Jon Bright (London, OK): On page 16 of Today's Telegraph, sitting somewhat smugly out of place in the 'News' section, Gordon Brown outlines why he supports "a museum of British history" and why he is founding an "Institute of Britishness" (I'm sorry Gordon - I think you'll find those are 'Views'). "Everywhere I go round the world I find men and women asking questions about Britain's history of achievement" he beams, a fascinating insight into the sort of people he meets (though I suppose, thinking about it, that is the kind of grovelling small talk I'd make if I was ever introduced to a visiting head of state).
Brown's Britishness agenda is multifaceted. It has included, so far, lifting restrictions on flying the national flag, creating a new national motto and now this institute (it has also involved studiously avoiding using the word "England", as Gareth Young has argued consistently below). A "statement of British values" is what awaits us all at the end, to be combined, perhaps, with a new sense of constitutional patriotism. Lest we forget, 2007 is the 300th anniversary of the act of Union and the creation of Britain. You would be forgiven for forgetting: it's hard to imagine such a year passing so quietly in almost any other country in the world (what do you think the USA will be like in 2076?). If Brown has his way then the 400th anniversary won't be anywhere near as downbeat.
Reading this article, I was reminded of the time I was living in La Paz, some years ago now, being taught Spanish by an eccentric trilby wearing professor called Alfonso. One of many vivid memories is of my first lesson with said teacher, who enjoyed talking in stereotype: "British people," he said, "love el humor negro" (black humour). Of course we do. We enjoy cynicism, sarcasm, laughing when things go wrong. It combines with a tendency to eschew self-aggrandising, self-important statements of who we are that Brown seems to have taken to (as Cameron has been only too happy to point out). We're just a bit of a sceptical bunch - it's one of the things I like most about Britain.
"El humor negro", he continued, "y asessinos seriales" (if my Spanish stands up): serial killers. Britain, Alfonso felt, has a special historical connection to serial killing - boasting as we do one of the world's most famous serial killers (Jack the Ripper - who is also one of the earliest perhaps?), and of course the one who killed the most (Harold Shipman). Bolivia, by contrast, has a fairly pathetic record in the killing for the sake of it department - something he seemed slightly ashamed of (I declined to mention that this pair of murderers actually sit, by birth, in England's 'history of achievement').
The point of this anecdote, if there is one, is that we may not even be aware, let alone be able to control, what the word 'Britain' stands for, and it might be slightly risible to try. There may come a politician who is so 'in touch' with the 'British nation' that he is genuinely able to articulate meaningfully a positive version of Britishness that isn't met with our famous cynicism. I don't think Brown is that man. And however much he bangs on about a 'history of freedom' or sets up navel gazing national institutes, there will always be at least one person in the world to whom the Union Jack represents a tendency towards psychopathic behaviour combined with a certain knack for avoiding police detection. This is something that makes the part of me that likes black humour very happy indeed.
Comments
Nope - still not British. English all the way. Home rule for England.
It seems to me that a large part of what is really driving Britain at increasing speed towards a hefty brick wall in the middle of the motorway is the long-running tendency of even quite thoughtful people to equate British with English.
Cynicism, sarcasm, laughing when things go wrong, a bit of a sceptical bunch - those are all English stereotypes (and from my fairly limited knowledge of England, all sound more like urban southern England than anything else). They don't resonate with me as being at all typical of the Welsh people I know.
I suspect that one of the things that decent civic English nationalists need to do is look a lot more carefully at the distinction between British and English. As long as no distinction is made, arguments for legitimate English nationalism are always going to be undermined by the fact that they sound so similar to arguments for British nationalism.
'Our famous cynicism'? Well, fair play, you're almost making me feel cynical enough to count as a Brit - so to stop that in its tracks, I'm off to our local eisteddfod to sing, talk too much to people I don't know, disagree with the judges over fine points of poetic law, and get far too excited about rugby and history.
Do those stereotypes strike you as British? Or do they sound more like something Welsh?
[...] stickerbox wrote an interesting post today on Whatâs in a history of British achievements?Here’s a quick excerpt Jon Bright (London, OK): On page 16 of Todayâs Telegraph, sitting somewhat smugly out of place in the âNewsâ section, Gordon Brown outlines why he supports âa museum of British historyâ and why he is founding an âInstitute of Britishnessâ (Iâm sorry Gordon - I think youâll find those are âViewsâ). âEverywhere I go round the world I find men and women asking questions about Britainâs history of achievementâ he beams, a fascinating insight into the sort of people he meets (though I suppose, think [...]
We don't have to worry about what's in the museum of British Achievements. My design would be to have an extremely long queueing area. You can learn all the things you need to know about Britishness, both positive and negative, from standing in a queue for an hour or so.
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