What Is ‘Britishness’, and Is It Important?

Abstract

The notion of ‘Britishness’ has acquired growing importance in policy and public discourse during the current century. This has had a number of different, and often contradictory, elements. On the one hand there have been attempts to promote a renewed understanding of national identity as a means of promoting social cohesion. Gordon Brown suggested in 2006 that we need to assert that the Union flag represents ‘tolerance and inclusion’.¹ This has been accompanied by a preoccupation with broader notions of citizenship, symbolized by the introduction of ceremonies to ‘celebrate the acquisition of citizenship’. The white paper Secure Borders, Safe Haven, which proposed these ceremonies, talked of the need for a ‘common sense of belonging and identity’ and of what it described as ‘British values’ (Home Office, 2002). An official report by Lord Goldsmith called for all young (British-born) people to participate in citizenship ceremonies as part of ‘coming of age’ and for a national British day to enhance ‘our shared narrative of citizenship’ (Goldsmith, 2008, p. 93).