Oh! England, my Lionheart,

Two weeks before April 1^st and Lord Goldsmith, ex-Lord Chancellor of the ex-Labour Government, has proposed that some of the most vulnerable and easily-led people in the country should show their love for democracy and British ‘values’ by swearing allegiance to a German aristocrat. Coming a mere day after the Party announced that a City fund manager has been appointed as its new General Secretary, it’s clear that our masters still appreciate a good chuckle.

The idea that we should have to swear allegiance to the Queen is a travesty of democracy, morality, and good sense as I expect most regular readers of this blog would agree (I note that Philip Challinor has given his own characteristic verdict on the matter). I also think it’s a little ironic that, while the Government is fixated on crushing and humiliating benefits claimants, there’s one family, who have never done a proper day’s work in their lives, and who live on an estate while living off the state, who we’re all supposed to love. Still, good sense and taste seem irrelevant when Lord Goldsmith can say, presumably without smirking, that he can see no reason why republicans would object to swearing an oath, even if they disagree with the present system of government. He does concede, however, that people may prefer to pledge loyalty to the country rather than to the millionairess pensioner and her dysfunctional family.

The justification for this idea, which I suspect is already peering mournfully at us through a dense canopy of long grass, is that:

"It does make sense to promote a sense of shared belonging, a sense that you are part of a community with a common venture, to integrate better newcomers to our society and be clearer about what the rights and responsibilities are."

I feel a certain degree of commonality with many of those around me, even in our modern, more individualistic society. Yet I refuse to believe that this can be heightened by swearing allegiance to a monarch with whom, so far as I’m aware, I’m engaged in no “common venture” whatsoever. The same applies to holding allegiance to the nation (whatever that might be) and certainly the State. Indeed, I’ll go further to say that I refuse to take any lessons on citizenship from the British Government, which in a global context particularly, is such an appalling citizen: an arrogant bully’s lackey; a lying, hypocritical, perfidious, selfish, murderous rogue of a state. Why should I swear allegiance? Is it not enough to support my country when I think it’s right?

National pride, they trumpet, but pride in what? In plain terms, what has my country done of which I can be proud? Ask this question and people rapidly spin us back to World War Two as the last (relatively) uncontroversial instance of this country standing proud - and even that is a difficult case. I firmly believe that many people found Hitler’s ideology abhorrent but I don’t think we “defended Europe” as some sort of great crusade for the light but because the State’s material interests were threatened by the moustachioed upstart. Indeed, I’ve met several elderly people who fought Germany while sharing most of Hitler’s views on Jews, Blacks, gays, gypsies and so on. My own grandmother was ideologically indistinguishable from Oswald Mosley and, even a few years ago, would probably have been happy to join the Ku Klux Klan if they’d allowed rubber sheets. All this talk of pride in one’s country might actually have more weight if politicians were equally inclined to encourage a sense of shame about our more shabby acts -Iraq, Afghanistan, Diego Garcia, Kenya, Vietnam, and so on. Yet these episodes are effaced from, or distorted in, the national narrative -and so long as that is the case the greatest service one can do for one’s country during celebrations of national glory is to leave the paper hat folded in front of you while telling anyone who’ll listen about how much the party’s cost.

Is it even possible to take pride in one’s country when one can claim no credit for being a part of it? So other people on this island, either now or in the past, have done things worthy of acclaim -I can claim no credit for that so how can I be proud of them? I’m British by an accident of birth, it is not my personal achievement. While I’m immensely fond of the place for all sorts of marvellously trivial, "warm beer and cricket" reasons, I can take no credit for the way it is or for my belonging to it. Ironically, the only people who should claim pride in being British are immigrants, both legal and illegal. There are people in this country who’ve sold everything to pay people traffickers, said goodbye to their families, braved dangerous seas and risked death in the backs of lorries before being subjected to interrogation and humiliation at the hands of the British State. They’ve worked to be British. Me? I was handed it on a plate, the fallout of a brief collision of geography and biology. I’ll do my best to be the best citizen I can, not out of loyalty to an octogenarian toff or a bunch of besuited gangsters, but out of duty to my fellow humans -regardless of whatever piece of land they happen to have been conceived on.

God save the queen cos tourists are money
And our figurehead is not what she seems
Oh God save history God save your mad parade
Oh lord God have mercy all crimes are paid

Comments

[Philip]

My own grandmother was ideologically indistinguishable from Oswald Mosley and, even a few years ago, would probably have been happy to join the Ku Klux Klan if they’d allowed rubber sheets.

[applause]

I think it was Len Deighton who noted (if not in quite so many words) that, when Britain stood alone in 1940, she stood on the shoulders of several hundred million wogs.

[Ames]

This issue is not about foreign policy (thought not everything about our foreign policy is bad, such as aid policy) it is about having general pride in society, improving social cohesion and community relations, and ensuring we all continue to want to pay for services and look after one another, care about our communities and institutions.

British imperial history is loathed throughout the world, but as a society we are a hugely respected country that has been are the forefront of techological advances and is famous for having one of the best systems, and most tolerant people, in the world. That's why so many refugees and immigrants want to come here - they obviously see something about us that you do not.

There's nothing wrong with reminding ourselves that we are very lucky to live here and should not take things for granted. In fact I think it's very healthy. I don't where you live, but if you take pride in your local area then you will immediately feel better about yourself. Try it and see.