The ‘politics of Britishness’ and related constitutional matters have not – as yet - played strongly in the general election either in manifestos or during campaigning, though all the main parties of the Union agree that further powers be devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This would not be surprising but for considerable time and effort invested by Gordon Brown, David Cameron and others in engaging in such debates over recent years. The term ‘Britishness’ is absent from all UK party manifestos except for the Democratic Unionist Party. Although the Liberal Democrats identified fairness as ‘an essential British value’, identity politics is generally not considered to be a vote winner.
Responses to the ‘English Questions’ have also proven muted and vague, with Labour failing to engage at all with constitutional dilemmas largely created by its own radical reform agenda. Moreover, though the Conservative manifesto promises to ‘introduce new rules so that legislation referring specifically to England, or to England and Wales’ and the Liberal Democrats seeking to ‘address the status of England’, scant details are given about how this will be achieved. Although Timothy Garton-Ash claimed the first TV debate woke us up to devolution, Simon Lee rightly noted in an earlier OD post that the absence of England in the election is striking.
Similarly, the extent to which the legacy of the British Empire continues to influence contemporary politics and society has also been overlooked by most parties. Only the Conservatives have acknowledged it as a policy aspiration, promising in their manifesto that they will ‘strengthen the Commonwealth as a focus for promoting democratic values and development’. However, their intention to establish annual limits on non-EU migrants suggest that Conservative views towards the former empire continue to be infused with elements of colonialism –
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