you cant get out of being british unfortunately. its your lot in life. so you have to reckon with your inheritance you cant disavow it. the place made you who you are, even when you were resisting it, you speak its language, its rock supports your weight, its culture shaped your sensibilities. you are britain and youll never be anything else.
well i wasnt talking to you was i
i think so too. The Turks went mainstream in 2000 and cemented their place in the national folklore when they stood outside their shops with baseball bats during the Tottenham riots.I also don't neatly fit into the multicultural paradigm in the way that caribbean and south Asian immigrants do, but I would wager my kids will.
But I wasn't talking about them as great things in themselves. I was talking about them as potential articulations of patriotism. And you need that in electoral politics. You need to be able to say something positive about the country and somehow reconcile yourself with it's history. I bore myself saying this, it's so obvious. I know electoral politics isn't your bag, and I get why. It's not mine really but I understand it's logic.These are all great things which are generally not celebrated by wrapping yourself in the Union Jack.
They will balls in up because they are just not able to articulate a non-nationalist patriotism. Partly because they don’t want to and partly because nothing they do in this arena will be sufficient.
Boris could get away with shitting on a portrait of the queen in a children’s hospital but Kieth will be made to recite all 64 verses of the national anthem on Loose Women.
The last time Labour did this effectively was Cool Britannia in which Britpop was lauded and Jungle was completely marginalised.
It's arguable if non-nationalist patriotism is really possible on a political level. I don't think it is. Culturally I'll grant it (though personally i don't think they are compatible, but i understand what is being hinted at) but politically you are essentially part of a war machine. Nationalism comes with the job description.