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Shakespeare invented Britain. Now he can save it

We need the voice of our shared culture now more than ever

12 April 2014

9:00 AM

12 April 2014

9:00 AM

‘What country, friends, is this?’ We’ve been wrestling with Viola’s question almost from the moment she asked it. It was barely a year after Shakespeare had scribbled out those words, in the first Act of Twelfth Night, that James VI of Scotland inherited England’s throne, beginning a 400-year confusion over national identity that has led to the present referendum on partition.

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Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP. His book How We Invented Freedom and Why It Matters is published by Head of Zeus

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