Billy Bragg once sang about a ‘New England’ and along with royalty - a Cockney Pearly Queen - launched ‘The story of England 2026 in 50 objects’ at iconic English food locations -a Brick Lane curry house and traditional London Pie’n’Mash shop.
The launch featured ’English Café’ events where small groups around a table write their 5 objects of England on a St. George’s flag paper tablecloth, creating their own ‘pocket museums’ telling the story of England 2026.
The campaign is encouraging everyone to make their own versions for this year’s St. George’s Day celebrations on April 23rd.
‘A very English chat’ helps untangle the complex issue around English identity in an easy-to-engage way, moving the conversation away from to wave a flag or not, to a friendlier, more generous conversation - from the historically significant to the seemingly incidental or amusing - that connect us all and tells a bigger story.
Joining Billy and Gemma in supporting the campaign are former Conservative Minister Sir Sajid Javid, and Caroline Lucas, along with civil campaign groups including the Jo Cox Foundation’s More in Common Network, Absurd Intelligence, British Future, Civil Society Together, Community Organisers, and Together.org backed across the political spectrum
The social enterprise Grow Social Capital devised the pioneering idea of a ‘pocket museum’ and workshops enabling communities to tell their collective story, from the bottom-up.
Do check out free resources including ‘A very English chat - Conversation starter’ - an ideas catalogue with over 101 contributions from a range of academics and community activists sharing their five English objects, and ‘A very English chat - Toolkit’ featuring an exercise identifying seven segments of the English public defined by their choice of biscuits.
The campaign is politically independent and entirely self-funded, using a crowdfunder appeal. Please do support to help us deliver our campaign here.
Encouraging support for the campaign, Sir Sajid Javid said,” St. George’s Day is a great day to celebrate what we all have in common. When people talk about what they value, what they trust, and what they share, it becomes easier to build understanding. I’m glad my suggestions of the local bobby and war memorials made the final cut.”
Commenting on the campaign, Billy Bragg said, “St. George’s Day should be a day for celebrating the positive things we have in common. A day for recognising the sense of community that comes from the identity and values that we share in this place called England. Through listening to each other, we can find that common ground from which to resist hateful division.”
Author on English identity and environmental campaigner Caroline Lucas added, “With the UK more divided than ever, by bringing individuals and communities together to share their own reflections on national identity, we can discover far more compelling and inclusive stories of who we are and who we can be.”
Please do support our campaign.
