In the run-up to Christmas I mentioned the series of drawings on which I was engaged, on the theme of Wassail! (an old English folk custom associated with mid-winter.) The collection as a whole was really a kind of personal meditation on Englishness, with a strongly autobiographical strain. These were turned into a set of prints, and I gave copies to some members of my family as Christmas presents. I thought that, for various reasons, they might find the idea interesting. In fact, however, and to my disappointment, I have had very little feed-back …. although I have to recognise that as a result of the restrictions on meeting imposed by the government during the current pandemic there have not really been opportunities to talk about it.
The subject came very much into my mind today as I tried to catch up on my reading of the London Review of Books. The edition of 4 March contains a very interesting piece by Susan McKay on the political situation in Northern Ireland. In particular she was interested in the way in which the Conservative Party has strung along Unionist politicians there in return for their votes, while in fact selling them down the river and weakening the real economic ties between the UK and the north of Ireland. It seems that the sense of disillusionment with Westminster is very strong in the region, and according to several measures of opinion, and bearing in mind important demographic trends, the sense of confidence on the part of the Unionist community there in the reality of support from England is progressively weakening.
There is no space to follow this argument here in detail, but reading McKay’s piece has reinforced my own belief that the United Kingdom is facing a progressively insistent question about the future of the union. Questions about the relationship between national communities in both Scotland and Ireland are becoming increasingly audible. A large part in the process has been played by withdrawal from the EU, which ironically was intended to augment our “sovereignty” as a country. Exit might well end up as one of the most important factors contributing most decisively to its disaggregation.
I do not know which will happen first …. Scottish secession or Irish unification …. but I become convinced increasingly that Ireland will be unified in my lifetime. All of this throws under the searchlight the question of English indentity. What might it mean to be “English” in an age when this can no longer be obfuscated by the issue of British identity? We are hearing, in one way or another and in different contexts, the posing of this question. My own tentative foray into this area was presented very much in autobiographical terms, and made no attempt to prescribe general answers to the numerous questions that are raised. I do take credit, however, for the fact that my reflections do have a prophetic element. Art does, after all, sometimes run ahead of general cultural and political consciousness.