25 March 2021
Anti*Capitalist Resistance supporter John Smithee shares a warning on reactionary English nationalism.
Each morning, my neighbour two doors down raises the St George’s flag up his flagpole. My mum’s cousin is chairman of the local St George’s dinner club which pre-Covid met once a month for dinner at our local Wetherspoon’s. At the same time, my brother thinks that Nigel Farage should receive a knighthood for services to Brexit.
To understand this growth in English nationalism I have recently been reading Gavin Esler’s excellent new book: How Britain Ends – English Nationalism and the Rebirth of the Four Nations. Gavin Esler was a main presenter of the BBC current affairs show Newsnight for 12 years until 2014.
As a soft Remainer, Mr. Esler explains in his book how Brexit was an expression of English nationalism. His book is a warning to the ruling class of what could happen if that class does not take English nationalism seriously. Such nationalism was embodied in UKIP and now in the Tory Party under Boris Johnson which is now an English Nationalist Party.
Mr. Esler’s solution to “How Britain Ends” is to call for a federal United Kingdom whilst keeping the monarchy. He also calls for an English Parliament with multi-member constituencies elected by single transferable vote. At the same time, as Mr. Esler explains in his book, Brexit has done more towards the creation of a united Ireland than the IRA ever did.
Marxists must take English nationalism seriously and therefore neutralise the reactionary side of this nationalism by supporting the call for an English Parliament whilst also devolving power downwards from Whitehall to the regions and local councils. Marxists must also support the establishment of a socialist federal republic of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, as part of a Socialist United States of Europe.
John Smithee
Cambridgeshire.
How Britain Ends: English Nationalism and the Rebirth of Four Nations Paperback – 4 Feb. 2021
by Gavin Esler (Author):
The UK state is not unitary from the point of taxation. There is significant fiscal devolution – council tax and its equivalent is devolved to all four polities, and property sales taxes devolved in Cymru and Scotland. Scotland has significant influence over income tax rates and bands, but the ability to create new taxes is largely controlled by Westminster though a Tourist tax has been approved. Interestingly, Corporation Tax was devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Tories (largely to encourage it to match the very low rates in the 26 county Republic of Ireland state). However VAT, National Insurance and many other taxes are UK-wide (not just “Britain”) and controlled by Westminster.
The STUC has identified measures https://www.stuc.org.uk/news/news/stuc-launch-tax-proposals-to-save-scotlands-public-services/ under current devolution arrangements that could be used to tax wealth more by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Greens have in the last few days introduced an exemplary measure into the housing bill at Holyrood to remove the exemption on the monarch’s properties being taxed in Scotland (he owns 80), a symbolic gesture but not politically insignificant, and have proposed a new council tax band for mansions. The Scottish Socialist Party has long proposed removing the regressive council tax and replacing it with a redistributive Scottish Service Tax.
This is all in advance of the devolved Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026. Polls tell us voters in Cymru strongly support the extension of the fiscal powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament to Senedd Cymru, as a minimal demand, and also elect a new Senedd on a new PR system in May 2026.
The campaign for a wealth tax will therefore have a totally different character and demands in the different parts of “Britain” (which has not been a fiscal or economic unit for 225 years by the way). There are no Anglo-centric “one size fits all” fiscal solutions, even within the current form of the UK state.