Thread by @nickreeves9876

1/ English nationalism is angry, vacuous, and uncaring. It makes up for its lack of positive content through antagonism to the other - to all those whether foreign or English who don't fit the angry white native stereotype.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

2/ English nationalism was born late, not out of enthusiasm or pride, but out of the pain, humiliation and loss of status caused by the collapse of empire and the Celtic rejection of English supremacy. So English nationalism is negative, angry and empty.

3/ The English nationalists are angry because the only England they know and want, is the one they cannot have, of white English imperialism. They want the feeling and status of imperialism without an empire. It's impossible, and so they rage.

4/ So when the angry Englanders were offered the promise of a victorious fantasy war of independence against the EU, which would wipe away the humiliating stain of imperial collapse and our bedraggled entry into the EEC as the sick man of Europe, they eagerly grasped it.

5/ And what is England as a society, culture or community? Our language divides us more than unites us. We are bitterly divided by class, education and culture. We support the same national sport teams, but that's about it.

6/ The heterogeneity of population and culture in England is of course a threat to the English nationalist idea, so groups are marginalised and excluded - so for example the 'chattering classes' and the 'liberal metropolitan elite'. Real England is 'decent (white) middle England'

7/ The issue of English nationalism ties into the disposition of those who feel socially and economically insecure to seek safety in the tribe. And with the decline of working class communities and the Labour movement, the only available tribe for many is the nation.