12
ISSUES: Citizenship
Chapter 1: Citizenship in the UK
Indeed, this is the platformof Yorkshire
First – a regionalist political party
created in 2014, which contested 14
seats in the general election. Although
Yorkshire First had little electoral
success this time around, it is a young
political party finding its feet in
national politics, and would have been
using this election as testing ground
for future campaigns.
The importance of identity
In the build up to the 2014 Scottish
referendum, I conducted an online
survey on identity and attitudes to
devolution of power in both Cornwall
and Yorkshire. I used what’s called the
“Moreno question”, which allows for
some subtlety in the way respondents
can define their identity. It recognises
that people do not necessarily define
themselves in binary terms.
The survey asked if people regarded
their identity as best described as:
Ö
Only
Cornish/Yorkshire
not
English
Ö
More
Cornish/Yorkshire
not
English
Ö
Equally
Cornish/Yorkshire
as
English
Ö
More English than Cornish/
Yorkshire
Ö
Only
English
not
Cornish/
Yorkshire.
The first finding that emerged
was that, perhaps unsurprisingly,
Cornish people often linked their
identity to their Celtic heritage, and
to a separateness from Englishness.
More than half of the respondents
rejected any notion of Englishness
in their identity, a quarter prioritised
Cornishness over Englishness. Few
claimed that English was their primary
identity. So for a lot of Cornish people,
being Cornish is not compatible with
being English, and the former excludes
the latter.
In Yorkshire, however, one sees a
greater layering of identity. Fewer
people – just under 15%of respondents
– defined their identity as solely
Yorkshire. The majority of people
regard themselves as more Yorkshire
than English, or equally Yorkshire as
English. This means that there is no
contradiction between Yorkshireness
and Englishness – although being
from Yorkshire is important to one’s
identity. This is not a nationalist claim
like the one made by the Cornish, but
it nonetheless illustrates that people
regard Yorkshire as being important to
their identity.
So evidence from both Yorkshire and
Cornwall shows that regional and
national dimensions are important
to people’s identity. However, people
from the two areas may layer their
identities
in
different
manners.
“Cornishness” appears to be more
organic and homogenous, in that it
is an identity with significant history,
which is seen as a separate entity,
distinct from Englishness. In contrast,
“Yorkshireness” is still generally
conflated with Englishness. But this
does not make one identity less strong
or less relevant than the other.
Devo deals?
Now, one might assume that demands
for devolution of power would be
greater in areas that have a strong
sense of national identity than in areas
with more regional identities. For our
purposes, this would mean that the
Cornish would want devolution of
power more than those fromYorkshire.
Yet this study shows that this is not the
case.
[Research has shown]* very similar
demands for the devolution of power
in both Cornwall and Yorkshire,
despite the differences in the way
these identities are constructed.
Although regional identities (such as
Yorkshireness) are less bound to the
concept of self-determination than
national ones, this does not mean that
they cannot be linked to political goals.
All of this goes to suggest that there
is a connection between regional and
national identities, and devolution
claims within England. And that we
should be wary of thinking about
regional politics purely in economic
terms.
*See original article for graph.
12 May 2015
Ö
The above information is reprinted
with kind permission from
The
Conversation
. Please visit www.
theconversation.com for further
information.
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The Conversation Trust (UK)
