Britishness is about is about tolerance not intolerance. It’s about allowing people to have dual identities, for example being Welsh or Muslim and at the same time being British. Such co-existence of communities provides unhindered movement between peoples. This provides our sense of belonging to a time and place through commonly shared values.
People who terrorise us may live in Britain but they are not British simply because they don’t respect, maybe even appreciate our laws, the parliamentary and democratic political structures, traditional values of mutual tolerance, respect for equal rights. Yes some of these structures are inherently flawed and evidently prejudicial, but taking time to challenge these flaws is being British.
Britishness is about assimilation into our established customs, values and beliefs in order to give people a sense of national identity but not at the expense of their own heritage. Our Union flag symbolises the tolerance of difference by recognising our similarities. Maybe it’s time we all sat the Britishness test so we could find out exactly who we are!
