Billy Bragg, Sarah Lucas and Kojo Koram among those encouraging people to share cultural artefacts
For some people it’s a Morris Minor, for others, a beach windbreak, chicken tikka masala or Magna Carta.
A new campaign is aiming to collect 50 objects that sum up Englishness in an effort to move the conversation away from reductive arguments over whether to hang a St George’s flag or not.
Supported by the Green party politician Caroline Lucas, the musician and campaigner Billy Bragg, and Kojo Koram, a law professor, the A Very English Chat campaign hopes to tackle England’s growing social divisions and political polarisation by encouraging people to share the five objects that define their Englishness in 2026.
Cultural artefacts might be objects, places, people or even anecdotes. Contributions also include music, food and nature; anything that captures people’s feelings around, stories of and affinities – or lack thereof – with England.
