British Culture and History
Lecture week 8: National and Regional Identities
The past in the present: 5th November
The Gunpowder Plot is celebrated with Bonfire Night. This was the day where Guy Fawkes and Guido
Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament. Many people have bonfires or fireworks.
What do we talk about when we talk about Britain?
Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales. When you add Northern Ireland to Great
Britain you get the United Kingdom,
The relation with Ireland and the future of all the members are) Quite unstable at the moment
because of Brexit. The relation of Scotland with the United Kingdom is also unstable as there’s a call
for independence in Scotland. Another unstable relationship is that of Ireland and Northern Ireland,
with the negotiations about the border between these two countries, as only one of them is leaving
the EU.
Nationalism and community formation Anderson argues that in light of various early
Benedict Anderson created an Imagined 19th-century technological innovations, not
Community. He gives us an understanding how in the least “the development of increasingly
nations came to being. It’s something that’s not rapid communications”, it might be argued
natural, not like a rock. It is a cultural or social that “the search was on [...] for a new way of
invention. The community is far too large to know linking fraternity, power and time
everyone, but there are nationalist or meaningfully together. Nothing perhaps
community-like feelings. A community, thus, is more precipitated this search, nor made it
social construction and imagined. In the early 19th more fruitful, than print-capitalism, which
century there were a lot of developments: made it possible for rapidly growing numbers
Industrialisation, urbanisation, printing press. of people to think about themselves, and to
People lived in cities, they became fragmented in relate themselves to others, in profoundly
terms of experience. And thus, “the search was new ways.” (36)
on … profoundly new ways.”
Joep Leerssen states that national identity is not a national thing, it is not implicit and it is
constructed. It’s not about race or ethnicity, but there’s a cultural form of nationality: civic
nationality. It’s about culture, shared experiences and common interest. It’s also related to the politic
sphere, in terms of what the ruling class/elite are doing.
National identity, according to Leerssen, can be hard to define (slippery and elusive concept). People
with different perspectives will experience one thing quite different (wide range of connotations).
The way which Britishness as an identity relates to other national identities is also important. “not
merely a sense of ‘belonging together”. You could also think about the influence of the empire that
Britain had in the 17th century and the influence it has on Britishness.
The book states that “Contemporary British culture is a mixture of all the cultures of the past that
people are influenced by – but certain figures, symbols and narratives exercise particularly strong
control over the ways we imagine ourselves to be and have been. Next to that, regional and local
identities are extremely strong in Britain, and the diversity of beliefs, practices, loyalties, and accents
is immense.
,National identities
Every home nation has its symbols.
The capital of England is London. The Saint Patron of England is St George
and St George’s Day is celebrated on the 23rd of April. Depicted on the
national coat of arms, are three lions and the Tudor Rose. The Tudor Rose is
the red rose of the Lancastrians, combined with the white rose of the
Yorkists. The three lions origin from Richard the Lionheart, who adapted
them in 1198. Other things associated with England are class division,
Westminster, ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ and a sense of cultural superiority.
The Scottish capital is Edinburgh. Scotland is
also called Alba by the Scots. The Patron saint of
Scotland is St Andrew and St Andrew’s Day is on
30 November. The national floral emblem is the
Thistle. The national animal of Scotland is the
unicorn, which has been a Scottish heraldic
symbol since the 12th century. The Royal
Banner of Scotland is the Lion Rampant flag, a
yellow flag with a red lion. Other things
associated with Scotland are Haggis and Gaelic and Scots.
The capital of Wales (also called Cymru) is Cardiff. The Saint patron of Wales is St David and St
David’s day is celebrated annually on 1 March. Important symbols are the red dragon, the daffodil
and leek. The red dragon also appears on the flag and it is
supposed to have been the battle standard of King Arthur and
other Celtic leaders. The origins of the leek can be traced to
the 16th century, while the daffodil became popular in the
19th century, encouraged by David Lloyd George. Other things
associated with Wales are folklore and the Celts.
The Flag
The Union Jack flag consists of all the flags of the home countries. The flag is really associated with
the culture nowadays.
The English flag is also called the flag of St George.
Over the past 30 or 20 years, the English flag has
been a symbol of nationalism in the sense of
conquerors. It might be intimidating to certain
groups in the community.
It is remarkable that Scottish people still do not
associate the flag with an empire, as they
emigrated to a lot to new places.
,Language and identity
There is a lot of linguistic variety. On a national level, Cockney: East-London, rhyming slang, glottal stops
Scots (closely related to English), Gaelic, Cymraeg. But Mockney: Fake Estuary accent to hide upper class
also on regional level, as you have regional background
languages/dialects such as Cockney, “Mockney”, Brummie: Birmingham
Brummie, Scouse, Geordie, Mancunian. Scouse: Merseyside (Liverpool)
Accents and dialects are multifaceted elements in Geordie: Newcastle
identity construction, they tend to have associations Manc(unian): Manchester
with class and with education as well. A middle class
Scottish person will have an accent, but it will
resemble to English
Devolution
Devolution is delegating rights from a central government (Westminster, London, 650 members) to
regional political bodies (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). There have been various national
movements in the 1920s that wanted more individuality. In 1997, Scotland held a referendum of
which the results were close, but the majority chose to remain in the United Kingdom.
During his time as PM (1997-1999), Tony Blair institutes several regional governments. The Scottish
Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly (The NIA not
currently sitting, because of the different views on the Brexit).
These devolved powers rule over agriculture, education, health
services, housing, internal transport, tourism. Other subjects lie
with Westminster , such as the constitution, foreign policy,
immigration, national security, taxation (except for Scotland)
City regions like Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Greater
London, also have separate housing, healthcare regulations and
travel regulations, run by Mayors. In the future, there could be
more devolution to the four nations and city regions, but future
will tell.
Devo met means more autonomous government for large
urban areas (e.g. Merseyside, Leeds/Bradford, Birmingham).
Devo max means taking devolution as far as possible, while
keeping the union intact. Giving lower rulers more power could
satisfy regional communities or it could be an inevitable step to the break of the United Kingdom.
Scotland already has their own education system, which means the would nearly be independent if
they got more power.
, Scottish independence
Through the process of devolution, the Scottish government settles and so does the Scottish National
Party. There was another referendum in 2014, but people voted, again, to remain within the UK. It
had economic disadvantages
to become independent.
The referendum is making the
Scottish more confident (in
their Scottishness) and
politics is now quite different
from the rest of the UK. The
Scottish National Party took
almost all the seats for
Scotland in Westminster. In
2017, there was a shift back
to the conservatives, who
defeated SNP. Definitely in
the quite rural parts of the
country.
North/South divide
It is unclear where she North starts and the South ends. There is a sense of superiority in London who
will say that everything above London is the North. The North/South divide is a complex one. The
geographical division is complicated.
You can talk about it in general instead of about geographical, economical or cultural divide. The
North is defined by workers, miners etc. And the South consists more of people in finance. Driving
centres of post-industrial economy since 1960s and 1970s.
So to conclude, the North/South term are generally used, but there are more identities beneath it
Other regional identities
The West Country is a loosely defined area of south-western England (Devon and/vs. Cornwall: Celtic
culture).
The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands, England, west of Birmingham. These old industrial
town are often associated with dust, mud and the industry.
Yorkshire consists of 4 counties, they have a certain harshness about identity, but they are very
welcoming. And then, there’s also Lancashire. These two cities rival, and in sports this rivalry is called
the Roses Rivalry.
Cities do also have rivalled identities. Manchester and Liverpool don’t like each other. Scousians
(Liverpool) are all thieves and Mancs (Manchester). Edinburgh has a rivalry with Glasgow.
There’s a divide between North Wales and South Wales. South Wales is much more English speaking.
Similar to this is the division between East Scotland and West Scotland.
Aspects of regional identity have a political aspect to them as well, nowadays. Conservatives
politicians have now defined the Northern Powerhouse to gain more investments, they tried to bring
more attention to those places. This did not work out that well, as there’s still a gap between the
North and the South.
“Building a Northern Powerhouse is about boosting the local economy by investing in skills,
innovation, transport and culture, as well as devolving significant powers and budgets to directly
elected mayors to ensure decisions in the North are made by the North. We are backing business
growth right across the North, and giving our great cities the power and resources they need to reach
their huge untapped potential.”
