Guy Aitchion (London, OK) As Brown struggles to pin down an elusive ‘Britishness’ an interesting ippr document sheds light on the issue of national identity in modern Britain (download it here in pdf). It shows that those seeing themselves as British first has fallen whilst the numbers of those identifying themselves as English, Scottish or Welsh is growing. But one interesting table shows that identification with country, as well as with the continent and the wider world, has declined in the UK, while across the world it has risen (or in the case of identifying with one’s continent remained unchanged). Instead, a majority in the UK now identify most strongly with their ‘locality or town’ rather than the nation (56% compared to 25%). This 'local' form of identity has shot up in the UK compared to the rest of the world (see below). The politics of identity seems to be playing a growing role in shaping constitutional change and there are other interesting snapshots in the ippr report for OK readers to reflect on.
