We don’t need ethno-nationalism to succeed as a nation

Martin Shipton

It’s no surprise that one of the consequences of stirring up racially based grievances is a rise in ethno-nationalism.

There’s polling evidence to show that’s been happening, and while the number of people polled in Wales as part of a Britain-wide survey is too small to be definitively relied upon, what figures there are suggest that attitudes in Wales are not significantly different from those in Britain as a whole.

For those unfamiliar with the jargon, ethno-nationalism is a form of nationalism that defines a nation by ethnicity, emphasising shared ancestry, culture, language, and faith as core to identity, often leading to the belief that a state should serve only that specific ethnic group.

It contrasts with civic nationalism (based on citizenship) and can manifest as movements for autonomy, unification, or dominance, sometimes marginalising or excluding other groups, and is linked to nativism and the radical right due to its ethnocentric, exclusionary nature.

Polling carried out in December 2025 by YouGov for the IPPR think tank indicates that while ethno-nationalism is increasing in Britain, the majority continues to prefer civic nationalism.

Those surveyed were asked to decide between two options: “It is possible to become truly British if a person makes an effort” or “A person has to be born British to be truly British”. Option A was chosen by 51% with Option B chosen by 36%, and the rest saying they were unable to choose. Two years before, just 19% backed Option B.

Supporters of Reform UK were more firmly in the ethno-nationalist camp than those of any other party, with 71% of them saying that having British ancestry was a prerequisite for someone to be truly British, and 59% saying they believed the nation was an ethnic, not a civic, community.

Other findings showed that 37% of Reform UK voters said they would be prouder of Britain if there were fewer people from minority ethnic backgrounds in a decade’s time, and 10% said it was important to have white skin to be a good British citizen

The Guardian stated: “The results are evidence that hard-right narratives are having some success in remoulding the public’s conception of national identity; overall, though, popular opinion still supports a progressive vision of Britishness based on shared values, not ethnicity or ancestry.”

‘Nationalist’

Over the 100 years of its existence, Plaid Cymru has been criticised as a “nationalist” party by people who fail to distinguish between ethno-nationalism and civic nationalism.

For as long as I have taken an interest in politics, I have heard Plaid Cymru politicians make the point that anybody who makes their home in Wales and is committed to helping make Wales a successful country should be able to consider themselves Welsh.

This is civic nationalism. It is a world apart from the tub-thumping, imperial nostalgia indulged in by those who insist on being photographed next to a Union Jack or two. They are impotent fools whose racism led us to leave the most successful trading bloc in the world and who want to install a mini-Trump in Downing Street in three years’ time.

As we approach the Senedd election, Reform and its social media outriders – in which category I would include the former Tory Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies – are seeking to promote ethno-nationalism by stirring up a sense of white grievance.

In recent weeks it’s been suggested that offering a grant of £5,000 to encourage people from ethnic minority backgrounds to train as teachers is in itself racism. The argument that the existing shortage of ethnic minority teachers is depriving ethnic minority pupils of role models isn’t even mentioned, let alone argued against.

A public health official questioned at a Senedd committee about healthy eating was castigated online when he suggested some thought should be given to advising ethnic minority communities about healthy variations to their customary diet.

Bullied

Women, including a Plaid Cymru candidate and the director of the Electoral Reform Society in Wales, have been bullied online for using the term “pale, male and stale” to criticise the perceived lack of sufficient diversity in the corridors of power. It is, of course, the word “pale” that is homed in on as the cause of manufactured offence.

There is no doubt in my mind that those seeking to create feelings of resentment in this way are doing so because they have no credible policies to improve people’s lives in Wales.

Mercifully, because of the wholly proportional electoral system we now have, it is unlikely that Reform will get into government – a fact they are aware of. But they are hoping to get elected to the Senedd so that they can engage in a four-year-long whinge-fest, the like of which we haven’t previously seen. It is dispiriting that rather than the kind of forensic, scrutinising opposition the Senedd needs – and which was, after all, the justification for increasing the number of MSs – we are likely to have a large rump of MSs who will constantly be engaging in tiresome culture wars.

Racial purity

The idea that racial purity in a nation is something to be applauded and emulated is absurd. There are, of course, places where the make-up of a country’s population is more homogenous than elsewhere, due to their relative isolation. But the vast majority of people who live in countries where there has been international trade and other forms of interaction for centuries will have a complex genetic make-up.

A few years ago I took a DNA test to determine my ethnic make-up. I thought its results would be simple; they were anything but. The percentages vary slightly as more matches are made through my family tree with distant relatives. The other day I received the latest update, which tells me that elements of my DNA come from these different regions: West Midlands; Northern Wales and North West England; Northwestern Germany; South Eastern England and North Western Europe; Connacht, Ireland; Denmark, Cornwall; Munster, Ireland; Donegal, Ireland; Sweden; Netherlands; Hebrides and Western Highlands.

I’m a mongrel and proud of it.

Until 30 years ago, the most readily recognisable kind of ethno-nationalists were white South Africans, the exponents of an apartheid state built on ethnic dominance. The ruling National Party during the apartheid period tried to peddle the lie that “separate development” was taking place in the interests of other races. No one was fooled into believing that the system was based on anything other than the oppression of the majority by a racial minority.

Today the most obvious ethnno-nationalist and settler-colonial country in the world is Israel, for reasons that should be all too obvious (If in doubt read the book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe).

Do we want to follow their path? Surely not.