Parliamentary Affairs: A Special Edition on Britishness

GORDON BROWN'S tenure as prime minister has shown, among other things, his continued commitment to reviving Britishness as a shared civic identity. Brown's vision has been based on the belief that Britishness can be expressed as values such as fair play, tolerance and liberty and that these values form a ‘Golden Thread’ running through British history. 2 In defining Britishness, Brown has sought to tie it to a post-imperial UK citizenship which seeks to re-envisage boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in response to immigration, terrorism and an increasingly plural British citizenry. As Chris Bryant points out in this issue, Brown has drawn heavily on Linda Colley's celebration of a capacious Britishness in his efforts to shape an inclusive and progressive sense of national identity. 3 Ironically, Brown's model of values and common cultural bonds has been articulated at a time when devolution has provided institutional bases for other party elites to challenge his kind of Britishness.