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It's fitting to write this article around the time of Great Britain and Northern Irelands 2024 General Election. The timing couldn't be more appropriate, as there are important and unanswered questions to be addressed.

 

There has been a lot of confusion of late when it comes to how we are to collectively regain our nation’s self-autonomy and sovereignty under our own people’s guardianship. As we know only too well, we have been divided not just between 'The right' and 'the left' regarding our overall political allegiances, of which 'Brexit' was a clear indicator of where we have all stood regarding the policies in this country, and who those policies have either benefitted or not, but also within the overall 'umbrella' of purely national, or patriotic allegiances.

 

This is the unanswered question of our current times? What is everyone’s 'idea' of nationalism, or being a patriot? What are the predefining terms, or 'rules' that decide it? Who does it really refer to?

 

There are more questions than this of course, but these are the ones in my opinion that deserve the most attention as they encapsulate what needs to be the defining answer overall.

 

As we've seen recently in the run up to the General Election, the nationalist, i.e. patriotic sentiment was heavily in support of the Reform Party and for a justifiable, if what, confusing and complex reason. There hasn't been an alternative to the usual, first past the post two party system that we have had in our country for many years now, and for the first time, since the British national Party, there has risen a 'perceived' and albeit, legitimate option that promises the very change in our countries policies that has been yearned for among the nationalist/patriotic minded citizens for a long time now due to the failings of the only major party that once represented them, the Conservative party.

 

But, the major flaw with this new 'resurgence' is that already, the Reform party is already showing signs of the 'type' of national policies that, in fact, look like they will eventually serve to further disappoint and further alienate the very people that currently believe in them. What's disingenuous about the whole move to the Reform party is the civic national 'utopia' that they actually seem to represent, meaning that in truth, they are yet another path to the 'type' of nationalism that we need to be steered away from if we are to truly advance as a unified and successful nation, which can only be achieved through the policies that are represented by a more collective, ethnocentric worldview. This is where the nationalist/patriotic electorate is divided, and what they truly need to be made aware of.

 

Civic nationalism is not authentic because it doesn’t represent the very fabric of the nation, indeed, any nation on earth, which is it's native inhabitants, whose ancestors were responsible for creating the nation that we now struggle to maintain under our rightful and inherited sovereignty. Without this understanding within the 'nationalist/patriotic' community there will always be a divide based on religion, ethnicity, and real authentic 'belonging' due to the fact that no matter what anyone will tell you, even within the patriotic minds of civic nationalists, not everyone can just wake up and become native to this land.

 

Irrespective of the outcome of the election, it will be interesting to see just how long civic nationalism will continue. Because, in my mind, no matter the premise behind it used to garner more votes at the polling stations in the future, we will see the differences between the native population of our country and the 'integrated citizens' of our country over time, regardless now of their 'current political' allegiances. I say this because the new government that comes to power under the system that has been the only system we have been made to live under for generations, will still be able to manipulate via various tried and tested methods, the very 'citizens' that currently show their patriotic allegiance. This is a certainty no matter what, because it has been, and will be done again, history around the world can show us this. The only true national agenda is one which is rooted in the people of the nation themselves, and this will come to light as we progress forward after this Election.

 

By Darren Houghton,

 

Branch Leader Sunderland/Peterlee