Back to the Comfort Zone

Among the more dignified indicators of a great and serious nation is, of course, the frequency and owlishness with which it agonises about its nationality. Readers of a certain vintage may recall the writhing convolutions over "Britishness" with which the Blairites used to regale a patriotic public in the absence of anything more substantive to talk about. It now appears that "Englishness" is set for another go-around of the same treatment, as our Mother of Parliaments debates the burning question of whether it is permissible for citizens of a certain melanin content to identify themselves in the census as English rather than British. It is to be hoped that those whose values are merely British will have the good grace to differentiate themselves from the historical hard core of the master race, as there wouldn't be much point to our shared Englishness if we had to share it with just anybody.