Nonsense on stilts?

Debating Britishness in the 21st cen Sara Dybris McQuaid, AU

Gordon Brown 2006

•  'to address almost every one of the major challenges facing our country[…]you must have a clear view of what being British means, what you value about being British and what gives us purpose of nation’

British Britishness

•  Adj. of Great Britain or its people.

•  N. the quality of being British

Cultural products, national character, institutions?

•  The 2nd WW: Keep calm and carry on?

•  Geri Halliwells’s union jack dress?

•  Cups of tea? •  The Countryside •  Sir Walter Scot’s Ivanhoe? •  Crickett? •  Fish and chips? •  Wimbledon? •  Booker Prize? •  The ever evolving

constitution? •  Hybrid identities?

The basics of historical Britishness

Common experiences •  Protestantism •  Warfare •  The first modern

statebuilder •  Imperial power •  The first bourgeois

revolution •  The first industrial

revolution •  The first urbanised society •  Common institutions

Challenges anno 2006

•  Decline of Empire •  Decline of Military Power •  Decline of Industrial Power •  Rise of sub-state Nationalism •  Demise of monarchy •  Demise of the Welfare State •  Demise of the Parliamentary Tradition •  Multiculturalism •  Sleaze and Scandals in public life

Brown’s suggestions for values that can bind the nation

•  Liberty •  Tolerance •  Fairness •  …..and put out more flags!

Accelerated deterioration

•  2007 SNP assumes power in Scotland, PC in Wales •  2008 Financial Crisis •  2009 Expense Scandal •  2010 Phone hacking scandal, ConDem government •  2011 Riots (Broken society) •  2012 Team GB

David Cameron 2012

•  ‘But proud as that past and present are, I am convinced that for both Scotland, and the United Kingdom, our best days lie ahead of us.

•  And that even though it may be a great historical construct, the United Kingdom is actually even more of an inspiring model for the future.’

•  Not just common glories in the past but a will in the present to repeat them in the future.

Top-down meets bottom-up Britishness

Top-down meets bottom-up Britishness

Top-down meets bottom-up Britishness

•  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APRzMnQDO5U

A mongrel nation

•  The case for diversity, tolerance, liberty and fairness restated.

•  Co-mingling of histories and identities

Deal or Ideal? Britishness in history

•  Concept of Britishness developed by a protestant nation to unify islands, promote trade, consolidate monarchy, foster empire, and protect against catholic Europe (?) (Linda Colley 1992).

•  Look at processes of union and incorporation. •  Home rule debates from Ireland in the 1880s to Scotland

in the 21st century •  Can the imperial transculturation be tied better into the

definition of Britishness?

What kind of identity is the British identity? Sociology

•  National identity? •  State identity? •  Primary or secondary identity? •  Civic or ethnic? •  Cultural or political? •  Singular or multiple? (are identities like hats?)

Essential or constructed?

•  Are identities fixed or fluid? •  Are some identities more authentic than others? •  Being versus becoming; •  Roots versus routes. •  Creation versus recycling. •  Pilgrim versus flaneur. •  Top-down versus bottom-up •  The totality of relationships

State of the Union: Break up or make-up? Political Science

•  The role of institutions •  The lack of a written constitution •  The role of political parties •  A bracket in history like the Soviet Union? •  A fifth nation?

The spirit of ’45. Representing Britishness Media and cultural studies

•  http://www.thespiritof45.com/Trailer