About this event
Orwell’s reflections on England and Britain inform this debate on nationhood, presented by The Political Quarterly and the Orwell Foundation
Is it possible to develop a shared sense of nationhood that transcends the narrow and exclusive version offered by national populism?
In the autumn of 1940, as the Blitz raged overhead, George Orwell sat down to write The Lion and the Unicorn (1941), a searching reflection on the nature of ‘England’, its people, and its politics.
This event uses Orwell’s reflections on England and Britain as a starting point to examine the relationship between Englishness and Britishness, including how they continue to be contested today, and whether either is inherently more resistant, or more vulnerable, to the populist politics which has so defined our present.
Indeed, public discussions of national identity frequently assume that Englishness is narrow or exclusionary, while Britishness is more civic and open. Yet historically, some of the most prominent far-right movements, including the British Union of Fascists, the National Front, and the British National Party, have mobilised in the name of ‘Britishness’, whilst Orwell himself offered a distinctly progressive take on what it meant to be an English patriot. More recently, Reform UK, which has often been characterised as an ‘English’ party in its tone, with support has mostly been drawn from within England itself, has sought to expand into Scotland and Wales, necessitating a shift toward a more explicitly ‘British’ political identity.
Join The Political Quarterly and the Orwell Foundation at UCL, London, for what promises to a timely debate on Englishness, Britishness and the populist challenge.
Chair
Rosie Campbell
Rosie Campbell is Professor of Politics at the Department of Political Economy King’s College London and incoming Chair of the Political Quarterly. She held positions at Birkbeck and UCL before joining King’s in 2018. Her publications cover the subjects of voting behaviour, public opinion, the politics of diversity and political recruitment. She is one of two principal investigators of the ERC (UKRI) Synergy Project QUALREP, with Professor Sarah Childs University of Edinburgh, which aims to measure the quality of women’s political representation in five European countries. Rosie has presented eight episodes of Radio Four’s Analysis most recently on ‘Does it matter who our MPs are?
Panellists
Pippa Catterall
Pippa Catterall is Professor of History and Policy at the University of Westminster. She has published widely on contemporary cultural, social and urban history and policy.
John Denham
John Denham is the former MP for Southampton, Itchen, 1992-2015. He was also Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2009-10, minister in several government departments, and chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee. He is now a Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and Director of the Centre for English Identity & Politics.
Tom McTague
Tom McTague is the Editor-in-Chief of The New Statesman. He has previously held positions as Political Editor at UnHerd and The Independent on Sunday, staff writer at The Atlantic and Chief UK Correspondent at POLITICO.
Ros Wynne-Jones
Ros Wynne-Jones is an award-winning journalist who writes the Daily Mirror’s ‘Real Britain’ column, and created the Island of Strangers video series. She has also run Britain Talks – a ground-breaking project bringing people together across the Brexit divide – and the Wigan Pier Project, which retraced George Orwell’s steps across the UK. Ros is part of UCL Policy Lab’s Nation of Neighbours unit which looks to communities for the solutions to reunite a divided country. She is also a trustee of HOPE not Hate. In a former life, she reported from conflict zones in Africa, and across the world.