Prominent far-right activists have ignited violent conflagration across Britain in the last few weeks, following the tragic murder of three little girls in Southport. Distinguished right-wing figures such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (better known as Tommy Robinson) weaponise disinformation and national outrage to further their own agenda, all in the name ‘Patriotism’. This wanton violence and unrest is not new, but contempt and tendentiousness has now misconstrued the meaning of patriotism, making it something of a pejorative term, inextricable with far-right uprising, rather than an expression of pride and love for one’s nation. With thousands taking to the streets to combat the thuggery of the far-right, looking to protect and preserve our nationhood, we must re-examine what patriotism truly means, and how it has and always will play an implacable role in thwarting hatred and entropy.
Whilst staying up till all hours watching the Democratic National Convention unfold (what else would one be doing on their summer break), I was struck by not only the vivacity and effervescence of the Democrats, but at their mastery in espousing muscular patriotism. Patriotism in the US is often concatenated with the Republicans; The New York Times poll found that 25 percent of people saw the Republicans to be very patriotic, but only 18 percent saw the democrats as such. However, patriotism appears to be the focal point of the Kamala Campaign, with the maxim of ‘only in America’, and vociferous chants of ‘U.S.A, U.S.A’ at rallies. The skillful modus operandi of Kamala HQ have managed to respin the notion of patriotism, expressing pride in the civil rights movement and championing mobility, demonstrated by AOC describing her rise to political power in her DNC speech, from ‘serving omelettes in a restaurant’ to ‘making speeches in the white house’. In this sense, the democrat campaign has also managed to present Trump and his acolytes as profoundly unpatriotic, with the January 6th riots as an attempt to extirpate sacrosanct institutions and the American way of life. Whilst the success of this approach is yet to be confirmed, it is indubitable that this approach has rapidly rebuilt the spirit and soul of the party, a convention which was expected to be a funeral, has become a titillating celebration of life and Americanism.
In Britain, the notion of ‘patriotism’ has become tendentious, with left-leaning and centrist politicians carefully weaving around the subject, even Keir Starmer’s use of the British flag was seen as brash and received criticism from an array of commentators. The semantics of patriotism have become interwoven with a botched Brexit, belligerence and anti-immigrant sentiment, much to the dismay of many one-nation and centre-right conservatives. Patriotism no longer wrings with the love of the National Trust and The Proms, rather it is a rouse to hatred and division, far-right uprisings, and most recently, acts larceny involving sausage rolls and steak bakes ; but can progressive patriotism ever truly be reclaimed, or has the last vestiges of its romance and fervour of been left in the swinging sixties and Wilson’s White Heat? One could even make the argument as to whether it ever even truly existed?
The notion of ‘Englishness’ is viewed by many as a curiously conservative form of national identity, wrapped in jingoism and imperialism, whilst this is an irrevocable fact of British history, this is a rather simplistic and perhaps reductionist view of the nation’s history. Ed Miliband attempted to encompass this in 2012: ‘the essence of English identity is not found with the grandeur of public office or in Westminster and Whitehall, it is present wherever people come together to struggle to improve their lives and the lives of others.’ This construction of national identity is one that represents the labour values and struggles against injustice, as seen within Britain’s remarkable trade union history (though it is worth noting that the TUC and some left wing groups such as the Fabians were arduously imperialistic). It is also easy to see how this conception of English identity can be manipulated by the far-right, targeting working-class individuals who have experienced insurmountable struggles, however it has become the custom of some periodicals and commentators to presume that the aforementioned rioting and prejudice is an implacable characteristic of working-class communities, particularly with the ‘fall of the red wall’ in 2019, however this conjecture has proved to be pernicious. Whilst right-wing divisions have been seen in low-income, working-class communities, they also exist in the wealthy and privileged, not forgetting that Farage was educated at one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious independent schools, Dulwich College.
It is unavoidable that patriotism in the UK is convoluted, but is that because we are complicit in allowing it to be? In the US, it appears that people are open to acknowledge qualms and nuances of their history (perhaps this is more characteristic of the contemporary democrat party) whilst celebrating the richness of their accomplishments. The latest Kamala Harris advert represents a party zealous of their freedoms (rather literally, using the song ‘Freedom’ by Beyoncé, proud of where they have come, and where they are going) whereas the recent British general election appeared to have a rather pessimistic air, as opposed to being a cultural zeitgeist. Is it that so many of us, now, fear patriotism, believing it to be shackled by a tenebrous past. Whilst wearing cheese hats and rap performances may never be a part of our party conferences, there is room to embrace the rather radical history of the nation; we too fought fascism, overseas and on our doorstep, the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 as an example of citizens facing up to the far-right: ‘No pasarán’ then, nor now. This determination has been emulated in the last few weeks, with thousands outnumbering far-right thugs, standing together, all in the name of what I believe to be, progressive patriotism. A determination to preserve our way of life, the things those before us fought for, it is love of our nation, our culture(s) intrinsic within us,that make these things worth fighting for. This, I believe, is encapsulated by Orwell in Notes on Nationalism: “Patriotism” he wrote, “has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.”
Progressive patriotism has been, and must continue to be, the brick-barricade to entropy and hate. Whilst we have faced incredibly challenging times, particularly in the last few years, and our public services are not as they should be, our pride can be a springboard. The purge of the Conservatives was an acknowledgement that we as a nation deserved better, we should embrace patriotism for what it truly is, a rather radical tradition that acknowledges unity and solidarity, eschewing division, condemning it to the fringes of society.Progressive patriotism has been, and must continue to be, the brick-barricade to entropy and hate. Whilst we have faced incredibly challenging times, particularly in the last few years, and our public services are not as they should be, our pride can be a springboard. The purge of the Conservatives was an acknowledgement that we as a nation deserved better, we should embrace patriotism for what it truly is, a rather radical tradition that acknowledges unity and solidarity, eschewing division, condemning it to the fringes of society.
