For too long we have clung to myths of grandeur and exceptionalism, but the truth is that we don’t need them
Most people probably won’t pay much notice to their calendars showing this is St George’s Day, a celebration of a long-dead Roman soldier whose connection to England has as much basis in fact as the dragon he was said to have slain.
The day is sometimes marred with troublemaking by the far right. But an obsession with English mythology isn’t confined to the fringes of politics. For the past decade, overly engorged ideas about this country have taken hold in an increasingly stark and polarised debate about its future.
