Stuart Heritage rightly observes the satire that is inherent in For He is an Englishman, the “patriotic” song from HMS Pinafore, cropping up in popular culture (‘The rallying cry of the rich and horrible’, 17 February).
For a more xenophobic but equally tongue-in-cheek exploration of the same vein of nationalism, screenwriters need look no further than A Song of Patriotic Prejudice, by Flanders and Swann. In this paean to the English, every other nation of the UK is rubbished through caricature, and the rest of Europe dismissed in a few lines (“The Germans are German, the Russians are red, and the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed!”).
This line of reasoning is explored in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? too, where Terry, to the derision of his friend Bob, runs through the shortcomings of every other nation. “To tell you the truth, I don’t like anybody much outside this town,” Terry adds. “There’s a lot of families in our street I can’t stand either. Come to think of it, I don’t even like the people next door.”
Unfortunately, this view seems to have breached the boundaries of the fictional world and become the policy espoused by Jean-Marie Le Pen and his Front National party, and more latterly that of Ukip/the Brexit party/Reform UK.
How sad that where once this sort of belief was the subject of humour, it now feels dangerous and threatening. It seems that for some in the UK, and in particular England, losing influence on the world stage leads to an ever greater need to claim to be world-beating.
Alex Heaton
Sheffield
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