Labour must stop feeling repulsed by the idea of Englishness

In the window of a council house on a working-class estate in Exeter was a sticker bearing the cross of St George and a simple warning: ‘If this flag offends you, why not consider moving to another country?’ For some canvassers working on Labour MP Ben Bradshaw’s 2015 campaign, such a symbol naturally meant the dreaded ‘A’ on the canvas sheet: ‘Against Labour’.

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Labour’s Identity Crisis: The Politics of Patriotism, edited by Tristram Hunt, will be published on 23 May.Tristram Hunt is MP for Stoke and a historian, and has edited a new collection of essays called Labour’s Identity Crisis.

TaggedEmily Thornberry, England, flag, General election 2015, George Orwell, Gordon Brown, Labour, Parliament, St George, Tradition

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Labour must stop feeling repulsed by the idea of Englishness

The impulse to deride patriotism reflects the party’s distance from many core voters

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