The values debate
What values do we share as British citizens? Or, let me rephrase the question: are there any values that we share? What does a 17-year-old Muslim in Bradford have in common with a 77-year-old Christian in Brighton? Or a 30-year-old single parent in Galloway with a 60-year-old grand-parent in Gosport?
A government published last year said: "There is common ground between British citizens, and many cultural traits and traditions that we can all recognise as distinctively British."
So, what are those cultural traits and traditions? I ask because tomorrow (25 January) we're going to be broadcasting a special edition of The World Tonight in which we try to answer some of these questions.
Here's another quote from that government Green Paper: "It is important to be clearer about what it means to be British, what it means to be part of British society and, crucially, to be resolute in making the point that what comes with that is a set of values which have not just to be shared but also accepted. There is room to celebrate multiple and different identities, but none of these identities should take precedence over the core democratic values that define what it means to be British."
I tackled some of these issues in one of the first pieces I wrote on this blog, back in October, when a government minister suggested that Britain and Saudi Arabia had many values in common. I quoted the dictionary definition of what "values" are: "the ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard."
We can list half a dozen such values which the vast majority of us would happily sign up to without much difficulty: democracy, an independent judiciary, a free press, sexual equality. But suppose you're a British citizen who doesn't believe in democracy? Does that mean you're not entitled to a British passport? Should being prepared to sign up to an agreed set of values be a requirement of citizenship?
What it comes down to is simply this: is there something that marks us out as British rather than French, or American, or Australian? I came across this definition just a few days ago: "Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way home, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all is suspicion of all things foreign."
Or is it the "bulldog spirit", a deeply felt sense that you don't kick the Brits around? Or the "Dunkirk spirit", the ability to celebrate triumph in adversity? In magazine late last year, the writer Duncan Fallowell came up with this:
"You should hate liars and cheats and those who won't play the game. You should be able to take a joke. You should dislike extremes. You should be bad at dancing and sex and incapable of either without being drunk. You should resist invasion of your personal or national space. You should ignore what you dislike but give to charity. You should protect the countryside. You should respect the sovereign. You should say what you think. You should be classical on the outside and romantic within. You should put religion in the back seat and make sure it bloody well stays there. You should acknowledge your amazingly good fortune."
Or how about this list of supposedly quintessential British traits, from the historian Timothy Garton Ash? "Tolerance, common decency, respect for the law, an instinct for fair play, good-neighbourliness, a tendency to support the underdog, a love of sport, much shared complaining about the weather and, last but not least, a highly developed national sense of humour."
The government's Green Paper says: "The Government believes that there is considerable merit in a fuller articulation of British values. Through an inclusive process of national debate it will work with the public to develop a British statement of values that will set out the ideals and principles that bind us together as a nation."
So let's have that debate. I hope you can listen to the programme, 10pm on Radio 4 on Friday, 25 January, or online here.
Most nations have similar aspirations but Britain has two institutions that define its values uniquely: The National Health Service and the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The NHS is held in great, if ambivalent, affection by almost everyone and employs enormous numbers of people from other countries and cultures, while the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ takes the trouble to have a serious debate about national values, without getting nationalistic about it.
Complain about this postFor most foreigners British equals English which for a Scot like me is anathema, particularly as I had to thole this for nearly 30 years working abroad. You English can keep your Britishness if you wish but leave us out of it.
Complain about this postLike many of my compatriots I long for the day when we can regain our independence without interference from Westminster. Perhaps then we will be able, as the Irish now do, accept you lot as partners in a united Europe.
If you won't or can't control immigration try to control the debate about it. As the song says, "Gordon is a moron".
Complain about this postOne overwhelming British value is a dislike of having things forced on one by people in authority, usually for their own ends. The British are quietly awkward and contrary, and won't fit into pre-determined boxes. Think of the quiet anarchy of the Ealing comedies - it's still there in our national make-up. And as soon as you try to define it, it vanishes...
Complain about this postTo David Cole:
If Scotland gains independance from England, does that mean the House of Stuart (you know that lot in Buckingham Palace) will be forced to pack their bags and trudge 'Up Norf' as well?
Complain about this postI can only quote the (possibly not contextualised) comments of the singer Morrisey:
"If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity.
"But travel to England and you have no idea where you are,"
The constant absorption of other cultures can be a strength and has been throughout "English" and "British" history.
It can also be a slavish relativism which dilutes character and culture leaving an uncomfortable melange of "multi culturalism". PC garbage. as ever, from chattering classes.
Complain about this postI think it was Gladstone who was said to have been 'the friend of every country but his own' [he had accepted the adverse finding of an international arbitration body], and ever since the late eighteenth century it has been a standard right-wing complaint against the left that the left is anti-British. So in this rather odd attempt to define'British values' there has to be a fomrula which includes both Colonel Blimp and (e.g.) William Hazlitt - and it won't do to say that they tolerate each other - they loathe each other.
Complain about this postaccording to the polls britishness is dying out.
Complain about this postDavid Cole wrote"You English can keep your Britishness if you wish but leave us out of it".
The English once waved the union flag and shouted England. There was nothing to stop Scotland waving the union flag and shouting Scotland. All too late now though, it is the English who are demanding home rule nowadays, better to put and end to britain than put an end to England.
I would like any statement of Britishness to include an acceptance that people should have the freedom to criticise any aspect of any religion, even if some find those criticisms offensive.
Complain about this postThis has intrusive, nanny-state New Labour written all over it. Unfortunately, it has much more serious undertones of enforced conformity. So, two "red-lines"...
1) I will never sign away my right to criticise those in power;
2) I will never take lessons on values from the government which illegally and destructively invaded Iraq (thankyou, Salma Yaqoob, for raising that on the programme);
...and a question: "As a 55-year-old UK citizen and taxpayer, born here and hardly ever been out the country, what will you do if I refuse to sign...expel me?
If you reply that the provision is not intended to apply to such "secure" UK citizens as myself, you will show your hand--this is about dividing society and excluding those whose face doesn't fit.
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ: this is dangerous rubbish, verging on fascism--not worthy of debate.
Complain about this postSadly, I am not sure we have any common values any more. Many people used to aspire to be middle class and have a strong belief in the family but successive governments both Tory and Labour, aided by a left leaning ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have striven to mock middle class values and destroy the traditional family. Again fair play used to be one of our values but now we have vocal minorities seeking additional rights, and in the view of the silent majority - getting them. We don't even have a real democracy just a greedy political elite who pretend to listen to us every four years but in reality simply take it in turns to dictate to us. The unrestricted imigration in recent years has I believe merely added to the fragmentation. The only common value left is that most want their 'rights' but forget about duties.
Complain about this postI don't know whether this latest government distraction is going to result in anything, but by going around claiming that democracy, respect for the rule of law, tolerance etc are particularly British Values and generally being'holier than thou' is hardly going to endear us to our neighbours! it is also shows a fantastic level of ignorance of Britain's history. Though knowing any history at all has always been a weakpoint for Blair and Brown's New Labour.
I am not even sure that national identity has anything to do with 'values' at all, it is something far more visceral, primitive and at the end of the day 'tribal' ie there's us and there's them. every nation and people of the world feels like that, and going on about values is just a ' New Labour' way of hijacking an issue that they think might win them votes.
Complain about this post"There will always be an England." At least that's what I remember someone said but I forget who and I'm not looking it up becuase it's too unimportant to me to care. I guess that plessed blot of land will always be there but who will live on it? It sometimes seems half of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is in America at any given time, especially now covering the political campaigns, the economy, and if my guess is right, going job and house hunting. In fact from all the accents I hear, it sometimes seems half of England is in America. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's own account has 10% of the indiginous population having emigraged while the remaining Brits woke up surprised one day to find 625,000 Poles living among them, large numbers of assorted other EU citizens, and a large number of Africans, Carribeans, and Asians...many South Asians...lots with ties to Pakistan. For some a generation or more has passed and they are still not assimilated while for many English emigrees, they say they don't even recognize Britain anymore.
Scotland doesn't seem to have any similar identity problems. They know who they are and they say the know they are not tied to the English. In fact many want no further part of England as part of a United Kingdom. Have they overlooked the fact that English taxpayers subsidize them or is their reputation for frugality largely undeserved? Whatever the explanation, they'd do well to think twice before giving it up for a bunch of border guards. Do the Welsh feel the same? I wonder.
A worst case scenario for global warming has it that the gulf stream in the Northern Hemisphere will weaken or even disappear and Northern Europe includiing the British Isles will be burried under a glacial ice sheet. We used to believe that a process like this would take tens of thousands of years but now some scientists say it could happen in as little as ten years. I wonder just how accomodating the rest of the countries in the EU would be to fleeing British emigrees should it come to that. Would they welcome their fellow Europeans with open arms or would all of those platitudes spoken in Brussels prove just so much empty hot air like the rest of what they say?
So what are British values? I'd say self deception, doublethink, duplicity, indecisiveness, lack of social cohesion which taken together adds up to muddleheadedness. For me, observing Britain and Europe is like looking through Alice's looking glass while observing how "they" see America is like getting reports from some astronomer on a far off world peering through a telescope or for those here like a biologist peering through a microscope telling what he thinks he sees. A prismatic view filtered by their own cultural perspective on life to be sure, ironically the inverse of my own.
Complain about this postI know several things that link me to more or less all other Brits. My ancestors overwhelmingly fought against international aggression. Napoleon, the Kaiser and some other guy.
And we're linked because it was on our shift that we trashed the generally honourable reputation of our ancestors, which had been built up over 300 years and 2 Empires.
Complain about this postI used to think there was something that made us uniquely British (yes, Welsh, Scots and English, all of us). It was a kind of tolerance, sense of fairplay, support for the underdog, dislike of prejudice and injustice. We were mocked for queuing politely not fighting like a scrum and thank god for it. But now? I'm just not sure. Years of political correctitude surrounding the treatment of those who chose to move here, the supine efforts of councils and government to accommodate them and their needs, have left a demographic time bomb that will surely destroy everything we hold dear. Our sense of fairplay and tolerance has been abused and taken advantage of at every turn. Just recently my cousin was driving through Luton. She was hit by a car driven by an elderly lady who didn't speak English and complained she didn't understand the give way sign. This was not a tourist but one of the many immigrants living in the town. The police weren't interested. My question is, how is that somebody is allowed to drive without understanding one of our most basic highway signs? The answer - because in modern Britain you are not required to do anything to make you fit in. Come one, come all, bring your prejudices, ignorance, lack of respect for the way we live and nobody will require you to make any effort to belong, fit in or even speak English.
Complain about this post