Conservative Home continues its platform debate on patriotic renewal. Yesterday it ran Frank Field opposing the liquidation of historical memory from schoolchidren. I'm with him on this though he omits one of the key reasons for the importance of teaching history, which is that it opens up dabate in the best sense. It is not THE teaching of THE history of our country that we want, but it being taught so that we learn about the choices that were made and the sides that were taken. Whose side would you have been on in the Civil War? Do you support the restoration? Did appeasement contribute to the rise of Hitler?
At any rate what we need is intelligent engagement with our national histories. This is just what is not on offer today from Jeremy Hunt MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. He looks at "the contribution of sport to patriotic renewal".
It's the feebleness of his rhetoric and the sloppyness of his language that appalls. Here we go:
"Last Sunday’s Ashes victory was a feel-good moment that we really needed."
Who is this "we"?
"Even the outrage over the release of the Lockerbie bomber was pushed briefly off the front pages as the nation was gripped with excitement."
Which country is this "nation"?
"The Today programme gloatingly reported the depressed coverage in Australia...Meanwhile our victorious sportsmen, perhaps remembering the post 2005 disappointment, behaved with great dignity and aplomb... It has not always been easy to be proud of sport in Britain."
Hold on a second, have I missed something? Wasn't it England that won the ashes, not Britain? This slovenly assumption that victorious England is Britain is one of the disrepectful Westminster tropes that humiliates Scots. (Gerry Hassan has been wresting it to the ground elsewhere in OK.) England's winning the ashes did not lift popular spirits in Wales and Northern Ireland in the way that a British team's victory may have done. Hunt then repeats the elision with a perfect example of its thoughtlessness: "A country’s characteristics are often reflected in the way their [sic] play sport...", the would-be Minister continues, "Andrew Strauss typified British decency in the way he reacted to victory at the Ashes." Only he was Captain of England.
"If sport defines nations, at its best it also unites them". Hunt concludes in philosophical mode - unaware that he has done his best to reinforce the division of Britain that he strives to oppose.
