CentreRight

Yesterday the Sun picked up on David Cameron’s response to Tim’s open letter about patriotism. The Sun ran the story as “Cam blasts PMs ‘Britishness’”which I don’t think accurately portrayed Cameron’s tone. He stressed that the Conservatives were “not going to get into a ‘my flag is bigger than yours’ contest with Gordon Brown”. However, Cameron did say that “we should do more to celebrate our national identity” although how to do so “is up for debate.” ConservativeHome is kick starting this debate by running a series on patriotism over the next seven days.

Without wishing to encourage Cameron to enter into a patriotic contest with Brown, I do think that Cameron should give us the Britishness Day that Brown spoke about but didn’t deliver. Britain is one of the very few countries that doesn’t celebrate a national day (America has Independence Day, France has Bastille Day etc). I think a day to celebrate our shared values and appreciate the country we live in is a good idea. It could also help encourage the type of community spirit that Cameron often speaks about.

I started to think about when a Britishness Day could be. I’ve listed a few of my preferences below. Hopefully they are slightly better than Liam Byrne MP’s dreadful suggestion that Britishness Day should be held on the August Bank holiday, failing to notice that it’s not on the same day in Scotland

Magna Carta Day (15 June)

The most popular choice according to a poll conducted by BBC History Magazine is the day that the Magna Carta was imposed on King John. As it symbolises the principles of liberty, constitutionalism and parliamentarianism. The major downside to this suggestion, however, is that it occurred before the Union.

Yesterday, David Cameron responded to Tim’s open letter calling for patriotism to play a big part in the Conservative manifesto. An aspect of Tim’s suggestions was to improve young peoples’ shockingly poor knowledge of British history because it is difficult to love a country you know nothing about. David Cameron agreed saying that it is “vitally important that we bring back proper teaching of British history in our schools.”

ConHome reader, Dan Beckham, had another great suggestion for tackling this problem. He said that the BBC should make better use of our license fee by producing a series of historical dramas profiling the most important figures in our history. I thought this was a great idea, but began to wonder who the most important figures in our history are. Dan made some suggestions and I add to them below. What do you think? Who shaped the country we know today? Who should every person in the UK know about?

·         Winston Churchill and Lloyd George – great world wartime leaders

·         William the Conqueror, King John, Oliver Cromwell, Elizabeth I, Henry II, Victoria I, Henry VIII, Guy Fawkes and Lord Nelson – Monarchs, leaders and a rebel who played key roles in shaping Britain either territorially, religiously or structurally

·         Adam Smith, Edmund Burke and Margaret Thatcher – architects of modern conservatism

·         Clement Atlee and Aneurin Bevan – architects of the welfare state

·         Ramsay MacDonald -- landmark premiership for the parliamentary labour movement

·         St. Augustine of Canterbury, Florence Nightingale, William Wilberforce, John Wesley, George Cadbury and Joseph Rowntree – great philanthropists

·         Issac Newton, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Tim Berner-Lee – great inventors

·         William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Joseph Mallord William Turner and John Lennon – great artists

·         Robert Peel, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli – great figures of 19th reform era

·         Captain Cook and Sir Walter Raleigh – great explorers.