When it comes to Billy Bragg, words matter more than the music. And the essence of the themes in this work can already be guessed from the cover, from that half of the English flag, the white one with the red cross. âEngland Half Englishâ is a concept first coined by Colin McInnes (author of the novel âAbsolute Beginnersâ, among others) to describe the England of the 1950s, which was becoming increasingly multicultural and culturally rich. And this is the English identity that Bragg claims, without allowing the term âenglishnessâ to be stolen by poor nationalist idiots. But Bragg, an activist of Red Wedge and the most politicized English singer-songwriter with his folk roots, manages to tackle the issues of today's discontents: âI grew up in a company town/And I worked real hard/âtil that company closed down/They gave my job to another man/On half my wages in some foreign land/And when I asked how could this be/Any good