[Stoat]

Also:

Britishness day' plans scrapped The Sun News

 

PM ... plan scrapped

 

 

'Britishness day' plans scrapped

 

 

By STAFF REPORTER

Published: Today

 

 

GORDON Brown has scrapped plans for a 'national day' to encourage 'Britishness'.

The Government has performed the astonishing U-turn despite the PM first hailing the idea as Chancellor in 2006 – just months after the 7/7 bombings.

The PM has now been slammed for allowing his 'Britishness agenda to sink without a trace'.

The patriotic celebration similar to America’s July 4 or Bastille Day in France was set to encourage the celebration of Britishness to bring the nation 'together'.

And it was one of the key recommendations of a citizenship review Mr Brown commissioned from former attorney general Lord Goldsmith when he became Prime Minister last year.

 

Allegiance

 

But Constitution Minister Michael Wills told MPs it was now off the cards.

“A number of Lord Goldsmith’s recommendations merit further consideration across Government and will be taken into account in discussion and debate on policy development in these areas.

“However, there are no plans to introduce a national day at the present time,” he said in reply to a written question from Tory MP Andrew Rosindell.

Shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert blasted the PM slamming: “First a national motto, then an oath of allegiance, now a patriotic day - one token initiative after another in Gordon Brown’s Britishness agenda has sunk without trace.

“Labour still hasn’t worked out that British identity is bound up in our institutions, culture and history. It can’t be re-manufactured by their spin doctors.”

Mr Wills, who worked on the original proposals, said at the time of Mr Brown’s 2006 speech that he wanted there to be a day to “focus on the things that bring us together... whatever our backgrounds”.

 

Liam Byrne, the then immigration minister who switched to the Cabinet Office in this month’s reshuffle, proposed in June that the bank holiday weekend at the end of August should become the Great British Weekend for people to celebrate what they loved most about the country.

That would have meant workers would not get the benefit of an additional public holiday, as proposed by Lord Goldsmith’s report.

And it immediately sparked objections from Scotland where the summer Bank Holiday is at the beginning of the month.

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The Canadian Press U.K. drops plans for a 'Britain Day' holiday to promote social cohesion

(edit)

Britain Day had been a favourite theme for Brown, who first raised the idea in 2006 when he was the country's Treasury chief.

Brown complained that Britain lacked a day celebrating "who we are and what we stand for," and pointed to the spirit-building Fourth of July holiday in the United States, and Bastille Day in France.

Unlike the United States and many European countries, the United Kingdom has no official national day, although the countries that make up Britain do - Wales marks St. David's Day on March 1, England St. George's Day on April 23, and Scotland St. Andrew's Day on Nov. 30.

But these are not widely celebrated, and none is a mandatory public holiday.

Brown's left-of-centre Labour party has traditionally shied away from displays of flag-waving patriotism.

(edit)

 

British unity also has been assailed by increasing cultural assertiveness in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have gained devolved political power over the last decade. Sports fans, too, usually cheer English, Scottish or Welsh - rather than British - national teams. The Olympics is one of the few international competitions in which Britain fields a united team.

(edit)

The main opposition Conservatives, long considered the party of heritage and tradition, rejected the ideas.

"Labour still hasn't worked out that British identity is bound up in our institutions, culture and history," said Conservative justice spokesman Nick Herbert. "It can't be remanufactured by their spin doctors."

(edit)

[Stoat]

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

They’ll all be on board for “Honor Killing Day”, tho......

[weegee]

“He conducted a personal crusade for a holiday to mark the country’s traditions and gave it extra impetus once he became Prime Minister. But critics argued public displays of nationalism were the very opposite of what it meant to be British and the plan was dogged by ridicule.A written answer to MPs slipped out by the Government last week revealed it has shelved the idea.”

Do they call them FLIP FLOPs in the UK?

[weegee]

But critics argued public displays of nationalism were the very opposite of what it meant to be British

Wrong. What ever happened to the proud statement that "the sun never sets on the British Empire"?

[Paine in the Neck]

How soon before dislay of the Union Jack is considered provocatively racist? Even at gov’t buildings?

[AZ .44 MAG]

Alas, poor England.

From greatness to groveling in six easy decades.

[Constitution Day]

"What! What!"

[Vanders9]

“Labour still hasn’t worked out that British identity is bound up in our institutions, culture and history.

“It can’t be re-manufactured by their spin doctors.”

Darn straight! Culture is something generated by people, not governments.