It’s often when I’m away from home that I feel patriotic. Like when they don’t fill the pint glass to the top in Europe. Or if an American says, “I’m gonna do…” when ordering food in a restaurant. Xenophobia or patriotism? Who knows. The two are intertwined anyway.
It doesn’t surprise me that out of everyone in England, residents in London are the least enamoured with the country. A new YouGov poll found that only 29 per cent of Londoners feel a “very strong attachment” to England, the lowest figure of all nine regions. Yet when it comes to love of London itself, we have the second highest attachment to our region, after the North East.
Patriotism hasn’t been trendy since the Cool Britannia era of Blairite Britain in the 90s. Back then, Union Jacks were punk and fun. Now, Britain’s flags are more associated with Brexity small mindedness and Tommy Robinson-style nationalism.
For the chattering classes, the only time a St George’s flag is really acceptable is during the World Cup or the Euros. Football is the last bastion of acceptable patriotism. Watching the boys file onto the pitch in their little white kits is the only time a Londoner will scream “Engerlaaand” with reckless abandon.
The poll also revealed that Londoners see the city’s “diversity and multiculturalism” as its most distinctive attribute. (Elsewhere, it was the natural scenery which took the top spot – or for the East of England, the “flatness”). Politicians on the right (and now the left too) love to pronounce multiculturalism a failure, yet it’s clearly something that city-dwellers are proud of. No wonder Keir Starmer is being compared to Enoch Powell for his recent proclamation that Britain risks becoming “an island of strangers”.
We see ourselves as slightly separate (read: superior) to the rest of the country
Londoners’ love of capital over country can also be attributed to the cosmopolitan tendency to sneer at those we perceive to be unworldly country bumpkins. We see ourselves as slightly separate (read: superior) to the rest of the country. Remember that petition in 2016 calling on Sadiq Khan to declare London an independent state which would remain in the EU? It received over 180,000 signatures.
I think more people in London would realise that they are in fact rather attached to England as a whole if patriotism and its insignia weren’t so unfashionable. Think for a moment about the things you love about England, and there will be plenty. Pubs. Sense of humour. Aversion to talking about one’s own talents. Worcestershire sauce, Yorkshire puddings, crisps in sandwiches, meal deals, and a general Eeyorishness which is much more amusing than the insufferable happiness of, say, the Finns. Who also happen to be very patriotic.
Claudia Cockerell is Londoner’s Diary editor
