Written by Stephen Bailey.

What do the hard facts show about what the English really feel towards the Union?

It is a gross popular misconception that most English people want to ‘get rid of the Jocks, the Taffs and the Ullish’ (the residents of Ulster (’Northern Ireland’). It, or some variant like ‘Get rid of them’ is often heard coming from ignorant English separatists down the pub, in the street and elsewhere when debating the Constitutional Question in England.

A look at the hard, objective, verifiable facts strongly contradicts this assertion.

Data from multiple polls clearly demonstrates that the majority of English citizens reject the separation of England from the rest of the UK.

There has been much talk from both Scottish and English separatists, as well as pro-English Parliament advocates, that the English are disaffected with the Union, want to break it up, or don’t care if it does break up, and/or want an English Parliament. The facts contradict this assertion. The opposite is true in reality.

It is a common tactic of anti-UK separatism-those who seek to remove their part of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Ulster from the Union, principally, but not exclusively, the Scottish National Party, to provoke antagonism among the inhabitants of the English part of the UK.

They do this by acting in a very troublesome and antagonistic manner to the English, in a deliberate attempt to make them dislike or even hate the Scots, Welsh and Ullish in order to facilitate the advancement of their anti-UK separatist agenda.

The good news is that they have largely failed to do this.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released the 2021 UK National Census data on national identity in England and Wales. (1)

NOTE: The 2021 UK National Census collected data from the entire usual resident population of the UK, which includes all individuals living in the country, regardless of nationality or immigration status. According to the Office for National Statistics, the mid-2021 population estimate for the UK was 67.0 million, based on the 2021 Census data for England, Wales, and ‘Northern Ireland’, with Scotland’s estimate rolled forward from 2020 due to the delayed census. Therefore, its findings can be regarded as the most authoritative findings currently available.

In ‘Figure 1′ of the Census, we see that more than half of the usual resident population of England AND Wales, 54.8% or 32.7 million people, indicated that they were of solely ‘British’ national identity, a rise since the 2011 Census.

Conversely, the opposite trend was witnessed in the ‘English only’ category, which fell massively from 57.7% in 2011 to 14.9% in 2021:

(A) ‘British only’:

2011: 10,690,999 (19.1%).

2021: 33,677,619, (54.8%).

(B) ‘English only’:

2011: 32,351,735 (57.7%).

2021: 8,898,728 (14.9%).

(C) ‘English and British only’:

2011: 4,867,862 (8.7%).

2023: 8,112,809 (13.6%).

The above results prove that there has been a monumental rise in the number of English residents who view themselves as citizens of the United Kingdom, as British rather than just English.

Support for an English Parliament remains low. BSA surveys show only 24% support creating an English Parliament—similar to levels in 1999. (2)

Historical trends suggest that claims of a growing English identity may be overstated. The 2011 ‘surge’ in English identity (49% choosing English over British) has not been replicated. Recent data shows 34% identify as English, 48% as British—unchanged from two decades ago (as discussed above and also see (2) in the ‘Sources’ section below).

It is the inescapable, overwhelming conclusion of a very substantial body of objective, verifiable, empirical evidence in the form of hard data and statistics from surveys and polls of English residents that a similarly substantial majority of the public in England desire keeping the UK together.

However, let’s not be at all complacent. Anti-UK separatism across the UK (Scotland, Wales, Ulster and England) is pathological and monomaniacal in its pursuit of forcing its agenda on a UK public that the polls consistently tell us doesn’t want it. It is the urgent and serious task of all those who want to maintain the Union to push back against this guerrilla war of misinformation being waged by the various anti-UK separatists and maintain the UK.

Sources:

(1) The 2021 UK National Census: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/bulletins/nationalidentityenglandandwales/census2021#main-points

(2) ‘The myth of a growing sense of English identity’: https://constitution-unit.com/2018/12/14/on-the-myth-of-a-growing-sense-of-english-identity/