In search of England

PAUL Kingsnorth is one of our most eloquent and perceptive writers on the environment and globalisation issues.

In his forthcoming book Real England, he takes us on a journey in search of that elusive concept of "Englishness."

In essence, his journey is a reprise of William Cobbett's Rural Rides in 1830. Kingsnorth is seeking those people fighting the cause of the real England, struggling to maintain what they see as their culture and way of life in face of an increasingly faceless behemoth threatening to eradicate what they deem vital.

His book does not disappoint - it is challenging and provocative. He provides numerous examples of individuals and small local groups fighting quixotic battles against big, faceless consortia. What he also documents is the shameless way in which many of our elected representatives, either willingly or with supine cowardice, collaborate with these powerful companies, abdicating their duty to serve those who elected them.

One particularly crass example that he cites is that of Liverpool City Council, which has given a big developer carte blanche to take over a large section of the city centre, including several streets, to run as its own fiefdom - a consumerist temple - and, if your face doesn't fit or your pocket isn't deep enough, you could well find yourself excluded. If we were ever a nation of shopkeepers, as Napoleon dubbed us, we are now very much a country of shoppers.

The book's goal and title is unfortunately a misnomer because Kingsnorth is not looking at England as a whole, but almost exclusively the English countryside - the Liverpool example is the exception - and, if there is indeed anything tangible that we can call Englishness, then it is to be found as much if not more in our towns than in the countryside.

The rich cultural heritage of the mining, pottery, steel-making, fishing or car manufacturing communities cannot be ignored if one wishes to claim any validity for one's arguments. Whole areas of Northumberland, Yorkshire and the East Midlands were transformed for ever under Thatcher's crusade - towns such as Corby, Coventry, Barnsley, Birkenhead, Sheffield and Grimsby became mere shells or ghost towns and whole cultures were eradicated.

Thatcher knew full well what she was destroying when she oversaw the devastation of these heartlands of Labour.

Not only were working-class communities wiped out but also their strong sense of solidarity, community strength as well as any glimmer of a socialist dream. All this merits not a mention in Kingsnorth's book.

Clearly, Kingsnorth feels that there is a common denominator of Englishness. But he also ignores the fact that England is and always was a nation divided, like scarce another, along class lines.

Friedrich Engels in 1845 characterised it thus. "The bourgeoisie has more in common with all other nations on earth than with the workers who live immediately next to it. The workers speak different dialects, have other ideas and thoughts, other customs and ethical principles, other religions and politics than the bourgeoisie. They are completely different peoples."

That "two nation" society which Disraeli also described in his novel Sybil is still very much apparent, even if class distinction is not quite as crass today.

Surprisingly, Kingsnorth admits that we are still living in a society ridden by class, but he ignores the implications. "We are supposed to be a middle-class nation, at ease with itself," he says, paraphrasing Brown and Cameron with their evocations of a fictitious idyll based on narrow nationalism and false patriotism.

"Whether or not you want to use the term 'ethnic cleansing'," he goes on, "there is another term that could be used about what is happening here ... the term is class war.

"A war waged, as ever, by the landed and the wealthy against those they would educate, civilise or simply shove out of the way." He could have included the most crucial attribute of this "war," that of our exploitation as workers and consumers.

Kingsnorth demonstrates that we face a choice between a pervasive totalitarianism - total dictatorship by faceless globalised capitalism - or a place that we construct for ourselves.

He shows how corporate capitalism is relentlessly dismantling communities, dissolving social cohesion and destroying our landscapes.

In his conclusion, where he also discusses what action can be taken to rescue "Englishness," he unwittingly dilutes the arguments implicit in the rest of the book.

"What is killing real England?" he asks, before claiming that arguments of both right and left are "both right in their own ways." However, history demonstrates that this is simply not true.

Right-wing ideas have always been promoted by the ruling classes in order to maintain their privileges. Hitler would have got nowhere without the backing of the barons of industry.

The left may be fragmented and have no coherent policy, but the more sensible section of the left does not call for "more regulation" per se, as he states, but more regulation of corporate power - a very different concept.

"It is not about left versus right," he says, but about the individual versus the crushing dehumanising machine, which he prefers to call nebulously the "Thing."

This merely undermines all he has written in the previous pages, where the "Thing" is very much a concrete enemy.

He also ignores the trade unions in his list of action groups, but it is the CWU that has been in the forefront of the battle to save rural post offices, UNISON has campaigned for the retention of rural transport services and the T&G has fought against evictions of farm labourers from tied cottages.

What is happening in Britain is happening everywhere - civilisation is being radically transformed. All places are beginning to look the same and consumption and the fig leaf of "consumer choice" are becoming the only criteria for decision-making.

Kingsnorth's book is a wake-up call for all who love their country and don't want it to become even more of a clone of the US than it already is.

Even if you don't agree with all that he says, he puts a powerful case for action.

The Real England by Paul Kingsnorth is published on April 1.