After 77 Brits Are Rediscovering Britishness - Road to the Middle Class

IN THE AFTERMATH of 7/7, the Brits are pondering what it means to be British. Even the Labour government, which has done as much as anyone to erase the concept of Britishness, is joining in, writes Charles Moore. But just what is Britishness or “British values?” How about this:

Take sport. Isn’t it rather interesting and important that most of the greatest sports in the world - soccer, rugby, golf, cricket, tennis, racing - began, or first took organised shape, in this country?

It worked out that way because the British invented the games and the rules in their own clubs—free from the government. Then there is the joint-stock company.

Oxford and Cambridge, the ancient universities in Scotland. Take Scouts and Guides, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, mutual societies, charities, private clubs, trade unions, and residents’ associations. Take the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, the Royal Society, the Royal Academy, the National Trust, the Hospice Movement, Battersea Dogs’ Home and - for all I know - the Royal and Ancient Order of Buffaloes. There is almost no end to the list of British institutions, some of them so successful that they have gone global.

You’ll note that most of these institutions were developed by individuals, or groups of individuals working in a spirit of adventure and voluntary cooperation with each other.

Even the word “`Britain’ is essentially a political word, originally revived more than 300 years ago to bind up a populated, multi-cultural space” that was busy uniting itself into a single United Kingdom. Britannia, a figure last used in the Roman Empire was dragged into service as a symbol of the new nation. But recently “Gordon Brown announced that he was removing Britannia from the back of the 50p piece and holding a competition for a design to `reflect Britain today.’”

The left has thought for over a century that the nation state was obsolete and needed to be retired as soon as possible. The question is, with what are they going to replace the loyalty that people have willingly given to the nation state and the sense of belonging that they have obtained from it?

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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