Belonging Together or Belonging to the Polity? Shared Values, Britishness and Patriotism

Abstract

This chapter continues the examination of the questions of who ‘we’ are and what ‘we’ stand for, which were introduced in the last chapter. However, in this chapter I adopt a rather different approach in that the chapter explores these questions from a theoretical perspective. The theme of this chapter is belonging, with regard to how ‘we’ belong and what ‘we’ belong to. The context for the emergence of debates surrounding questions such as these is usually accredited to the intersecting discourses of shared values, national identities and the extent and variety of ‘multiculturalism’ operational in particular societies. In this chapter my primary focus will not be on ‘multiculturalism’. Rather than focusing exclusively on multiculturalism or the shift from what Giddens describes as naïve to sophisticated multiculturalism (2009: xii),¹ this chapter will primarily focus on those discourses which attempt to tell ‘us’ who ‘we’ are and what ‘we’ stand for, derived from the government and normative political philosophy. I will examine the promotion of overarching, all-encompassing identities (for example, Britishness) and also the promotion of the shared values which are supposed to give expression to and facilitate ‘our’ being together as Britons. Therefore, the chapter will examine particular aspects of the contemporary promotion of Britishness in the context of a discourse of multiple, complex ‘real world’ identities gleaned from recent Prime Minister’s speeches, government reports and government commissioned reports.