With reference to Vicky Allan's excellent essay, little did we think that in 1999, devolution in Scotland would set off this process of a people awakening to the realisation that it could actually self-govern, even within the constraints of the time (This is England, Essay of the week, May 17).
We must be eternally indebted to those visionaries, not only for the restoration of pride and self-confidence in ourselves as a nation but also for the whole of the UK.
The message we gave at the election is not entirely understood in England as yet but it has kick-started a chain reaction of self-examination in Angle Land as to English identity and of how to express people's frustrations. We must try to not take any flak as a personal attack, although xenophobia will inevitably manifest itself now and again. Their processing is still at the difficult, teenage stage. No, the main problem they have south of the Wash, as I see it, is because of their characteristically phlegmatic nature. Hitherto it has been regarded as an easy-osey style of tolerant behaviour whereas it could also signify laziness and a couldn't-care-less attitude to life in general. The lion can be a lazy critter, letting the pride do all the hard work, so no bad thing if the family does a bit of prodding.
Nicola Sturgeon and the 56 MPs have avowed time and again to be a progressive force for good and to move (and lead) the UK forward. This can only be a unifying energy, which, hopefully, leads to a better life for all.
English identity? That's for them to discover if there is such a thing considering the variety of regions with their separate historical ancestry. Anyway, England, jump in - the water's fine!
Billy Bragg maintains that "Englishness is amorphous. The good thing about identity is it`s fluid. It's not like a piece of granite that never changes". I would gently remind him that there are very subtle changes in rock and granite which take millennia to occur - not only that but it's the granite of Scotland which typifies the hardiness and downright obstinacy of a people who will never lie down to the ravages of the oppressor.
Janet Cunningham
Stirling
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