March 09, 2006
English in, British out
It’s all about sensitivities you know. Caring, sharing, trying not to offend.
Black sheep are transformed into beautiful rainbows. Rag dolls are arrested for being in possession of certain racial traits. Manufacturers are thrown onto the altar of correctness for refusing to sponsor football teams from nations outside of their own. There’s no need to go on.
The defenders of equality and their allies, the soldiers of sensibility, seem to be doing a grand job of ensuring that they do not waste a single opportunity to point and cry shame at each and every offender and offending remark that even approaches the realm of an individual or a group identity.
Except that there is a flaw running through them. A subtle imperfection which has taken years to notice but now that it has been noticed, ruins what could and should have been something really rather nice.
The flaw is that they are deaf and blind to the English.
It’s as if someone has installed filters over their ears and over their eyes that cut out all ability to recognise the English spectrum. It’s a simple process that goes something like this.
“Hello”, you might say. “My name’s George and I’m English”.
“Oh, how simply wonderful”, they might respond, “I’m British too”.
That’s English in, British out and it can be found all over the place. If it’s a new concept to you I urge you to try a small experiment at your convenience just so that you can experience it for yourself. Go into a local Sainsbury's supermarket, walk up to the fruit and veg. section and examine the packaging. You will soon discover two processes at work. The first is the straight through process and goes something like this:
The second process is the one we have already described, EiBo for short:
The problem for the sensibility brigade is that the EiBo issue actually becomes rather hurtful after a while. Like a splinter that causes an infection. First it’s not there, then you feel a little prick, then it starts to irritate, gets infected and eventually it really, really hurts. You look around but there’s no one there to help. The sensibility brigade don’t even know you exist. They are not tuned into your particular wavelength.
Let me give you another example of how deeply this issue runs. The government is keen on national identity it would seem. So keen in fact that they have decided to find out a little more about it during the national census due in 2011. They will flat out ask you about it but are, unfortunately, suffering deeply from EiBo:
The national Census is to include a question on national identity so people can say if they consider themselves Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British.Amazing isn’t it. No English. Of course, the reason why this is the case is revealed by this letter:
…there is no such nationality as English as laid down by various acts of Parliament and accession. Persons born in the United Kingdom are citizens of the United Kingdom and are therefore British/English.And yet the 2011 census will include Welsh, Scottish and Irish, all UK nations.
It’s a disgrace and somewhat confusing given that under the Race Relations Act being English means that you form part of a 'racial group' as defined by 'national origin' (one of the terms used in the Act) [Carine Bakken, CRE]. But you can bet your last £1000 that if you were to try and assert your racial group as defined by your national origin on the census you will be severely punished.
There are no two ways about it. If find it deeply hurtful and ultimately discriminatory. It would be different for me, as a British Unionist (fading as that now is), if the census form was about Britishness. If all constituent nations were treated as being part of the same melting pot. But it is not and it’s all tied up with devolution and the re-birth of the political structures of Wales and Scotland, the same structures that are being denied to England and all who live here.
There is a pledge available on the Internet here. Those brave people who sign it declare:
"I will refuse to fill out the 2011 UK census unless 'English' is included as a nationality but only if 1,000 other English people will too."I’m not sure that I can sign it for two simple reasons. Firstly I cannot afford the fine that the state will impose upon me. Secondly the state will likely further punish me by removing my privilege to hold a shotgun certificate because I will be showing myself to be a person of questionable standing when it comes to being law abiding. I will be seen to be breaking the law.
There are, however, two things that I can do.
Firstly I will finally join the Campaign for an English Parliament and I will endeavour to do it today. I have been remiss in this and there is no real excuse except that I am not a big joiner of things, usually preferring to take my own path. I hope what I have been doing on this blog has made up for that oversight in some small way.
Secondly I will write to my MP specifically on the subject of the 2011 census form and I will do so in terms of how I feel right now. I feel hurt through prejudice and I have no interest at all if prejudicial hurt was the intent or not or whether the census in the stated form is perfectly legal. It’s the way that I feel and I will make that known to my representative in parliament.
As for the census form I honestly don’t know what I am to do when the time comes for me to fill it in. Like I have said I am not wealthy enough to refuse and am more exposed than most. Perhaps I should look for a new hobby.
News is coming in of a reporting error by the BBC. Story unfolding....
BBC story has been changed to:
The national Census is to include a national ID question so people can say if they consider themselves English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British.ie it now includes English.
Those crazy Beeb reporters.
In other news this story has just been released by Civitas.
