Earlier today Wes Streeting delivered his resignation speech in Parliament. His thoughts on nationalism and patriotism are worth noting.
I left the Government because we are in the fight of our lives against nationalism, and it is a fight that we are currently losing. Unless we change course, we risk handing the keys of No. 10 to Reform, and I do not want that on our consciences. For the first time in our history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom. Scottish and Welsh nationalism represents an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom. Reform UK represents a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great—values and ideals that are written into the DNA of the national health service that it would dismantle, given the chance, and whose very existence is an act of courage as well as conviction: that healthcare should be provided based on what each of us needs, not on what any of us can afford. It is a reminder that, even in our darkest hours, this country is capable of doing big things. It is our responsibility to defend that promise and the values that it represents, not just for the NHS or even for the survival of this Government, but to win the battles that we thought were long since won: of progressives against reactionaries, of patriots versus nationalists, of hope over hate. That is our fight. It is Andy Burnham’s fight in Makerfield, and it is Labour’s fight for the soul of our country.
For Streeting, the rise of the SNP and Plaid Cymru is an existential threat to the UK. This is fairly obvious. And the rise of Reform means Labour must fight for ‘the soul of our country’. The UK has a soul. He continues.
For too long and too often, patriotism in Britain has been left to the loudest voices and the narrowest arguments, as though love of country belongs to one tribe, one party or one point of view, but the Britain that I believe in is bigger than that. Patriotism is not about who you exclude; it is about who you stand beside. It is not rooted in fear of change or suspicion of difference; it is rooted in solidarity—in the belief that we rise or fall together. That is the best of our country’s story: a Britain where people from different backgrounds, different faiths, and different nations and regions, still see themselves in one another; a country where the son of Indian pharmacists can become our first Hindu Prime Minister without having his Englishness questioned; a patriotism built not on blood and soil but on shared values, shared institutions and shared responsibilities.
Streeting says that patriotism ‘is not about who you exclude; it is about who you stand beside’ but I don’t believe that is true. Patriotism is a love of place, of country. It doesn’t come packaged with progressive values. A racist can be patriotic.
I understand that SNP and Plaid Cymru Members will not see themselves in the English nationalist politics of the party whose Members sit on the Bench behind them. But nationalism is not progressive, and nationalism and patriotism are not the same things. Nationalism says, “Look inward. Protect your own. Turn away from the others.” Patriotism says, “This country is strongest when we are confident enough to be outward looking, generous and united”—united, but not always the same. On the Labour Benches, we believe in a stronger Scotland and a stronger Wales as part of a fairer United Kingdom.
Streeting is correct that nationalism and patriotism are not the same things but he’s wrong to ascribe progressive values to one and reactionary values to the other. Most patriots are, to some extent, nationalists. They have a concept of nation which informs their politics and excludes others, not least because democracy and social democracy works within borders. Wes Streeting’s NHS, for example, isn’t free at the point of use to anyone from anywhere. It is a national health service. This is about ‘protecting your own’ from foreigners who haven’t contributed.
Nationalists are in the business of nationhood, either creating or preserving a nation. Nationalism can be inclusive or exclusive. In a diverse multicultural society you might wish to foster an inclusive sense of national community and solidarity by promoting common national values. The Labour Party have done this time and time again. Gordon Brown – The Bard of Britishness – made it his mission. Wes Streeting does this in the paragraph above: “This country is strongest when we are confident enough to be outward looking, generous and united—united, but not always the same….a fairer United Kingdom.” This is nation-building. The SNP and Plaid Cymru would doubtless say the same and promote the same values, but their nations are Scotland and Wales, not Britain. And that really gets me to the point I want to make. Westminster Unionists of the Wes Streeting variety see nationalism as a disease of others. They think they’re above nationalism because they are part of the status quo and the ‘nationalist’ others are the disruptors, the agitators, the insurgents. No, the people Streeting sees as nationalists are often just people with different national identities who don’t see Wes Streeting’s fairer United Kingdom as particularly fair or united. They don’t think it has a soul worth preserving. Wes Streeting himself is an Anglo-centric British nationalist, along with most of the Labour Party.
I’ve always felt English rather than British. It didn’t become political until Labour created the Scottish and Welsh assemblies and tried to balkanise England into regional assemblies. Ever since then I’ve campaigned for the nation of England (and by ‘nation’ I mean people) to have the same institutions of democracy as afforded to Scotland and Wales. That makes me a nationalist I suppose. So be it.
English Commonwealth 