New poll shows English are far more moderate about both past and future than culture warriors claim

A new survey, released on St George’s Day to mark the launch of a new book by Tom Baldwin and Marc Stears, England: Seven Myths That Changed a Country—and How to Set Them Straight, suggests a vast majority (78%) neither want to recreate their country's past nor forget it entirely.

Despite febrile recent debates and endless front page headlines suggesting the contrary, only 13 per cent of English voters said they would describe the Establishment as "woke" and just 3% thought that university professors were part of it. Instead, the top choices for having the most power and influence in the country today were big business (43%), the Conservative Party (29%) and the monarchy (23%). English voters viewed the NHS (62%), the police (42%), the courts and parliament (both 41%) as vital to the stability of England.

In a week when Keir Starmer said the Tories had “lost any right” to call themselves a patriotic party and added he had “no time for those who flinch at displaying our flag”, the Labour leader will be encouraged by findings that barely a quarter of his party's voters felt even slightly uncomfortable about walking through neighbourhoods where the Cross of St George is on display.

Starmer, who is seen as significantly more “English” than either of his predecessors - Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn – may also find comfort that his favoured past times of watching football and going to the pub are well ahead of others such as cricket, even if these are still behind talking about the weather and drinking tea.

The survey showed most English people have a fairly good historical knowledge about their country’s history, although only a fifth of those surveyed knew St George was born in what is now Turkey, less than half knew William Wilberforce had campaigned against the slave trade, and there was widespread confusion about what rights were established by the Magna Carta.

More significantly, a majority of voters said they had either never heard of - or could not explain what was meant by – recent government policies designed to address the future of England such as “Global Britain”. But Levelling Up is better understood. Only 18% had never heard of the phrase and a clear majority know that Levelling Up aims to address regional inequality.

The proportion believing that immigrants can be just as English as people born here was matched by that believing they can’t, but many more voters (45%) believe immigrants should have the same rights as everyone else than those who believe they should not (25 per cent).

The poll was released following the launch of the book by Baldwin and Stears. The launch brought together figures from across politics and civic society to the UCL Policy Lab, including cabinet minister Michael Gove and shadow cabinet ministers Ed Miliband and Pat McFadden. In his speech at the event, Stears invited us to explore and understand the messy beauty of England and to resist polarising and simplistic narratives. 

England: Seven Myths That Changed a Country by Tom Baldwin and Marc Stears is published by Bloomsbury, and you can preorder it here.