welsh. These are identities that pre-date our Britishness but also bolster it. The same is true with the English.
Unfashionable as it may be, I am deeply proud to be both English and British. My roots are in provincial England but I have an equally strong sense of belonging to the UK.
But there’s a key difference. Whereas all of the most high-status people in Scotland and Wales are proud to be Scottish and Welsh, most of the English political and media elite are far from proud to be English.
Indeed, with the exception of when the football is on, they seem to actively disapprove of it.
The Labour view is best represented by Emily Thornberry’s mocking tweet in 2014 of a house adorned with three St George’s flags above a white van parked in the drive.
While the metropolitan establishment have denigrated and mocked expressions of English identity, they seem happier celebrating other cultures, instead.
I can’t stomach such lofty arrogance, as most of the country can’t either. We don’t want a new identity, we want our existing identity to be championed again with passion.
As proud Unionists, the Conservative Party should encourage all four nations to embrace both Britishness and their distinct national identities. Scottish and Welsh Conservatives have long led the way in this.
Members of the Ewell St. Mary’s Morris Men perform traditional jigs and dances to mark St. George’s Day at Leadenhall Market on April 23, 2024
Hundreds of thugs attack police in Rotherham on August 4, 2024
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer observes floral tributes for the victims of the Southport stabbings on July 30, 2024
A small boat arrives to collect people thought to be migrants off the beach in Gravelines, France on July 29, 2024. Jenkins writes: ‘A nation cannot exist without a border, but the UK has experienced record illegal migration – and England has been saddled with the brunt of the burden’
Emily Thornberry speaks at an event for Islington North candidate Praful Nargund on May 30, 2024
A nation should be proud of its past but, as the social critic Roger Scruton wrote, English elites repudiate our inheritance and national identity. English children learn little of our history. Legions of graduates are taught that England has a uniquely evil past that is responsible for the world’s injustices. And the national arts council funds projects that consistently denigrate our past. We can’t possibly forge a united country around an identity we aren’t proud of.
A nation should put its own citizens first.
But whether it’s us giving foreign aid to parts of the world that are richer than parts of England or half of all social housing in London being occupied by those born abroad, it’s clear this isn’t always happening.
A nation cannot exist without a border, but the UK has experienced record illegal migration – and England has been saddled with the brunt of the burden.
And, most importantly, the ties that bind a nation together fray if we have huge numbers of people arriving over a short period of time. It is England, and England’s cities in particular, that have been most affected by the unprecedented mass migration of the past 25 years.
This influx has put our roads, GP surgeries and schools under pressure, while not making England, or any part of the UK, richer.
We are an open and tolerant nation, perhaps more so than any other country on Earth. People of every background have not just come to England, but, over time, become both English and British.
But let’s be clear: the combination of unprecedented migration, the dismantling of our national culture, non-integrating multiculturalism and the denigration of our identity has presented huge problems.
Jenrick said that unprecedented mass migrations over the past 25 years has put out health service under pressure
Sir Keir Starmer laughs with a reception class at Perry Hall Primary School in Orpington on September 2, 2024
The public, whose depth of anger Westminster is underestimating, have consistently voted against all of this.
We need only look to Europe where the far-Right is surging in popularity to see what happens if mainstream parties continue to sweep the issue under the carpet.
If I am elected Conservative leader, I will unashamedly fight for a strong United Kingdom.
For a proud Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland – and yes, a proud England too.