Britishness & All That

I think that Britain is a great idea. It's a lovely place full of sane, liberal people who don't, by-and-large, get too het up about what it means to be British and why foreigners are coming in and spoiling it, and it doesn't really care that much about it's culture.

If I could just qualify that last point, Britain has never self-consciously tried to change it's own culture; we simply evolve in the way that society wants to go. Unlike the social engineers of the Elysees palace who spend 25% of the tax burden on 'culture', we have always believed that people will like what they like and if that's watching sweaty people kicking a bag of air around whilst abusing eachother and the officials, then so be it.

This is why I am rather uncomfortable with the likes of 'British day' or whatever it is that they want to call it. I think one of the greatest symbols of British culture is that we do not have a British day and have never felt the need for one. In the end, we are a diverse bunch of people who will go around doing whatever it is that we like doing and vaguely occupying the same area as eachother. This changes marginally during the world cup and other footballing events, during which everyone gets whipped up into a nationalistic fervour, but at least it is directed at something; our footballing success - or lack of it (blame the philandering Swede ( a phrase that must look strange out of context)).

I think that one of the reasons that we are attractive to skilled migrants is that they need not feel out of place in a country full of patriotic rednecks. We are a very laid-back and accepting culture, and I think that that is how I would rather it stay.

This is my main objection to British day. Rather than celebrating British culture, I think that it would diminish it irrevocably, and that would be an incredibly sad thing.