Tom Griffin (London, OK): Ordovicius points us to Red Pepper, where Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Leanne Wood argues that English left have failed to respond to the challenges of devolution.
Labour and many of the left parties have argued that Scottish and Welsh nationalism is regressive – a diversion that undermines British working class unity, which should be opposed. They refuse to acknowledge the inevitability of both countries becoming, at some point in the future, independent.
And when we leave the union, what will England then do? The loudest expressions of English national identity have until recently come from the far right. Often confusing Britishness and Englishness, theirs has been an imperialist, exclusive and racist nationalism, one that progressives rightly abhor.
But there are growing signs of progressive voices in England who are seriously addressing the issue of post-devolution English identity.
Nationalism is certainly controversial on the farther left, as witnessed by the differing accounts of Wood's contribution to the Convention of the Left last month from Socialist Unity and the World Socialist Website.
Within the Labour Party, all the signs are that the Brown bounce is also a Britishness bounce, reinvigorating faith in Labour's traditional unionism. While that moment lasts, Wood's message may not be an easy sell.
