The problem with Nick Clegg’s Great Britain soundbite
It’s a neat play on words that has the right structure for a good political phrase: I want to live in Great Britain, not Little England.
But when Nick Clegg uses it to argue the pro-European case, does it actually work as a political message? Elevating great over little is the message, but the message also puts Britain and England at odds with each other.
England has plenty of positive associations, and if you feel yourself to be English then the phrase is immediately putting you at odds with the message it wants to convey.
And the number of people who feel that is significant. Here’s what polling for IPPR found when it asked the electorate in England how they viewed their own identity:
British, not English – 7%
More British than English – 10%
Equally England and British – 39%
More English than British – 20%
English, not British – 15%
Far better, then, to pick a fight that doesn’t get itself tangled up in British versus English, because that’s not winning territory for the fight.
Hat-tip: Thanks to Sunder Katwala for bringing the poll to my attention.
If you want to win over your audience – yes. But if you want the segment of the audience who are already, partially or wholly, in agreement with you to believe that you and you alone represent their views – no.