The Sunday Times – The high road to No10

On the face of it Gordon Brown’s speech on Britishness to the Fabian Society yesterday had much to commend it. …

Look deeper, however, and his motives seem a little less lofty. There is something a bit cynical about a Scot, knowing he is not the toast of Surrey, wrapping himself in the Union Jack to appeal to English voters. Setting up straw men to knock down does not make for intelligent debate either. Most people are quietly proud to be British; only a minority wince at the mention of empire. We do not fly the flag in our gardens because we are ashamed of it, but because it would be naff, aping the American habit.

Well, we only put up our flag on the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and, uh, Veteran’s Day, I think. Dad would march us outside on a holiday morning with a brief lecture of what we were doing out there, which was good because otherwise we’d have had no idea. It was a day off school, for heaven’s sake. Why were we to care why? So I dunno how “naff” that makes me.

But allow me to finish the thought of the article:

Devolution for Scotland and Wales and its cackhanded failure in the English regions has given us an unbalanced Britain. Many of this government’s actions are profoundly un-British, from its failure to address the West Lothian question to its championing until recently of multiculturalism. Yet the knowledge tests it has introduced for naturalised citizens are utterly banal. The chancellor says the values on which Britishness is based “owe more to progressive ideas than to right-wing ones”. Who says? With apologies to Dr Johnson, when invited by Boswell to admire the striking prospect of a Scottish landscape: “Sir, the noblest prospect which the chancellor ever sees is the high road that leads him to No 10.”

Also in today’s Times, England is waking up to the patriot game, by Minette Marrin.

Date: Jan 15th, 2006 · Comments RSS · Tags: Geography and Foreign Affairs