Peter Ackroyd's Englishness: a continental view.

IN recent years it has become fashionable in Britain for politicians and writers to ask what it means to be 'English'. Some of this has been stirred by the effects of Britain becoming part, albeit a questioning part, of the EU and, even more, by the effects of devolution of Scotland and Wales. At the start of this year the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, tried to promote a debate about Britishness and establish a 'British Day' to encourage people to fly the national flag. This to some extent was a Scottish politician's (and one who hopes to become Prime Minister) need…