We're English but only because we live in England?

On 2 May 2008, as reported in the East London Advertiser, The English Democrats denied any BNP link and insisted they are non-racist, campaigning on an English identity in the same way as the Welsh and Scots, with party leader Robin Tilbrook stating, "There are no links with the BNP at all. We even stood against them in the elections and have non-English ethnic candidates. We're not about race, but campaign on English identity. Home is where the heart is. Colour is not relevant." [Emphasis mine].

The English Democrats seem to be deluded about what it is that makes one English. They appear not to understand that it was the English who gave their name to England, rather than the other way round.

Both nation and culture emerge from race. Race is the fountain-head of all. A hundred years ago this would have been regarded as a statement of the obvious. Today, it needs to be said, and stated over and over again.

The adoption of particular cultural traits, or patterns of behaviour, Norman Tebbit's "cricket test", for example, does not confer nationality, in the true, the ethnic sense, any more than does the possession of a passport. After all, the Indians and Pakistanis, as well as the West Indians, play cricket. Does that make them English? I should say not.

If this civic 'nationalist' equivalent of the SNP and Plaid Cymru hopes to benefit from the turmoil within the British National Party, they are likely to find that any such benefit is of short duration.

In the long run they are going nowhere.