Tristram Hunt for Stoke
It's interesting to read that Tristram Hunt is standing as a Labour candidate for Stoke-on-Trent.
Tristram is well-known scholar of English history, and has previously written about Labour's awkwardness when it comes to English national identity:
Who now on the Labour frontbench, as Leo Amery once famously demanded, speaks for England? On this highly symbolic St George's Day, which marks the 1,700th anniversary of the beatified soldier's martyrdom at the hands of the Emperor Diocletian, who in government stands willing to speak to a coherent conception of Englishness?
For it is a curious irony of New Labour's rhetoric that its affection for the mythical, Tolkien-like "Middle England" is not matched by any great ardour for the reality of the English nation. While Scottish Labour and Welsh Labour happily proclaim their patriotism, English ministers are reticent. In part, this is attributable to a hangover from the original iconography of New Labour: Fitz the Bulldog; "Why I Love the Pound" articles for the Sun; the stealthy alliance with "Cool Britannia" - which was determinedly British in its symbolism. England seemed unmodern.
At the same time there remains within Labour circles a strand of faddish, metropolitan hostility uncomfortable with the historic imperial and class connotations of "England". Unfortunately, England's de facto cabinet minister, the consciously unmetropolitan John Prescott, shares those instinctive reservations. His passionately held regional ambitions are anti-pathetical to any unitary idea of English nationhood. A pick and choose system of regional self-government fits perfectly with a "Europe of the regions", but specifically avoids any appeal to Englishness.
If England needs a champion on the Labour benches, one with the intelligence and influence to articulate a positive left-wing vision for England, then maybe Tristram Hunt, who will have the negativity of the BNP in Stoke as his foil, is that champion. Of all the Labour Party candidates at the next election (given that Derek Wyatt and Andrew Mackinlay are resigning) it is only Tristram Hunt and Frank Field to whom I will wish good luck.
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Oxymoron
"England needs a champion on the Labour benches"
Contradiction in terms really, isn't it?
It's not completely absurd,
It's not completely absurd, there's no reason why the left cannot be patriotic. In fact, they may find that they need to be in order to win England back from the Tories, BNP, UKIP, Eng Dems, etc.
When Brown goes after the General Election, it's hard to see what Scottish representation there will be on the Labour frontbench. I expect that Darling will stay on to steady the ship, but who else...Dougie Alexander? We might see the "English Labour Party" - insofar as there is one - assert itself after years of Scottish heavyweights dominating the party.
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