British national identity

The Union Jack, in addition to being the flag of the United Kingdom, also serves as one of the most potent symbols of Britishness.[1]

British national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity, as embodied in the shared and characteristic culture, languages and traditions,[2] of the British people.[3][4] It comprises the claimed qualities that bind and distinguish the British people and form the basis of their unity and identity,[5] and the expressions of British culture—such as habits, behaviours, or symbols—that have a common, familiar or iconic quality readily identifiable with the United Kingdom. Dialogue about the legitimacy and authenticity of Britishness is intrinsically tied with power relations and politics;[6] in terms of nationhood and belonging, expressing or recognising one's Britishness provokes a range of responses and attitudes, such as advocacy, indifference, or rejection.[6]

Although the term 'Britishness' "[sprang] into political and academic prominence" only in the late 20th century,[7] its origins lie with the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. It was used with reference to Britons collectively as early as 1682,[4] and the historian Linda Colley asserts that it was after the Acts of Union 1707 that the ethnic groups of Great Britain began to assume a "layered" identity—to think of themselves as simultaneously British but also Scottish, English, and/or Welsh.[8] In this formative period, Britishness was "closely bound up with Protestantism".[9] The Oxford English Dictionary Online dates the first known use of the term Britishness to refer to the state of being British to a June 1857 issue of Putnam's Monthly Magazine.[4]

Since the late 20th century, the exploration and proliferation of Britishness became directly associated with a desire to define, sustain or restore a homogeneous British identity or allegiance to Britain, prompting debate. For instance, the Life in the United Kingdom test—reported as a test of one's Britishness—has been described as controversial.[10] The UK Independence Party have asserted that Britishness is tied with inclusive civic nationalism,[11][12] whereas the Commission for Racial Equality reported that Scots, Welsh, Irish and ethnic minorities may feel quite divorced from Britishness because of ethnic English dominance; Gwynfor Evans, a Welsh nationalist politician, said that "Britishness is a political synonym for Englishness which extends English culture over the Scots, Welsh, and the Irish."[13] Historians Graham Macphee and Prem Poddar state that Britishness and Englishness are invariably conflated as they are both tied to the identity of the British Empire and UK; slippage between the two words is common.[14] With regards to a proposed oath of allegiance for school leavers, historian David Starkey argued that it is impossible to teach Britishness because "a British nation doesn't exist".[15]

  1. ^ Commission for Racial Equality 2005, p. 21.
  2. ^ "National identity | Definition of national identity in US English by Oxford Dictionaries". Archived from the original on 5 August 2017.
  3. ^ "British – Britishness". Brewer's Britain and Ireland. credoreference.com. 2005. Retrieved 11 April 2010.(subscription required)
  4. ^ a b c "Britishness". Oxford English Dictionary Online. September 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  5. ^ Wright & Gamble 2009, p. 32.
  6. ^ a b Commission for Racial Equality 2005, pp. 11–12.
  7. ^ Wright & Gamble 2009, p. 149.
  8. ^ Colley 1992, pp. 12–13.
  9. ^ Colley 1992, pp. 8.
  10. ^ What is Britishness anyway? BBC News, 10 September 2002
  11. ^ Mycock, Andrew; Hayton, Richard (2014). "The Party Politics of Englishness". The British Journal of Politics and International Relations. 16 (2): 264–5. doi:10.1111/j.1467-856X.2012.00543.x. ISSN 1369-1481.
  12. ^ "Restoring Britishness: A cultural policy for an independent Britain" (PDF). www.ukip.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 April 2010.
  13. ^ "South East Wales Public Life – Dr Gwynfor Evans". BBC. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  14. ^ Macphee & Poddar (2007). Empire and After: Englishness in Postcolonial Perspective. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-84545-320-6.
  15. ^ Can pupils learn 'Britishness'? BBC News, 12 October 2007

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