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Britain has lost its identity
Leading historian Norman Davies says Britain is losing its common sense of identity and there is a danger of the United Kingdom dissolving.
Professor Davies, one of the keynote speakers at the Hay Festival Winter Weekend, said: "There is a real danger of the United Kingdom breaking up. There is a loss of common identity.
"At present, there is a worrying English nationalistic attitude towards our non-English people of 'Us and Them' and it is going to end up driving out the Scots and Welsh. The Euro Sceptics are the English National Party in disguise and they have poor old David Cameron over a barrel.
"They are not looking at what effect this could have on the United Kingdom. We could have a situation as early as 2014 where Scotland breaks away, followed by Northern Ireland and finally Wales in due course.
"Some of the old Labour Scots, people like John Smith, saw the danger years ago. Gordon Brown was aware of the problem but did not have a clue what to do about it, even if there is such a thing as a quick remedy. But we are in a situation where the divide is getting worse because London is becoming a monster in the southeast and dominating England, which itself is dominating the British countries."
Davies, a leading English historian of Welsh descent, added: "Devolution was supposed to be the answer but it has worked in the opposite way as intended and Scotland's First Minister Alex Sammond is the beneficiary.
"The Scottish National Party know this. They are very Europhile. They know that if the European Union survives there could be a reasonable future for smaller countries like Scotland. Every austerity measure that Cameron and George Osborne make is being presented in Scotland as the English starving us. And the Euro Sceptics, these dinosaurs, these ostriches with their heads in the sand, are nearly all English. You don't get any Euro Sceptics in Scotland."
He said that most Euro sceptics were boosted by the "illusion that we are still a great power and won the war. They simply have a multi-layered delusionary world view".
Davies said that a proper examination of the Second World War showed that it was Stalin's Red Army that smashed to pieces the Germans, with latest estimates suggesting that the British Army was responsible for only around five per cent of German losses in all.
Davies, whose new book Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe is already in its fourth re-print only five weeks into publication, said knowledge of Britishness and the evolution of the United Kingdom is as low as ever. He added: "It's unimaginable to meet a Pole or a German who does not know about the history of their country. But lots of English people don't know the difference between Britain and England. Take the recent row over wearing the Poppy symbol on football shirts.
"The poppy isn't the English national symbol of war. The Poppy is the symbol of the British Legion. Saying otherwise offends all the non-English people. It's why you get to a situation where teams don't even know what to sing - hence the English rugby fans taking up the song 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' It is the same with the Queen who is routinely just referred to as the Queen of England.
"All other countries teach their children the origins of the state in which they live. There is no common history syllabus that teaches the history of the United Kingdom. That's one of the reasons the UK does not have a coherent sense of identity. Many of the pillars of Britishness have simply gone. Take the Royal Navy. That was once a great British institution. Now its disappeared and is decrepit. There are more admirals than ships now."
Leading historian Norman Davies says Britain is losing its common sense of identity and there is a danger of the United Kingdom dissolving.
Professor Davies, one of the keynote speakers at the Hay Festival Winter Weekend, said: "There is a real danger of the United Kingdom breaking up. There is a loss of common identity.
"At present, there is a worrying English nationalistic attitude towards our non-English people of 'Us and Them' and it is going to end up driving out the Scots and Welsh. The Euro Sceptics are the English National Party in disguise and they have poor old David Cameron over a barrel.
"They are not looking at what effect this could have on the United Kingdom. We could have a situation as early as 2014 where Scotland breaks away, followed by Northern Ireland and finally Wales in due course.
"Some of the old Labour Scots, people like John Smith, saw the danger years ago. Gordon Brown was aware of the problem but did not have a clue what to do about it, even if there is such a thing as a quick remedy. But we are in a situation where the divide is getting worse because London is becoming a monster in the southeast and dominating England, which itself is dominating the British countries."
Davies, a leading English historian of Welsh descent, added: "Devolution was supposed to be the answer but it has worked in the opposite way as intended and Scotland's First Minister Alex Sammond is the beneficiary.
"The Scottish National Party know this. They are very Europhile. They know that if the European Union survives there could be a reasonable future for smaller countries like Scotland. Every austerity measure that Cameron and George Osborne make is being presented in Scotland as the English starving us. And the Euro Sceptics, these dinosaurs, these ostriches with their heads in the sand, are nearly all English. You don't get any Euro Sceptics in Scotland."
He said that most Euro sceptics were boosted by the "illusion that we are still a great power and won the war. They simply have a multi-layered delusionary world view".
Davies said that a proper examination of the Second World War showed that it was Stalin's Red Army that smashed to pieces the Germans, with latest estimates suggesting that the British Army was responsible for only around five per cent of German losses in all.
Davies, whose new book Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe is already in its fourth re-print only five weeks into publication, said knowledge of Britishness and the evolution of the United Kingdom is as low as ever. He added: "It's unimaginable to meet a Pole or a German who does not know about the history of their country. But lots of English people don't know the difference between Britain and England. Take the recent row over wearing the Poppy symbol on football shirts.
"The poppy isn't the English national symbol of war. The Poppy is the symbol of the British Legion. Saying otherwise offends all the non-English people. It's why you get to a situation where teams don't even know what to sing - hence the English rugby fans taking up the song 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' It is the same with the Queen who is routinely just referred to as the Queen of England.
"All other countries teach their children the origins of the state in which they live. There is no common history syllabus that teaches the history of the United Kingdom. That's one of the reasons the UK does not have a coherent sense of identity. Many of the pillars of Britishness have simply gone. Take the Royal Navy. That was once a great British institution. Now its disappeared and is decrepit. There are more admirals than ships now."
