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British Day

I congratulate the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) on securing the debate. It was been most interesting, especially for me, as I was an historian in a previous career before being elected to Parliament. The hon. Gentleman identified a number of key points for a national day that resulted from the recommendations of the citizenship review. Indeed, countries like New Zealand, Australia, Canada and a string of others have such a day. At the heart of the discussion that he said was necessary is what it means to be British, and I shall return to that question. Among the things offered by the hon. Gentleman as definitions of Britishness included sport—the Ashes, the Olympics and Wimbledon. However, although the TV schedules would lead us to think so, not everyone is fixated on sport. Remembrance day and the monarchy were other suggestions, and I shall return to those. The hon. Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden), a former colleague on the Select Committee on Education and Skills, was an historian—he had a proper job before becoming a Member of Parliament. He offered a thoughtful and erudite contribution, as I would expect from an historian. In particular, he pointed out that any such event would have to be imposed from the top and not be a divisive but a pluralistic event that recognised the complexities of British society and the various mixtures that make it up. Otherwise, it could be counterproductive and against our intentions. We heard a plea for Scottish independence and the separation of the two nations, although I am not sure what the Welsh or the Scots think about being lumped in like that. We also heard a good exposition of the fallacy that something like the Magna Carta, which came top of the poll, was a defining British event. However, it was nothing to do with Great Britain or the United Kingdom, or any of the other tags or descriptions; it long predated the appearance of such a political unit. We historians could make a long argument about it being an important event, but much of is symbolism. As I used to tell my classes, at the end of every part of Magna Carta—when dealing with the freedom of the individual and saying that the Englishman’s castle was his home—it should have had a few words in parenthesis saying, ““but not if you are poor”” and ““if you are a peasant, this does not apply to you.”” We can analyse these great historical events, and come up with all sorts of interpretations. We also heard an appeal for a great British weekend or something similar to boost tourism, at the same time as developing the idea of Britishness. How do we define Britishness? We heard that the national groups—the English, the Welsh, the Scots, the Irish and the Northern Irish—have distinct approaches and attitudes to sport, as to everything else. However, more recent groups now form part of our society. In Sheffield, where I grew up, and in Derbyshire, where I have lived for 30 years, and also in Lincolnshire, Poles and other eastern Europeans have a strong presence. They first came here at the start of world war two. Indeed, Polish members of the parachute regiment trained at Hardwick hall just outside Chesterfield. They were based in Lincolnshire before flying to participate in battles such as Arnhem. Many of them settled and married locally. After the war, we had an influx of Poles and eastern European refugees fleeing Soviet dictatorship in eastern Europe. Many came to places like Sheffield, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire because they had contacts among those who were in the armed forces during the war. We have other groups. Sheffield and Chesterfield have people from the Caribbean and the Asian subcontinent, formerly parts of the British empire. The recruiting message after the second world war—a junior Minister by the name of Enoch Powell was involved—was that those who had fought for the mother country in the greatest war, the war to end all wars, should now come to work for the mother country. They were invited and encouraged to work in the national health service, British transport, the steel works in Sheffield and other jobs across the board. Those people all form parts of our culture and our Britishness. We cannot divide the nation into English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish. What events or characteristics should we choose for the British day or the British weekend? A number of things have been suggested. We heard that a number of former colonies, including Angola, have a national day. However, those countries are recently independent; they were born and achieved independence on a specific day, and it was often the result of bloody contests and struggles. They have a clear recent event that can be treated as their national day—the start of their nation. For many, the event is within living memory. That is clear cut. We heard of countries that became independent in rather happier circumstances. I think of New Zealand, Canada and Australia. Those countries have a clear-cut event, but do we have a similar event to lock on to for Britishness? As an historian, I wonder whether we should go back to the first unification of the British tribes, when the Romans conquered the country. Should we go back to the conquest of Romano-Britain by the Anglo-Saxons from Denmark and Germany?