Turns out Gordon Brown's decision to allow the Union Flag to be flown more than 18 days a year was a furphy. There are no restrictions on when the flag can be flown, only that it must be flown on those 18 days at Government Buildings.
Interesting take on the issue. I think that it defuses three of El McGordo's big issues. It draws attention to the essence of Britishness from the perceived threat of the undermining of British values by immigrants and the underlying increasingly not so taboo perceived threat of the islamisation of British society. It also defuses the nationalist issue, promoting the unity of the state. The other issue that it addresses is the identification of the Union Flag with the racist BNP.
One of the people who influenced his thinking said that
factors such as Protestantism, the fear of French power and the prospects afforded by the rising empire forged the new identity. She emphasises that, although Britain was at that time an aristocratic society, this new Britishness had real meaning for most citizens. Even poor people felt that they had "ownership", as the jargon now puts it, of our laws, our dominant religion, our Parliament and our Armed Forces.
She does not argue that this was automatically a good thing - the Britishness she describes was often aggressive, violent, greedy and opportunistic - but, politically, it worked.
This interests Mr Brown because he likes the idea of something that reaches almost everyone. He is not opposed to the forces of globalisation in the modern world, because he sees the opportunities that they bring. But he worries about the void they can leave when they sweep through a society - the alienation, the sense of being lost.
Nor will he want to argue that biffing the French is the answer - although this traditional sport is, in fact, highly relevant in all our dealings with the European Union.
Above all, he believes he cannot invoke the empire. Indeed, he tells me that the main challenge of modern Britishness is to put behind us all that mixture of pride and shame about our imperial past, and change the subject.
What does that leave? The Prime Minister dwells on what, even with his increasingly anglicised vowels, he still calls "vaalues". These include liberty, tolerance and fairness. We need to see these not just as abstract goods, he thinks, but as part of what it is to be citizens of this country. The many races that live in Britain today will not all have Britishness in their blood, but a good government can make sure that it is in their mental DNA. Mr Brown thinks these values could all be written down and enforced in a Bill of Rights.
Values don't hover above the British Isles like this summer's rainclouds. They arise out of the choices made about who runs things and how they are run. You find them in a Church, or an army, or a police force, or a profession, or a legislature, or a school, or a family. In other words, you find them in institutions. And it is free institutions that modern politicians are so bad at understanding.
Living in America and Australia, the flag is flown regularly. Our kids school has a flag pole and the Australian Flag is raised every day. The flag of course incorporates the Union Flag. Hannah's class has that job and she does that regularly with her mates. It is good that people have a positive identification with a national flag and it does not have to have the quasi facist negative connotations with racism that the Union Flag is sometimes identified.
Thanks to Jeremy who advised me that it is the Union Flag and it is only the Union Jack when it is on a ship. I have corrected that. I never knew that. I still think that the Union Jack sounds a bit more jaunty. And thanks Spine for the jaunty Union Flag pants. How many days a year are we allowed to fly those?
