II

Because I admire what you do, I'll take the time to clear this up, as this was once my area of focus for many years. Your statement is incorrect. English is both a nationality and an ethnicity, and has also been acknowledged in Court as a distinct racial group by national origin, separate from British citizenship. The English share an ancestry, history and culture which is what defines an ethnic group and we can add language. If you're challenging that premise, the same logic would mean my Yoruba ethnicity doesn't exist. As someone with ancestry from a country with many ethnicities, which has led to multiple issues, I am forever mindful of erasing the identity of others when that is what has historically been done to other groups e.g. the push of a shared Nigerian identity to minimise the Biafra war and the crimes committed against Igbo and other SE ethnic groups. You can't accept one and reject the other, or you stand for nothing. I won't join in the erasure of the English ethnic group primarily because I don’t care but my ethnicity will never be up for debate. Furthermore, England has no state of its own and acts mainly through Britain unlike Scotland and Wales which have limited but devolved powers. So "English" can't simply mean citizenship or point to any devolved privilege, it describes a people. If you want to debate English ethnogenesis, depending on which school of thought you belong to (social construct or natural phenomenon), feel free, but English is an ethnicity.