Jon Bright (London, OK): ippr have released a statement calling on Gordon Brown to institute a "British national day" as an extra bank holiday, which would involve 'thanking' community heroes and encouraging others to follow their example, as part of his attempts to build 'British' national identity. Kate Stanley, ippr co-director of research, explains:
We need a day when people ‘give something back’ to their communities and celebrate the diversity and pluralism of modern Britain. Awarding civic honours on a single national day would be a national ‘thank you’ for the many thousands of citizens who go out of their way to help others.
Creation of any new national 'day' is always going to be a bit of a difficult task (you can imagine the mixture of amusement, indifference and ignorance the first 'British national day' might be greeted with) though adding an extra bank holiday to the calender would certainly sweeten the deal (it had never occurred to me that the PM was empowered to give us all extra holidays - now it seems incredible that no-one ever sticks that in a manifesto!).
But the idea seems to strike to the heart of a more complicated question - can a national identity really be fostered "from above" in this manner? I've never believed identity to be completely natural or inherited, but even so the idea of a government trying to tell me what my identity might be feels a little odd. Is this what my new id card will be for?
