Lox, I'm sorry, but there is no venom. I thought that the post in question was perfectly valid, and that the response to it was more about what was read into it than about the post itself. The reason I posted the link explaining Steve's work was to demonstrate that Lizzie had got the wrong end of the stick about where he was coming from.

There is an oft-repeated fallacy whenever this discussion of "Englishness" rears its ugly head: it states that no one is "allowed" to talk about Englishness in a positive light. Quite frankly, I believe this to be utter nonsense, so whenever it is reiterated, I will continue to challenge it. It feeds into this whole notion that "English culture is under threat", another oft-repeated chestnut on Mudcat. The fact is that SO many people here are actively engaged in preserving and celebrating English culture; the idea that we're "not allowed to talk about Englishness" is bit ridiculous, and rather dangerous as a concept. National pride takes many guises, and some of them are, in fact, downright nasty; celebrating the positives while refusing to give in to the negatives means walking a very fine line.