GP taylor: We just want to be proud to be English again... so is that really too much to ask?

So concerned was I this week at reading that a woman was taking the Government to court over the fact that they wanted her husband to speak English, I decided to ask a group of young people what they thought. I expected them to be quite chilled over the subject. They were in their twenties and very cool. Yet, what they said quite surprised me. There was a real sense amongst them that the English and Englishness was under attack. There seemed to be nothing that they could be patriotic about and that even thinking you were in the slightest way nationalistic meant you were a closet racist. Any kind of outpouring of national pride had to be kept on what they called the “down low”. It is time that this attitude to being English was changed forever. National and regional pride is not a sin and being English is not a curse. Our culture does not have to be apologised for or give reparations to those who feel slighted by its past. Instead of Big Society, David Cameron should set sail on a campaign of English Pride. There is an old saying that a people without a vision will perish. We in England certainly seem to have lost our vision and it looks as though we are perishing. Bit by bit our identity has been stolen from us. Political correctness, multiculturalism and the over dominance of an EU super state are all castrating the concept of English culture. It is as if there are powers that have set out to make life bland. In truth the powers are far more sinister and are out to destroy the English way of life and our culture forever. St George’s Day and Yorkshire Day go by relatively uncelebrated. Anyone who dares to wear a national emblem is deemed to be a member of the BNP. In Southampton, taxi drivers displaying the George flag were ordered to take them down, as they were considered racist. I don’t believe it – is this Britain? There are many more cases too numerous and outrageous to mention. What Cameron doesn’t understand is that the majority of people in this land want to be proud of their English culture. Anyone coming here should be actively encouraged to integrate and not set up a religious or cultural no go zone. The ability to speak English should be a prerequisite for anyone wanting to settle in Britain. It is strange that in China there are three times more English speakers than in Britain. Around one in seven – almost 500,000 – primary pupils and just over one in 10, or 364,000, secondary students in this country do not speak English as their first language. This is totally outrageous. What Blair started when he opened the floodgates of destructive mass immigration, Cameron has to stop. Britain is full. Our education, welfare and health systems are bursting under the pressure of those attracted to this country by our luxurious benefits system. That is an outrage. This country is not here to provide free hand-outs to anyone on demand. As the EU fails and becomes nothing more than the outer states of the new German Reich, it is time for us to go it alone. There has never been a more desperate time to escape from the house of cards that is the burning economies of Europe. We need to be guardians of our own destiny. The Europe experiment has failed and costs each one of us not just in the amount we pay in tax for the upkeep of Eurocrats but also in the attack on our way of life. Ask any Dales farmer or Whitby fisherman and they will tell you straight. Tough times call for tough action and “call me Dave” has to start being tough. Britain plc has been sold off to the rag and bone men of the world. Water, gas and telephones are now in the hands of foreign companies – what next, the land beneath our feet? It is time to quit Europe and for Cameron to give us a referendum on that issue. But like Dave, I know that will never happen. He already knows the outcome. If given the choice, we would be out of Europe in a flash. What the metropolitan professional politicians of the liberal elite don’t realise is that most people from middle England want a different way of life. There is a growing voice in the country that is demanding a return to common sense values and laws. They want these laws to be decided in an English Parliament and not imposed upon us from a far corner of Europe. Our national pride and our common vision will only come about when our borders are once again in our control. Englishness and our wonderful culture can then be celebrated again. People want to be able to be proud to be English once more. Is that too much to ask? GP taylor, from Scarborough, is a best selling author and broadcaster.