David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, has been doing his LBC radio phone-in show. If you believe LBC, he has ‘schooled’ a ‘caller’ who told him he is not English. If you listen to the exchanges in question, you’ll realise he did something much more impressive, and important than that.
The clip, which is all over social media, is here:
The short summary is that ‘Jean’ tells Lammy he cannot be English because of his Afro-Caribbean heritage. Lammy, who was born in London, politely examines her arguments and disagrees. There is no shouting and no fighting – that suggestion has been added by LBC to stir up anger and get some clicks.
Can you imagine what would happen to an MP who went on TV with an English flag in the background?
Why is this important? It’s because Englishness is important, yet rarely discussed. Politicians are all too keen these days to shout about the Union flag and Britain, but England doesn’t get much of a mention.
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