Jon Bright (London, OK): What makes an issue an issue? It's a cyclical thing in my opinion, a slowly building climate. People start talking about something, then other people start talking about the fact they are talking about it.
OurKingdom was founded, partly at least, on the sense that the idea of 'Britishness' is becoming an issue, with all the implications that brings. The climate has definitely been building since we started (which, I flatter myself, we have played our own small part in). This week, two important events - Brown launches his 'Institute of Britishness' whilst Cameron misquotes the Andrex puppy in a robust defence of the union ("stronger, safer, richer, longer").
In a certain sense they are responding to events. Devolution is here to stay - they have to acknowledge its consequences. But in another sense they are contributing to making Britishness an issue. Glyn Davies picks up on this theme in his blog:
So what is all this 'Britishness' stuff about. The trouble is once you start asking a question, you lose control of the answer. And that's where we are now. I don't think many people ever questioned their Britishness. In Wales only about 15 % of people have wanted 'Independence' from the 'Union' for decades. If asked my nationality, I would always have said Welsh, but I'm as British as the next man. For me, being one has never ruled out being the other. But this debate is leading people to believing they have to make a choice. This is dangerous.
This is interesting as well. Brown is going to try and do exactly what Glyn is saying he can't - ask the question whilst controlling the answer. A citizens summit is going to debate on what it means to be British, but Brown already has the answers in mind: "liberty, civic duty, and social responsibility" are what makes us uniquely British he told the Commons liaison committee yesterday, whilst 26 foreigners were signing some unimportant document that everyone soon forgot about.
I think Glyn is onto something here. Every time politicians mention Britishness - which they now cannot ignore - they make the issue slightly more important, fixing it slightly more prominently in the public consciousness. But as soon as it becomes a live issue, as soon as people start to believe they have to make some sort of choice, then the possibility of controlling what answer they come up with is lost. And as soon as people start thinking about being 'British' - an anachronistic, contradictory identity founded on a mish-mash of constitutional conventions which have historically relied for their existence on the fact that people don't think about them - will they conclude there is anything in it for them? Paradoxically, therefore, it might be the Institute of Britishness itself, and initiatives like it, that end up burying the Union they are trying to preserve.
