Cultivating British identity

(I seem to take 2 months to actually blog about stories I save for blogging, so you'll have to excuse my lack of timeliness.)

In recent months, both Gordon Brown and David Cameron have called for the British state to take greater interest in cultivating British identity, with particular focus on the "United" bit of the "United Kingdom." Brown's take is more compelling, not least because Cameron's use of the United States as a model is rather blunted by his ignorance about what actually resonates with Americans (hint: Americans have neither emotional attachment nor reverence to Mt. Rushmore). But both Brown and Cameron believe that the
government can take positive steps towards increasing a sense of British unity: making British history a central part of the national curriculum, highlighting nationwide holidays like Remembrance Day, and ensuring that immigrants learn English.

These are just the sort of things that the government can do to increase national identity, but I'm skeptical that they would actually work. Identity is complex and multi-faceted, and it strikes me as naive to think that simply injecting more British history into the schools, flying the Union Jack more frequently, and encouraging the use of English will magically make everyone feel more British (to be fair, Cameron points to English as a means of facilitating communication and cooperation between previously disconnected communities within the UK). Too much of life takes place outside of the purview of the state for it to be as easy as that. Family life, television, and local community all have as strong an impact on the development of identity as what is taught in school.

I'll leave it to others (for now) to debate the desirability of a stronger British identity. But it won't be as easy to create as Brown and Cameron seem to think.