Nationalism and national identity in British politics, c. 1880s to 1914

English nations (peripheries).In the Scottish Highlands, the land agitation was accompanied by varying demands for Scottish Home Rule, and a crofters' party had a brief existence in the House of Commons.In Wales, Liberalism moved into the ascendant by associating itself with specific Welsh demands, yet it faced a nationalist challenge from Cymru Fydd which captured the North Wales Liberal Federation (Morgan, 1982, p. 44) .Even in the Isle of Man a Celtic nationalism emerged associated with a racialised discourse that potentially distanced 'Celt' from 'Saxon' in the demand for Manx Home Rule, to remove the continuing restrictions on Manx autonomy (Belchem, 2000).Such moves might be seen as the first stages in the unravelling of the United Kingdom, the first phase in the break-up of Britain, postponed for nearly eight decades, but in which nationalisms on the 'periphery' eventually and inevitably emerged triumphant.Hence the signs of diversity of identities and the political demands associated with them could be taken to be part of the continuing resistance to economic and cultural imperialism, which according to Michael Hechter was imposed from the English core (Hechter, 1999).In this approach, signs of Scottishness, Welshness, Irishness and Manxness are seen as 'nationalism' -a political programme or philosophy concerned with state building.These signs are seen as a desire to assert not only distinctiveness from Englishness, but also from Britishness.They are seen as developments that would inevitably prove incompatible with the existence of the United Kingdom state.Between the 1880s and 1914, it was, however, perfectly acceptable to assert Scottishness, say, without being a nationalist.There were and are fundamental differences between nationalism and the assertion of national identity.Further, too often Unionism with a capital 'U' (that is the Unionism of the Conservatives and Liberal