The Guardian has details of a speech on English identity due to be given by David Blunkett today. According to Madeleine Bunting, he will argue that: "the left’s historic ambivalence about nationalism is in danger of leaving open a territory that can be captured by rightwing opinion, which can mould it to fit a narrowly defined, introverted, racialised agenda with dangerous consequences for communal harmony and foreign policy."
It’s about time somebody said this, although its ironic it has to be Blunkett, especially given that the defence of common law rights against an over-mighty executive is a major theme of the English radical tradition.
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