Celebrating Britishness
- 11 Mar 08, 11:52 AM
Is it really un-British to celebrate Britishness?
That's the question which has been triggered by Lord Goldsmith's proposal that schoolchildren take part in citizenship ceremonies including, perhaps, an oath of allegiance to Queen and country.
Much the same reaction was triggered when Gordon Brown mused aloud about whether there was a British equivalent to the pride Americans took in flying their flag, leading many to fly them in their gardens.
Baroness Kennedy's called today's idea "silly" and "an empty gesture". The SNP government in Edinburgh have said they'll have nothing to do with the idea. Even Team Brown sound rather lukewarm - welcoming the report as a contribution to debate.
However, no-one should be in any doubt that the prime minister believes that government can and should play a role in helping shape people's sense of what it means to be British. Before he moved to No. 10, many suggested that this was simply a ruse by Gordon Brown to distract from his Scottishness.
That was always too simple and too cynical. Brown is worried about social cohesion and he's also concerned about the threat posed to what you might call social democratic values by the growing sense of "unfairness" felt by many voters in response to mass immigration.
It is oft asserted that only "new" countries such as the US or post-war West Germany or those who've been through revolutions such as France can enjoy the simplicity of a national slogan - "Liberty, equality, fraternity" - or a written constitution or a national story like the "American Dream".
Not so, argues Brown, pointing out that the famous slogan at the base of the Statue of Liberty - "Bring me your huddled masses" - was added 17 years after the statue was erected as part of America's developing national story.
Thus, this government has introduced citizenship ceremonies, has just published proposals on so-called "earned citizenship", is working on a consultative process to write a British statement of values and is committed to a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.
The debate about Britishness isn't going to go away even if the idea of schoolchildren swearing allegiance to the Queen does.
Oh, and by the way, the Goldsmith Review contains much more than just that - it proposes, amongst other things, that Westminster, like Holyrood, should have a Public Petitions Committee to give proper consideration to public lobbying and a pre-election Deliberation Day to invite all parts of the community to participate in publicly sponsored debates and discussions about the issues facing the electorate.
Read the report (pdf)
PS: I see that MPs are beginning to reform themselves. A new £25 limit for unreceipted expenses and a promise of a new audit system have followed the register of family members in employment today.
