Can i be an English nationalist, a unionist and a European federalist?

I am very much a Home Counties boy but I am also proud to be an Englishman, a UK/British citizen and a European citizen.

When i was growing up, St George's Day really only meant that my Scout troop (and others in the town) had to parade up to the cathedral and then sit through a service. It was a scout event, not an English event.

I think that an English national identity has been developing over the last 20 or so years. I remember Euro 96 led to a significant rise in the visibility of English flags and also unleashed the anthem that is "Three Lions". The England rugby union also won the rugby world cup in 2003, increasing national pride.

The creation of and devolution to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly (also in the late 1990s) also enhanced the English identity due to English people defining themselves as not Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish. I believe that an English Parliament should be created to equalise devolution fairly but that is a post for another day.

I definitely grew up with a strong British identity. My cultural heritage included the legacy of the British empire and winning two world wars. I went to British museums, watched TV produced by the BBC, flew on British Airways and used British Rail trains. Privatisation of various companies and devolution has diluted the British labels but their legacy lives on. Politically the British Prime Minister, British government and British Parliament are very visible.

A month after 9/11, i flew to Denver for a scientific conference (I was a PhD student at the time). I stayed in a youth hostel and spent the evenings talking and drinking with the other residents. Not surprisingly the conversations kept coming back to the events of the previous month. Again and again, I found myself joining with the other European residents, trying to get the American residents to understand that their view of America as the great worldwide force for good, was not shared by the rest of the world.  Although the details of the conversations have faded, i still remember feeling that I had a shared identity and outlook with the other Europeans.

I agree with the idea of the European Union, an economic and political union of like-minded countries. Economic union means a free-trade area including the free movement of goods AND people. If British people don't want to go to other EU countries, they should have the ability to if they want to. The European Parliament has its flaws (not least having to travel between Brussels and Strasbourg). But the MEPs are democratically elected by the people of Europe and reflect the diversity of political opinions that exist.

I believe that political decisions should be made at the appropriate levels be that parish/neighbourhood, town/borough, county, nation, UK or European. It makes sense to me that i could have an identity at each of those levels, without them necessarily contradicting each other.

So yes i am proud of being English but also a British unionist and a European citizen.