на стопроцентной правильности не настаиваю, это мысли на тему

Foreign and country are words that are central to those questions, whatever conclusions we may come to. We ought to be able to talk about it freely. Yet all we get is argument by abuse. For instance, the word "foreign" is rapidly becoming an unword.

и в статье от 19.09.99 под многозначительным заголовком "The Englishness that dare not speak its name":

English has become an unword. Young people have little idea what it might mean, and use it only to refer to football loyalties. Otherwise people hardly like to use it, unless referring to the language. It is so much safer, and so much more - how can one put it? - inclusive, to say British, though by some strange perversity British has come also to mean anybody who is not English. It's embarrassing.

В обсуждаемом здесь отрывке, как мне кажется, акцентируется именно то, что из-за политкорректных заморочеk это слово становится малоупотребительным и постепенно исчезает из лексикона СМИ и политиков. Его - в отличие от слов "шотландец" или "валиец" именно начинают стесняться.

(имхо)

Вот развернутый контекст:

It is fine these days to be Scottish or Welsh or Afro-Caribbean or Punjabi, and it is usually fairly fine, or pretty much acceptable, to be British, though the word has become something of an awkward euphemism; where once English used to mean everybody British, British these days tends, oddly enough, to mean everybody except the English. Being English is becoming something of an embarrassment in many circles, both to those who are and to those who aren't. Anyone determined to avoid giving offence can only talk about being British; in our contemporary muddles about race, identity and devolution, English is becoming an unword. This may not yet be felt to be so in most people's private lives, but it is so increasingly in radio, television, newspapers, in schools and universities, in the public services and, of course, in the Government.