I have to disagree with Andrew Lilico's view that there is no British culture and that there is no such thing as nationalism and self-determination. His piece is a thoughtful contribution to the debate. However his central contention, that Britain is a political and not a cultural phenomenon, ignores the link between political and cultural identities. Does our experience of living in one of the most historically free countries in the world not impact on our culture? The structure and variety of the English language may be the main reason why we have one of the strongest traditions of literature in the world, but has not freedom of expression also played a part? Likewise our political identity, as citizens of one of the earliest democracies in the world has surely contributed to the innate British suspicion of an over-weaning state.
Shared history leads to shared values.
Britain's experience of the standing alone in Europe against Hitler
conditions our view of both war and how to deal with modern-day
tyrants. I remember living in Japan during the first Gulf War and being
astonished at the pacifist anti-war attitude of the vast majority of
the Japanese population. But the Japanese experience of war includes
the only time the atom bomb has ever actually been used - so perhaps it
was hardly surprising. Hardly surprising too that given our
history we are also the most Eurosceptic of EU nations. A belief in
national self-determination - which Andrew derides - is about more than
the political ability of nation to decide its own future. It is about
the fundamental human desire to be in control of one's own destiny. Britain may have started as a political
identity, a political identity that has absorbed not just the four
nations of the UK but also many immigrants who are often incidentally
more passionate about oir history and heritage than we are ourselves.
But that has made Britishness - however difficult to define - a
cultural phenomenon as well. And we need it to be, because as such it
has the power to bind us together as a nation.
