Josh Babarinde’s Census Bill: A Rare Dose of Common Sense on English Nationhood
Josh Babarinde, MP and OBE. Well, we don't have a British Empire anymore, so why is England locked in the vaults of Britain, and being hacked up? Every now and then, amidst the endless Westminster smoke and mirrors, a politician tables a proposal built on plain logic and basic fairness. On 10 November 2026, Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde did just that by introducing the English Ethnic Identity (Census Particulars) Bill —dubbed the "St George’s Bill"—which passed its first reading unopposed and is due back in the Commons on St George's Day, 23 April 2027. The bill exposes one of the glaring double standards baked into the UK's asymmetric devolution settlement. On the 2021 census, Scotland and Wales—two overwhelmingly White countries with their own devolved parliaments—offered explicit, inclusive national-ethnic categories such as "Scottish Asian" and "Black Welsh." Meanwhile, in England—by far the most ethnically diverse country in the Unite...