ON BEING BRITISH

DEFINING VALUES

This article in the weekend New York Times almost made me spill my tea. 

Titled "Britain looks for it's essence, finds punch lines", it's very amusing for anyone with the mildest interest in anything British.  The articles sets the stage as follows:

"It was a lofty idea: formulate a British “statement of values” defining what it means to be British, much the way a document like the Declaration of Independence sets out the ideals that help explain what it means to be American..."
"The proposal, part of a package of British-pride-bolstering measures announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s new government over the summer, raised a host of tricky questions. What does it mean to be British?

How do you express it in a country that believes self-promotion to be embarrassing? And how do you deal with a defining trait of the people you are trying to define: their habit of making fun of worthy government proposals?"

The idea of course took a life of it's own:

"Nor did it help when The Times of London cynically sponsored a British motto-writing contest for its readers.

The readers’ suggestions included “Dipso, Fatso, Bingo, Asbo, Tesco” (Asbo stands for “anti-social behavior order,” a law-enforcement tool, while Tesco is a ubiquitous supermarket chain); “Once Mighty Empire, Slightly Used”; “At Least We’re Not French”; and “We Apologize for the Inconvenience.”

The winner, favored by 20.9 percent of the readers, was “No Motto Please, We’re British.”

My favorite though, was this bit:

"In the House of Lords, there was a surreal debate on the nonmotto, even after Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, an official in the Ministry of Justice, said flatly that there were no plans to have one.

“I do not think I will go down that route,” he said. “But I will say that the motto of Birmingham City Football Club is ‘Keep right on ’til the end of the road.’ ”

Maybe they should settle for "We're British".  Kind of says it all, past, present and future.

Comments

[Hisham Rana]

I did all of my core medical electives in the UK so I've spent a great deal of time over there. I found the article amusing and entertaining especially because it took me quite a while to understand them due to my Californian heritage. Your conclusion is correct: "We're British" says more than enough. haha

[alex tolley]

As a Brit, all I can say is what a misguided idea. Britons tend to know "who we are" and have such a long history that we don't have the need for a national identity.

One observation I have of the US is the strong need to establish genealogical roots. That may be one reason why Americans find a strong need to connect as a culture, it is a symptom of a lack of a common place of history.