In pursuit of Britishness

By Vivian White
BBC Panorama reporter

Vivian White joins the great Britishness party

After two weeks of intense flag-waving in Beijing and ecstatic scenes back home, we could have just wrapped ourselves in the flag and left all the tricky questions about Britishness for another day.

And indeed at our own Britishness party, which we staged in a quiet street in Uxbridge (thank you, thank you, local residents) I did feel a little out of place - being almost the only one whose face wasn't painted red, white and blue.

I should add that there were some Scottish Saltire faces too and one very fine figure of a man adorned with a Welsh dragon.

But while we all share the flag, what does it mean, and why is the government so concerned that we should think about our Britishness more?

Because, make no mistake, it is. We didn't make this up.

A whole raft of speeches from Gordon Brown, starting before he became prime minister in 2006, and from other ministers, in the Cabinet and outside it, have been addressing Britishness - and telling us we should, too.

Holiday gaffe

One unfortunate minister, Liam Byrne, went so far as to suggest a date for a national celebration of Britishness, in the advance text of a speech that he released:

"I myself, have become convinced that the August bank holiday weekend - what someone has called 'the Great British weekend' - has the virtue of being in the summer, and already being a bank holiday," he declared.

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Vivienne Westwood talks about her pride in being British and what can be done to promote Britishness to the young

Except that it isn't one in Scotland - so the offending passage was hurriedly smoothed out and changed to "a bank holiday in some parts of Britain".

But too late. The hoots of derision from North of the Border drowned out the message

And the message is about nothing less than re-building a national British identity. But why? I mean, governments rebuilding roads, or hospitals, OK, but national identity?

But the concern is deeply felt. Jack Straw, close to Mr Brown and himself the author of speeches on Britishness, was frank to us in saying that Britain had previously been defined by the Empire, and conquest:

"In that sense Britishness has gone. I mean if it's done, so be it," I ventured. "Utterly absurd," the Justice Secretary came back at me.

Identity change

But that was, in essence what AN Wilson told me, when I spoke to him only hours after Jack Straw had put me in my place.

The novelist and author of a trilogy of books of popular history from the Victorian era to the present day feels that Britishness has become a concern to ministers precisely because it is losing purchase.

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People tell Panorama what they think symbolises Britishness

The formal statistical evidence suggests that though a majority of us are still proud to be British, more and more people are becoming less attached to their particularly British identity, especially if they live in Scotland, or Wales.

There are, after all, other identities on offer.

In Edinburgh George Kerevan, associate editor of the Scotsman, and a prospective SNP Parliamentary candidate, and his English wife Angela, entertained me, and their tolerant friends to, not a TV dinner, but a televised dinner.

The Scottish salmon and venison was excellent - this was a very fine assignment indeed I thought, but how they pitied my poor attempt to suggest that if Scotland became independent and the two of them became "foreign" to each other, that might be a problem.

Lacking cohesion

Another guest that night, former Labour MP Tam Dalyell, a leading opponent of devolution, who has always warned that it would lead to the break-up of the Union, told us that if what he feared most did happen, and independence became a fact, he would "continue to be a citizen of that country."

Even Gordon Brown is about the write a book on Britishness

Of course cynics can easily attribute to Gordon Brown a base tactical motive for his Britishness project: a wish to reassure English voters that he is "British," and not in some exclusive way, Scottish.

But whether you agree with the project or not there is more to it than that.

They are troubled by a sense that, post-Empire, and in an increasingly globalised world, and in a post-devolution Britain, Britishness is gradually becoming less and less the identity that matters to us most - and they are anxious that a Britain of new migrants and mixed identities may lack social cohesion.

And then they link Britishness to all that, hope it can be re-discovered, re-made, and that it will help to re-bind the country.

Flying the flag

The Westminster government has even changed the official regulations which used to limit the number of days that the Union Jack can be flown from UK government buildings.

But if they hoped this would lead to more Union Jacks flying in Scotland and Wales - remember that devolution means that many of those government buildings have themselves been devolved.

You could try asking the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, to fly the Union flag more… but rather you than me.

BNP chairman Nick Griffin is keen to embrace the flag

And isn't flying the flag a bit un-British. Wasn't it the far right that used to fly it. Or as Nick Griffin the leader of the BNP put it to me, more bluntly: "For 40 years they've been trying to drag those flags down and throw them in the mud."

Not a bit of it, says Jack Straw. This government sees itself as reclaiming the flag from the far right, not following in their footsteps. "They had no ownership; it's our flag and I'm proud of it," he said.

I talked to Nick Griffin in Stoke, a place which was once the epitome of confident Englishness and Britishness - but which has seen better days. Now there are 9 BNP councillors there.

Moving ceremony

It was the beginning of our journey which took us to Bradford, where school children were earnestly and fluently debating "What is Britishness?" the very question which the government is posing. Mostly the students concluded that neither they, nor in their opinion, the government, knew the answer.

We went to Northern Ireland, where they know what Britishness is very well indeed, but disagree fundamentally on whether they want it; and we talked of his time in Guantanamo Bay with former detainee Mozzam Begg: he said he was known there as "Great Britain."

Jack Straw rejected the notion that Britishness was dead

And in South London we wrapped ourselves in the flag with Vivienne Westwood, who knows a thing or two about presenting and shaping identity.

The Union Jack, she said, "says 'flag' perhaps more than any other flag".

We went to Harrogate, where we saw new British citizens having their citizenship ceremony, including that most proper British ritual, tea and biscuits, and we were surprised to be moved by what we saw.

A young woman from Zimbabwe and her husband were unaffectedly grateful to be part of the British family, saw us as especially democratic, and thought a Britishness day would be wonderful.

Rite of passage?

It is evident that there are some at least in the government who envy the USA and its pride in itself and the fact that their flag is often flown outside people's private houses; and the citizenship ceremony, something we have never felt the need to have before, is a step along that highway.

So if it works for New Brits to learn aspects of citizenship and then to be publicly ritually enrolled into being British, would it work for True Brits who are born here, too, Mr Straw?

Prepare yourself for very curious language indeed: "I've seen no piece of paper about this in the British Government," he said.

And though he added that this was "J Straw not the British government" talking, he said that it "would be a good idea... now you've raised this, for us to ask young people what they think, and you could have informal ceremonies if you wanted…"

In a programme about Britishness and flying the flag we thought that looked like flying a kite.

We tried to buy one with a Union Jack on it, but we couldn't. Probably all been snapped up for parties.

Panorama: True Brits will be on BBC One at 8.30pm on Monday 25 August.