New Model Island: Alex Niven deconstructs ‘Englishness’ and calls for radical political reform
For a book launch, there was little mention of the book, New Model Island. So much so that Rebecca Shatwell, who facilitated the event, joked about it as things drew to an end.
“Well, this is an anti-capitalist book launch, so obviously we’ve not talked much about the book. But do buy it,” she said.
New Model Island — how to build a radical culture beyond the idea of England — was published a day prior [12 Nov 2019], with author Alex Niven kicking off a promo tour of 50 dates to a crowd of around 30 in Blackwell’s bookstore, Newcastle.
Though an anti-capitalist book launch it was, of course themes were borrowed heavily from the book. The evening focused on radical regionalism, whereby regions are self-reliant, and system upheaval.
There was also no explicit talk of Brexit, which was surprising for a book centred around England, Englishness and nationalism.
The book, half polemic and memoir, intertwines Niven’s personal experiences with societal shifts in culture and identity.
“I just wanted to make it easier to read, to offer an accessible window into this obscure space,” Niven justified.
New Model Island establishes how England and Englishness do not exist, but rather are constructed and reinforced by the British Empire and nationalism, though nationalism is too a very modern concept.
Britain is undoubtedly an island, but the narrative around what that means has changed dramatically over time. The older, more positive rhetoric told tales of ships that were once the fastest way to travel while being fundamental in our island’s trade.
Today, those same waters signify independence and pride. Both of which, with a nationalist agenda, can be toxic.
How nationalism is embedded in theme parks
With a rather unexpected shift in conversation, Niven and Shatwell went on to discuss Alton Towers. Did you know a gothic manor lays quietly and secretly at the heart of the theme park? The original Alton Towers.
I thought, perhaps Saltwell Park, with Saltwell Towers at its centre, will one day home a theme park — after the land on which it sits is inevitably sold to the highest bidder.
But it is not the towers themselves that are newsworthy; it’s what they represent.
Many critics have delved into Disneyland, or Disneyworld, and the hyper-real, American consumer capitalism of which it embodies. Niven argues the same can be said for Alton Towers, and the reinforcement of Englishness the capitalist state.
“The architect that designed the original Alton Towers also designed the Houses of Parliament,” Niven revealed, supporting his point. “It’s a literal reflection of empire, establishment and power.”
Shatwell, a well-known curator, researcher and activist originally from the north west, reminisced during talks of the amusement park. “You included a lot of popular culture references in the text, which made me relate and think about where I was when those things were happening,” she said.
Experiencing a familiar sense of comradery as Shatwell, I thought back to my time as a child in the north east and how trips to Lightwater Valley were the norm. Jumping forward a decade or so, how university friends in the south had similar experiences at Thorpe Park. And so there they are, ingrained in the English childhood.
Time for radical regionalisation
While those experiences were shared, they were also region-dependent. When discussing Englishness and nationalism, you, of course, cannot avoid regionalism.
Niven suggests regional issues cannot be solved with local assemblies and devolution. The problem is with the English system, therefore any localised structure which is built upon it will inevitably fail.
Reflecting on “flimsy buildings” and the current idea of attracting multi-billion dollar companies to a particular city in order to award it prosperity, Niven and Shatwell are in agreement that regionalism must be rethought so to not create “mini Londons”.
The current system results in exactly that. There are pockets of heavily concentrated capitalist ecosystems around the country, think Birmingham and Manchester, that perpetuate a system where rural communities and towns are left behind. There must be a fair and equal spread of wealth and opportunity, which requires an entirely new thought process.
A socialist project
It’s hard to imagine a world where capitalism is not the dominant system, as stated by Niven’s late colleague and popular theorist Mark Fisher. Niven argues regionalisation is a socialist project, not a capitalist one.
He imagines a nation-region hybrid following the progressive and radical overhaul of culture, constitution and democracy for the entirety of the British Isles, predicting a reunited Ireland and an independent Scotland, taking some of Northumberland with it. Wales, too, will have independence, albeit in a longer time frame.
A member of the audience voiced frustration with Scottish independence, suggesting regions outside of London and the South East should work together to overhaul the system. “It’s rubbish for other parts of the UK too,” they said.
As written in the book; Northumberland is closer to Scotland than it is to London and the South East. This is not true only geographically, but also culturally. Perhaps because both have been neglected by the British establishment and nationalist agenda, they will unite in a shared cause.
But if Scotland breaks away soon, it does so with an inherited system which is built to protect Englishness. And thus great reform must also be made in Scotland, with or without England by its side.
“There are 136 inhabited islands within the British Isles,” Niven said, suggesting the notion of Englishness does not fit the wide-ranging identities currently under the British flag. “There is a deep need for multiplicity rather than nationalism … nation-regions must have a level of fluidity that does not currently exist.”
The crowd gently laughed as Shitwell suggested Niven call the North of Tyne mayor to suggest such changes. While clarifying for the sake of clarifying that his ideas are speculative, Niven finalises that after “a decade of alternating between hope and despair” he believes capitalism is on its way out, having a slight revival before a final end.
But what does the future look like for Niven? “Outward, international socialism,” he said. Buy the book for this and much more.
*Please note that ideas contained in this article are not that of the author or The Northern Report but are takeaways from the event.
New Model Island encourages us to think about new ways of dividing up the British Isles without thoughtlessly recycling reactionary national myths of the past. Alex Niven argues energetically and convincingly for a progressive overhaul of culture, constitution and democracy for the British Isles — a dynamic regionalism of a socially-just “dream archipelago”.
