The archbishop is right, those who identify as English are too often patronised

Editorial: Remainers should stop dismissing Leave voters as xenophobic or stupid or both – let us reach across the Brexit divide and celebrate what unites us

The Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend Stephen Cottrell (PA)

He means well, bless him. Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York – who is minding the Church of England while Justin Welby, of Canterbury, takes a sabbatical – has criticised the “metropolitan elite” for treating people who are proud to be English as “backwardly xenophobic”.

The Independent may be representative of the metropolitan elite, but we take no offence at that. Indeed, we praise the archbishop for wanting to bring the whole of the United Kingdom together, which does mean, as he says, recognising the lopsidedness of our constitution and the strange status of Englishness within it.

However, we are not convinced that another layer of devolved government, “a strengthened regional government within England”, as he puts it, is the best way of going about it.