2025-12-19
English history is replete with tales of the Ruling Elite turning with ferocity on their lower classes:
- the crushing of the Peasants Revolt of 1381,
- the burning of Lollards in 1401 and the last woman to be burned (for counterfeiting the coinage - are you listening Bank of England?) in 1789,
- the massacre at Peterloo in 1819,
- and the Tollpuddle Martyrs transported to Australia in 1834 (to recall but a few).
The Scots Irish and Welsh have their own tales to tell, but without any disrespect to our neighbours, it seems that the English ruling elite were not particular about whom they turned on.
So the character of the English people has been forged in adversity over the years, but ... who exactly are the English? We are certainly not a homogeneous bunch, as anyone who has tried unsuccessfully to converse with a Geordie can confirm. In more recent times, whilst still in my now distant youth, we had a tea lady at work who was big and black with a big trolley sporting a huge urn of very indifferent canteen tea, and whose conversation I could never figure out ... until one day the realisation hit me - she was speaking in a broad Scottish accent!
My own parents hailed from the North West, but moved down to London before I arrived. I was treated as a lad to multiple trips "up North" to visit aunts uncles and cousins whilst Mum and Aunties had copious natters about matters in their home locality.
Although I now reside even further South than then, whenever I travel back to the North I have a strong if inexplicable feeling of being happily back amongst my own tribe ...
So yes, I do think that there are important bonds that bind us, perhaps more than we know.
If in the coming months we cannot celebrate improving good fortunes, we can certainly still celebrate our Englishness.
