Modest Values

David Cameron, having no more important divergences with New Labour, is going to attack Gordon Brown over his attitude to Britishness. Patriotism in David Cameron's book is now like neoliberal economics, in that no single party can claim a monopoly upon it, though presumably each party is still permitted to claim that it alone can manage the matter effectively.

In his capacity as vision-thing-in-waiting, the Chancellor recently said that Britain did not have an equivalent of the Fourth of July or Bastille Day. It is possible that Britain's history and traditions might have something to do with this, hence the lack is presumably a perfect example of pristine, unadulterated Britishness; but the Chancellor seems to think otherwise. Cameron does not oppose the idea of a "Britishness day" to "celebrate all that is best about Britain", but he believes that New Labour's approach "focuses on the superficial rather than the values that underpin Britishness."

What values? Well, Britishness "is not about government. It's about Britons". That certainly narrows it down. "So many of Britain's values aren't really for parade", perhaps the ones we share with George W Bush. In any case, this modesty as to British values certainly explains why Cameron is in favour of a day being set aside to celebrate them.

Still, Cameron's speechwriters have prepared a small lapse into near-coherence. He will point to the British reaction over the Asian tsunami and to the "business as usual" slogans which various Britons who were not about government spouted in the wake of the July bombings. "In both cases we got clear glimpses of our national character"; the Asian tsunami went unnoticed by the rest of the world, and of course no one in any non-British city would have the slightest inclination to work for a living if a bomb or two went off. That's probably why Iraq and Afghanistan are in such a mess. Those people are just not British enough to cope with the values which we haven't put on parade.