The Proms

Last Night of the Proms

In an interview on a well-known breakfast TV programme, the headline opera singer for the last night of the proms stated a level of nervousness about singing some of the songs which are so deeply ingrained in the english psyche, purely because he tought the audience would know the words better than he, being german.

As it turned out of course he did a splendid job and executed those songs with the well know ruthless german efficiency. This is of course something that was unthinkable a few years ago but is now eagerly accepted.

Patriotic Display

Those who attend the last night of the proms in the Royal Albert Hall and in many of the outdoor events in Hyde Park, Belfast, Scotland and Wales display a unhibited level of patriotism. This is obviously not being patriotic for the sake of it, it seems heartfelt and is overwhelming. Looking closely at those images on the TV, you can see many teary eyes, proud faces and of course fun.

It is an interesting and sad fact that at major public events such as the proms, athletics and the olympic games British and specifically English people are allowed to show their patriotism and yet at the national day (St. George’s Day) English people either don’t want to or feel inhibited from showing any patriotic values. Wales, Scotland and Ireland on the other hand make a big affair of it.

We are in the UK, living in times of a great level of integration, cultures and religions from the world over living in the UK and full integration with it is to be applauded.

In this time of political correctness and what seems to be a high level of paranoia, our bunch-of-westminster-muppets have chosen not to lead the country but to chase votes. This has been the case since the last strong prime minister lost her job.

In chasing votes and not making the hard and potentially controversial or unpopular decisions, a situation has arisen where the extremism and violence undertaken in the name of ‘nationalism’ has lead to the association of the cross of St. George (the English flag) being associated with these terrible atrocities.

This in turn of course means that it is difficult for the silent majority to display patriotism outside public events however much they would want to, and they do.

Patriotic Identity

What is English-ness, how can you define a national identity is it merely someone who eats fish and chips, drinks too much beer and likes to take over Spain for holidays?

Does the identity itself really matter since the majority of those who have this identity has some self-imposed reason for not displaying it?

The answer is of course it matters and this frustration leads to high levels of sensitivity over perceived loss of it and of course, immigration is the current hot potato.

We should all remember (or find out about) the last world war. There were many displace people and many countries took in refugees, this does not mean loss of identity neither does it mean immigration since the ultimate goal of any refugee must be to return home once their home is stabilised again. If they can’t of course then that is a different question but really you can only deal with one question at a time.

Germany has certainly remembered its role in the last world war and sensitive to their public image have offered to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees and will absorb them into German life. In their own words ‘we dealt with reunification so this is nothing’. However, at the time of writing it seems they are reinstating border controls with Austria and stopping rail services from that country.

Their use of the phrase “Registration Camps” is unfortunate for obvious reasons. (You may need to research this if you do not understand this, in fact you must).

England’s position is not that generous however it is a very populous country some 65M people a 50% increase in 40 years and tensions are rising brought about by a pre-refugee mass increase in migrant behaviour in Calais.

This is all a threat to the British identity – or is it?

British citizenship belongs to anyone born in the UK, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and so on. However Britishness belongs to what were once the colonies, now known as the common wealth. Brittain was the worlds largest empire at one point and so british identity is not so straight forward.

A classic example is the favourite food consumed in the UK – fish and chips right? Wrong Chicken Tikka Massala – and English twist on an Indian dish.

This indeed points to the English identity of fish and chip eating, beer drinking, football supporting as a stereotype so what is the identity being lost?