The Labour Party's reluctance to talk about England makes it sound "out of touch with millions of voters".

In a recent post on his blog Robin Tilbrook, chairman of the English Democrats, drew attention to an article by John Denham, former Labour Cabinet Minister and now the Professor of English Identity and Politics at Winchester University.  In the article entitled Why does our Labour Party refuse to talk about England?  Mr Denham bemoans the fact that the Party appears extremely reluctant to even mention the word “England”.  Below are a couple of paragraphs from the article:

“The 1997 Labour government did not make a serious attempt – despite John Prescott’s best efforts – to shift power and resources out of London. England saw no constitutional change (except, ironically, in London). England needs devolution today because the last Labour government, of which I was a part, failed. Labour members should be asked about the governance of England as a whole: how power and resources will be devolved, how laws for England are made, and about England’s relationship with the rest of the UK.

The party must stop talking as though England and Britain are the same thing. This lazy confusion feeds nationalist propaganda in Scotland, discourages party members from thinking about England’s needs and makes us sound out of touch with millions of voters.”

Here is a link to the entire article:

https://labourlist.org/2018/04/john-denham-why-does-our-labour-party-refuse-to-talk-about-england/

After reading the whole article I am tempted to think that nothing much has changed in the 78 years since George Orwell wrote the following words in his essay The Lion and the Unicorn: 

“In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings.  It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box”.