James Orr on national conservatism and social regeneration.

Bien-pensant neuralgia over nationhood has intensified of late on the part of British liberals. This is partly because, against all the odds, expressions of national sentiment have begun to puncture the cosy cosmopolitan consensus forged in the aftermath of the Second World War and crystallised in the civilisational struggle with the Soviet Union. There is panic over the stability of global supply chains, energy dependence on unscrupulous new empires, and the continued dominance of financial institutions that not so long ago were bringing capitalism to its knees. Widespread support for Ukraine’s resistance to the imperial ambitions of Russia has also brought even the most hardboiled internationalist to recognise that Ukrainians are fighting from loyalty to their land and home, towns, villages and families. The case for national retrenchment is inescapable.