Why the rise in post-Brexit nationalism could have unexpected benefits

Whatever happens next in terms of structures and international arrangements, the UK’s detachment from the EU could usher in a period of cultural rebirth

Revellers at this year’s Last Night of the Proms may be waving flags even more enthusiastically in the wake of the Brexit vote (Getty)

This may be to jump the gun a bit, but when the orchestra strikes up "Rule Britannia" and "Land of Hope and Glory" at the Last Night of the Proms in just over two weeks’ time, I imagine that the flags will be waved even more energetically and the audience participation will be even more heartfelt than it usually is. The combined effect of the vote for Brexit and second place in the medals table at the Rio Olympics – “ahead of China”, as is stressed – are generating a national confidence that permits us to boast: “Yes, we can.”

Not everything to do with what would appear to be embryonic national revival is that simple, of course. It is not at all clear, to me at least, what is actually meant by “we” or even the “nation”.

We have the ugly formulation “Team GB” for sport, which would appear to leave out, but actually includes, Northern Ireland. The anthems sung at the Royal Albert Hall will be at least as much an expression of Englishness as of Britishness, the distinction having been unambiguously brought out by the sharply different attitudes to the European Union at the referendum.

Let me also admit, as a Remainer – strange how almost everyone today prefaces anything they have to say about Brexit with a statement of how they cast their secret vote – that I have misgivings about nationalist revivals in general. They can threaten as well as promise. And there must be doubts, in this case also about its durability and where it actually began.

Early signs that the economy is not suffering a post-Brexit downturn must be weighed along with the summer weather and the sharp devaluation in Sterling, which has yet to feed through into the economy in many, mostly detrimental, ways.

You could argue, too, that some of the seeds of Brexit confidence were sown not by the records set by Team GB at Rio but by the success of London 2012. This was almost the first national project in my memory that actually came in on time (well it had to), on budget (sort of), and worked (beyond doubt) to glorious effect. It was not just London but the whole of the country that suddenly, and despite so many odds, felt good about itself. Financial crises, dysfunctional public services and glaring inequalities notwithstanding, here was proof that we could do something by ourselves, and do it well.

For all its lack of definition, however, the mood for now at least would appear to one of tentative national revival. And while some Remainers (aspiring Labour leader Owen Smith being the latest) are still banking on a reversal of the Brexit vote, many others are accepting the result and trying, in a rather admirable, rather British way, to look on the bright side and make separation from Europe work.

This country, you will hear people say, has a lot going for it. Of course it can stand by itself, negotiate its future on its own terms and find its rightful place – a different place – in the world.

What is more, you can start to sense, I think, one way things may go, and it does not have to be in the direction of boastful, xenophobic nationalism (though that will always lurk as a risk). In the early stages, at least, it could prompt a new interest and pride in history and culture, even language. When you consider the more benign national awakenings and revivals elsewhere in Europe in past centuries, these were marked more by a search for roots and the components of national identity than by aggressive expansionism.

As education secretary, Michael Gove was arguably ahead of his time in prescribing less Hitler and Nazism and more “Our Island Story”. Post-Brexit Britain would be looking at a new national curriculum that gave more prominence to ancient Britain and mythology, restored the primacy of Kings and Queens, and stressed continuity as much as change. The legacy of sea-faring and global trading would play a starring role; the term "British Isles" would undergo a resurgence. The English classics would feature more prominently, and correct use of (British) English would carry more of a premium than it currently does.

But stop, you will object. We do quite enough of this already. Does not modernity tend in the very opposite direction? From history, to commerce to language, is it not all about internationalising and globalising and change?

Well, yes – but no. It would be a mistake, I believe, to interpret the Brexit majority as reflecting only or mainly a popular desire for Britain, or perhaps England, to rule the waves as our ancestors did. It was at least as much about people wanting to feel more themselves, living in a country which better matched their quite modest sense of themselves.

As I argued at the time, and still believe, for all those who saw Brexit as a chance to restore Britain’s greatness there were probably as many who just wanted the UK to stop trying to “punch above it weight”, let go of the top table, keep out of foreign wars, and just leave them alone. They wanted to live in a thriving market town, have people say "please", "thank you" and "good morning", join the queue for the bus and enjoy a drink in the pub of an evening.

So when Remain warned that the UK could lose its influence, the City could shrink, and house prices would fall in the event of Brexit, such warnings spread more hope than alarm in some quarters. For these Leave voters, Brexit was less about greatness than about the UK, or what in time remains of it, accepting its status as a middle-ranking country with recognised limitations.

This is why, whatever happens next in terms of structures and international arrangements, the UK’s detachment from the EU could usher in a period of cultural rebirth in which history, literature, art, architecture, language – the lot – are all celebrated and developed in a way that underpins a new sense of nationhood.

We have to hope that the sense of national confidence that results is benevolent. If not, we are in trouble. But if it is, it might even encourage a new generation to bid for membership of a stronger EU.