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Defining Britishness
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Patriotic, us?
Barely a month goes by without the media publishing an article that tries to describe our national character. From a survey of our favourite shops (the everyday but quirky department store, John Lewis), and a society speech by a senior politician (Gordon Brown’s ‘Future of Britishness’) the idea of introducing a Britain Day to celebrate unique British values is growing. But there are many definitions.
Gordon Brown, image © Peter Jordon/FCOTop qualities?
Gordon Brown, the man expected to be the next leader of the governing party, spoke about our qualities of ‘creativity, inventiveness, enterprise, our internationalism, our central beliefs in liberty for all, responsibility by all and fairness to all’. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph, a national newspaper, summarised the result of their recent survey as ‘our sense of humour, eccentricity and our fondness for queuing’. A more light-hearted view is: ‘being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, and then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV’. An instant poll amongst my work mates suggests that a good sense of humour, liberal and tolerant attitudes, fair play, multiculturalism and stoicism are top qualities.
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Why define it?
The interest in being explicit about our shared identity is happening for several reasons. Parts of Britain are gaining more autonomy as Scotland and Wales have established their own governing bodies. There are also important debates about asylum and immigration in the country, about multiculturalism and social inclusion. These issues are important because in a fast changing and less secure world people need to be rooted. In a YouGov survey, 70% of people said they believed a strong sense of national identity was important in judging a country’s success. In the UK now this sense could be described as vague. So, the debate continues. The question boils down to whether our national identity is defined by values we share in common, or just by race and ethnicity. What do you think?

Anatole
June 2006

The article is informative with new “social inclusion” and attractive to youth who cares the life around

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