According to a new survey, British people have become less nationalistic, more critical of their history, and less likely to define British identity in terms of race
When the race riots kicked off last month, people were quick to make pronouncements about the nature of the real Britain. A hateful mob trying to burn down a hotel with people inside: fake Britain. Heartwarming scenes of communities banding together and cleaning up the mess: that’s us alright! The truth was that all of it – the good and the bad – was Britain. The racist ideology which drove the riots has deep roots in our media and political culture, but the people wielding brooms were no less British than the people wielding bricks.
Still, a new survey suggests that the rioters were far less representative of national sentiment than they seemed to imagine – they are not a silent majority, and they certainly don’t represent “the real Britain.” The results suggest that we have become less nationalistic over the last decade, less likely to believe in our innate superiority, and more likely to take a more critical view of our colonial history. No doubt conservatives will blame these developments on a sinister brain-washing campaign by the woke establishment – how else could you possibly explain the growing popularity of radical opinions like “the international slave trade was bad”?
According to one of the survey’s lead researchers, Alex Scholes, the results show that Britain is shifting to a more inclusive,“civic” form of nationalism, rather than one based on race or ethnic identity, and that we are “more likely to take pride in the country’s current achievements than in its past as a ‘people’.” While older people are traditionally more conservative, the report makes clear that these changes are taking place across all demographics. Yes, the woke mind virus has come even for your granny – and she’s loving it!
Rather than being a one-off, these results are supported by a number of surveys carried out in recent years, which have found majority positive views on immigration and the ascendancy of socially liberal views. Much like in the US, research also shows that British voters are starting to view the Tories as “weird” – when you have a Conservative leadership candidate solemnly vowing to “take the fight” to Dr Who, as Kemi Badenoch just did, this outcome is hardly surprising. The Right’s obsession with culture war minutiae is making it appear mean-spirited, bizarre and off-putting to the average person: most of us are more concerned with paying our bills and being able to land a GP appointment than whether the cast of a sci-fi show aimed at children is too diverse.
None of this means we should become complacent, or start patting ourselves on the backs for being such a tolerant place. Structural racism remains a serious problem and, as the last few months have shown, the threat posed by the far-right demands to be taken seriously. But we can afford to be more sceptical of the right-wing narrative that a growing majority of the British public are fed up with multiculturalism, hostile to immigration and determined to “take their country back.” More often than not, these people are speaking only for themselves.