The English Question

Rarely has a government been so keen to promulgate a sense of national identity as that led by Gordon Brown. And rarely has Britishness itself been such a topic of political debate. We are promised a British bill of rights and duties, and before that a statement of British values. Meanwhile Margaret Hodge, the culture minister, in a speech on Britishness, generated a furore for criticising the absence of diversity associated with The Proms