Few Brits would care to admit that our American brethren can teach us anything about government and yet our experience of it in recent years suggests otherwise. Americans seem to be proud to be Americans and to share common ideals, loosely the inventory of democracy. Although the country is truly vast the individual state or county does not seem to matter half as much as the nation. Perhaps it matters in different ways.
Not so in the UK. We have been a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland since 1800, the Scots having joined in 1707 and the Welsh between 1536 and 1543. Our identity as citizens, however, remains very local, not just national in the sense of Welsh, Scottish, Irish or English but by county or even town. Why should a country with such relative stability over many years have such a near parochial sense of personal identity? In a world increasingly looking toward a 'citizen of Earth' perspective we remain focussed on our own backyard.
Since 1997 we have devolved much political power to our constituent countries and our capital. London now has a mayor, much more like an American mayor than a British one - we chucked most of our historical mayors out some years ago as no longer appropriate to the modern age. Some towns brought them back again because they liked the ceremonial connection with history. England has a Parliament. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have Assemblies, which are junior to Parliament. There is a campaign for an English 'parliament' or Assembly because the others have it but the English do not. Reading some of the arguments for this I get the impression that it is more a question of national identity than an enthusiasm for adding yet another tier of government to an already expanding bureacracy. I suspect the sight of an English flag as opposed to the Union Jack in football games has played some part in this new nationalistic wave.
America was born out of ideals into a tough world. It was always the land of opportunity and every settler was a foreigner in that vast land. The United Kingdom was born out of feudalism. Our ancestors paid allegience to the local landowner. We had no place bothering ourselves with what was happening in the world beyond. The cultural differences which developed even just a few miles apart are remarkable. So at least we spawned diversity. Perhaps our cousins across the pond could teach us a culture of national diversity or maybe we should all just skip that stage and go straight for 'citizen of Earth'
By the way, happy St George's Day, the patron saint of England.
Pierre
Tags: comment history government identity
Image source: http://www.toque.co.uk/witan/
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