Guy Aitchison (London, OK): IPPR hosted Michael Wills, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, this morning for a seminar on the politics of national identity as background to the Citizens Summit he is the lead for on a British Statement of Values. His talk will be published tomorrow. He produced some polling data published today by IPSOS MORI on the question of what identities give people a sense of belonging. I haven’t been able to find the data online yet but will provide the link as soon as it becomes available. From my notes: 80% of people polled have a “strong” sense of belonging to Britain, 82% of the English have a strong sense of belonging to England, 91% of the Scots to Scotland, and 95% of the Welsh to Wales. The conclusions that Wills drew from the data won’t surprise anyone: Britishness still matters. People still feel a shared sense of identity, he said, and there is a need, fuelled by globalisation and rapid social change, to belong to a “moral community”. The nation state is still the primary focus for this “yearning to belong”. What gives Britishness its strength according to Wills is that it is very much a pluralistic identity: it is compatible with Scotishness, Welshness, and – whisper it quietly – Englishness.
Many at the seminar welcomed the bravery of the government in opening up the conversation, Liz Forgan suggested it might be politically suicidal though she seemed to be applauding the spirit of the venture. There were concerns that they are emphasising Britishness at the expense of other identities. Wills dodged a direct question by Anthony on why the government doesn’t just offer the English a referendum on an English parliament inside a British Union, which, after all, would seem to be the logical outcome of an emphasis on the need for both identity and public participation. We hope to have more on this once the polling data has been found and digested.
