For some people it’s a Morris Minor, for others it’s a beach windbreaker, chicken tikka masala or Magna Carta.
A new campaign aims to collect 50 objects that sum up Englishness in an effort to move the conversation away from reductionist arguments about whether you should hang a St George’s flag or not.
Supported by Green Party politician Caroline Lucas, musician and activist Billy Bragg, and law professor Kojo Koram, the A Very English Chat campaign hopes to address England’s growing social divisions and political polarization by encouraging people to share the five objects that will define their English in 2026.
Cultural artifacts can be objects, places, people, or even anecdotes. Contributions also include music, food and nature; anything that captures people’s feelings, stories and affinities (or lack thereof) with England.
These will be collected and used to make items such as decks of cards, posters, t-shirts and tea towels for St George’s Day, April 23.
Andy Green, the founder of the campaign, which is funded by donations, said his aim was to “take the tension” out of divisive conversations about Englishness, which often revolve around battles over whether a St George’s flag should be displayed.
“Our country is tearing itself apart – (similar to) what we are witnessing in the United States – and we urgently need to take steps to prevent sleepwalking down the same path,” he said.
“As St. George’s Day approaches, we want to create a richer and more inclusive way to respond to what will be another focal point of our divided identity.”
It aims to encourage a nuanced, broader and more generous conversation about the things – from the historically significant to the seemingly incidental or amusing – that connect English people and tell a wider story.
The initiative is supported by the Jo Cox Foundation’s More in Common Network and other social campaign groups, including Grow Social Capital, which helps communities tell their collective story from the bottom up.
For Lucas, author of Another England, a book that explores English identity and how the country’s underlying narratives fuel division, one of the cultural artifacts that sums up Englishness is the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts club band.
He said the project “could not be more timely or more important.”
“With the UK more divided than ever, by bringing individuals and communities together to share their own reflections on national identity, we can discover much more compelling and inclusive stories about who we are and who we can be,” he added.
Bragg, who chose The Lion and the Unicorn from Marmite and George Orwell, said: “Patriotism is about not giving a shit about your country. Identity is always contested. We’ve seen it with the arguments about flags on lampposts. But what do those symbols mean? This project to put the spotlight on Englishness couldn’t be more timely.”
Kojo Koram said: “At a time when conversations about identity can so easily be polarized or exclusionary, this initiative offers something generous, open and unifying. England has always been shaped by layers of history, culture, creativity and dissent. Exploring that richness through shared reflection feels necessary and hopeful. It reminds us that England is not just something that is, but something we can continually do.”
