Regaining Both Democratic and Cultural Control of England

Rescaling the state is an outcome of the economic and financial requirements of increasing integration of the world economy. The kind of economics practised in the post War settlement required clearly defined borders and social cohesion within which to deliver keynesian welfare style policies and wealth redistribution to poorer localities; as the settlement broke down, under changes driven by ideology and politics as well, the imperative of a defined arena, the nation state itself, began to be considered redundant.

Governance became localised, regionalised, cross border and the central state more like a federal economic and financial climate setter - that climate being global neoliberalism-favourable. What surprised observers was the reassertion of the nation state in a recast but culturally stronger form. With many formerly central governance powers devolved to the lowest effective layer of the new structures, the determining characteristics of the state became more those of culture and less those of administration and governance. With pluralist democratic choice at every level the nation state transformed itself rather than died out, identified by its Frenchness, Germanness, Italianness, even Belgianness...

Except for England. Offered democratic choice over our decentralised governmental structures, we declined any such decentralistion at all. Unable to believe their luck our then elected central government simply pretended that the refusal was an expression of lack of interest and imposed the new model without democratic control. They then unleashed the most ferocious deculturisation programme, reinforced and driven home by every means from the state broadcaster to the government appointees of the regions and the localities. Englishness became unspeakable.

And we became governed wholly by centrally appointed administrators who saw themselves as arbitrators of the good and of all political decision-taking - redistribution, education, health, investment, infrastructures ...they are right and we will agree with them even unto thought crime as a means of repressing dissidence. They would become a permanent, self renewing elite (even as we type the second wave of the first post democratic elite is emerging from its training in our tertiary education sector) and the United Kingdom would be the power base from which to access positions of power in 'global' governance.

No wonder people do not like the European Union. But there is a total misapprehension. What is wrong with England is the lack of democracy, not the unstoppable changing and evolving culturally-dominated nation state identity. We are denied what we wanted, which is to remain an independent trading country with defended borders and a small but efficient welfare and redistributive system. Other advanced capitalist countries chose this model too. But they did not have the terrible misfortune of self-opinionated, self-righteous, socialist engineering busybodies becoming the elected government at first but then installing themselves for good in what they think of as their rightful and proper place.

We need to come to terms with the nation state as it is now. There is no going back. But unless we retake democratic control over our multi-layered and currently appointed governance, unless we reassert our understanding and enjoyment of what is our culture, of who we are not as a physically defined geopolitical area but as a language, a history, a thought system, a way of being, just as Italians know they are Italian and all the other nations know and value themselves, we will lose. And we will lose to men and women like Blair, Brown, Balls, Hoon.

And all their clients and nominees.