5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

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A CHILD WAVES THE UNION JACK AS RUNNERS PASS DURING THE LONDON MARATHON YESTERDAY. PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES.

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UK 14 APRIL 2014

The rise of a quieter British patriotism

A new generation is averse toforms of patriotic

expression which are either too demonstrative
or too angry. Butthere is no shortage of pride in
British identity.

BY SUNDER
KATWALA

ost people take a quiet pride in their British identity,

M
being more likely to say that they are

"somewhat proud" to be British, while the

number of people who say they are "very proud" to be

British has fallen over the last decade, according to

new data from the 2013 British Social Attitudes
survey.

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5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

Eighty two per centof people are at least somewhat

proud to be British, with the number saying they are
"somewhat proud" to be British (47 per cent)
overtaking those who are "very proud" (35 per cent)
over the last decade, signalling an apparent preference

for softer forms of patriotism over noisier versions of

it. As the "very proud" gure has fallen eight points
in a decade, from 43 per cent to 35 per cent, the
"somewhat proud" statistic has risen by a similar
margin, up from 39 per cent a decade ago.

Being "somewhat proud" to be British would feel to

many people to be a rather British way for many

people to express their sense of national pride. Many

people see saluting the ag or pledges of allegiance as

perhaps a little bit American, yet most of us enjoy

putting out the bunting for national celebrations like

the Olympics and the Jubilee. (Even the republican

minority held a dissident street party of their own to

protest it.)

The Sunday Times report revealing the ndings

suggests the survey shows British pride falling to an

"all-time low" for British pride, but the ndings

certainly dont suggest any crisis of pride in British

identity. The ndings do capture several ways in

which national identity is changing in a multinational

United Kingdom, but they show that a healthy degree

of British pride and patriotism remains in place across

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5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

England, Scotland and Wales.Just 10 per cent say they

are not proud to be British, compared to 12 per cent a

decade ago, with 2 per cemt saying they are no proud

at all, and 8 per cent declaring themselves "not very

proud".Young people were particularly likely to prefer

being "somewhat proud" to being "very proud",

suggesting that they are more comfortable with a

quieter form of national pride.

Perhaps it is a generation which could recognise a

warm sense of national pride in Danny Boyles story of

what makes us British but tends to see the ag-

waving as something for high days and holidays. They

may perhaps see being "very proud" as being a little

over the top, and have an aversion to forms of

patriotic expression which are either too

demonstrative such as wrapping yourself in several

ags and a union jack top hat at Last Night of the Proms

or which can be associated with being angry at

change. Their generation which nds little sense in

the claim that Britain has become unrecognisable in

fact, large, robust surveys show our sense of

belonging, both to Britain and to local areashave

increased over the last decadeso it may be that

younger people nd that declaring themselves to be

"somewhat proud" feels more comfortable.

But the BSA gures also show that there is certainly

still quite a lot of pride left. Eighty seven per centare
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proud of Britains history with most (53 per cent)

being very proud. Fifty three per cent are very proud of

the armed forces, with another 30 per cent being

somewhat proud. Eighty six per centare at least

somewhat proud of Britains sporting achievements,

with 35 per cent being very proud of this, and 11 per

cent not very proud or not proud at all (2 per cent).

Sixty seven per centare at least somewhat proud of

Britains "fair and equal treatment of all groups in

society", though the "very proud number" falls to 19

per cent, and 26 per cent are either not very proud (21

per cent) or not proud at all (5 per cent) of

this.Perhaps surprisingly, 69 per cent say they are at

least "somewhat proud" of the way democracy works,

with the 17 per cent who say they are very proud of

this being not much smaller than the 22 per cent who

are not very proud (20 per cent) or not proud at all (2

per cent).

This has been a decade in which Scottish and Welsh

identities have become more prominent, with people

in England responding by being increasingly likely to

see themselves as more English too. Being British is

the shared civic identity of a multi-national state -

and the drop in being very proud re ects that it is

often the secondary identity, rather than the primary

one.However, the scale of pride in British identity

picked up in the BSA survey shows that most people do

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not see their national and British identities as a zero

sum choice.

The BSA found that Scots in 2013 were a little more

likely to say that they were "very proud" to be British

than the English or the Welsh.The proportion in

Scotland saying they are very proud, at 38 per cent,

had not fallen since 2003, and so was no higher in

2013 than the proportion saying this in either England

(35 per cent) or Wales (34 per cent). The sample sizes
are small, so caution is advisable in making much of

narrow di erences in the national scores. What can be

said with con dence is that the proportion saying they

are at least somewhat proud of being British is broadly

similar across the di erent British nations: 76 per cent

in Scotland, 74 per cent in Wales and 73 per cent in

England.

The referendum choice may have led many Scots to

value their British identity strongly, perhaps precisely

because the independence debate feels to them as

though it puts that into a question in a way that isn't
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currently the case in England and Wales. Almost all of

those voting Yes and No on independence this autumn

will have an equally strong sense of Scottish pride,

while British identity is more politically contested.

New Statesman 1913 - 2016 ABOUT US

The BSA ndings again capture the breadth of

engagement with some form of British pride in
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5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

Scotland which is why it certainly makes sense for

Scottish nationalists to talk about their committment

to a "social union" and an independent Scotland

retaining its Britishness, even if this matters least to

the "Scottish not British" core among pro-

independence activists.However, many among the

third of Scots who are "very proud" to be British

would still fear that their Britishness would be

diminished if the nion were to be rejected this autumn.

Sunder Katwala is director of British Future

and former general secretary of the Fabian
Society.

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The government North Yorkshire The internet was

has admitted it has approved supposed to

can curb drugs the UKs rst liberate us - lets

without acking tests in claim our

criminalising ve years. What eedom

users does this mean?

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THE STAGGERS 25 MAY 2016

The government has admitted it can

curb drugs without criminalising users

Under the Psychoactive Substances Act it will

not be a criminal o ence for someone to

possessfor their own consumptionrecreational

drugs too dangerous to be legally sold to the

public.

BY LEO
BARASI

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5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

rom Thursday, it may be illegal for churches to use

F

incense. They should be safe from prosecution

though, because, as the policing minister was

forced to clarify, the mind-altering e ects of holy

smells arent the intended target of the Psychoactive

Substances Act, which comes into force this week.

Incense-wafters arent the only ones wondering

whether they will be criminalised by the Act. Its loose

de nition of psychoactive substances has been

ridiculed for apparently banning, among other things,

owers, perfume and vaping.

Anyone writing about drugs can save time by creating

a shortcut to insert the words the government has

ignored its advisors and this Act was no exception.

The advisory council repeatedly warned the

government that its de nition would both ban things

that it didnt mean to prohibit and could, at the same

time, be unenforcable. You can guess how much

di erence these interventions made.

But, bad though the de nition is not a small

problem when the entire law rests on it the Act is

actually much better than is usually admitted.

Under the law, it will not be a criminal o ence for

someone to possess, for their own consumption,

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/04/rise-quieter-british-patriotism 8/12
5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

recreational drugs that are considered too dangerous

to be legally sold to the public.

That sounds like a mess, and it is. But its a mess that

many reformers have long advocated for other drugs.

Portugal decriminalised drug possession in 2001 while

keeping supply illegal, and its approach is well-

regarded by reformers, including the Liberal

Democrats, who pledged to adopt this model in their

last manifesto.

This fudge is the best option out of what was

politically possible for dealing with what, until this

week, were called legal highs.

Before the Act, high-street shops were free to display

new drugs in their windows. With 335 head shops in

the UK, the drugs were visible in everyday places

giving the impression that they couldnt be that

dangerous. As far as the data can be trusted, its likely

that dozens of people are now dying each year after

taking the drugs.

Since legal highs were being openly sold and people

were thought to be dying from them, it was obvious

that the government would have to act. Until it did,

every death would be blamed on its inaction, even if

the death rate for users of some newly banned drugs

may be lower than it is for those who take part in still-

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/04/rise-quieter-british-patriotism 9/12
5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

legal activities like football. The only question was

what the government would do.

The most exciting option would have been for it to

incentivise manufacturers to come up with mind-

altering drugs that are safe to take. New Zealand is

allowing drug makers to run trials of psychoactive

drugs, which could eventually if proved safe enough

be sold legally. One day, this might change the world

of drug-taking, but this kind of excitement was never

going to appeal to Theresa Mays Home O ce.

What was far more plausible was that the government

would decide to treat new drugs like old ones. Just as

anyone caught with cocaine or ecstasy faces a criminal

record, so users of new drugs could have been hit with

the same. This was how legal highs have been treated

up until now when one was considered serious enough

to require a ban.

But instead, the government has recognised that its

aim getting new drugs out of high-street shop

windows so they dont seem so normal didnt

depend on criminalising users. A similar law in Ireland

achieved precisely this. To its credit, the government

realised it would be disproportionate to make it a

criminal o ence to possess the now-illegal highs.

The reality of the law will look chaotic. Users will still
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/04/rise-quieter-british-patriotism 10/12
5/25/2016 The rise of a quieter British patriotism

be able to buy new drugs online which could open

them to prosecution for import and the law will do

nothing to make drugs any safer. Some users might

now be exposed to dealers who also want to sell them

more dangerous other drugs. There will be few

prosecutions and some head shop owners might try to

pick holes in the law: the government seems to have

recognised that it needed a better de nition to have

any chance of making the law stick.

But, most importantly for those of us who think the

UKs drug laws should be better at reducing the

damage drugs cause, the government, for the rst

time, has decided that a class of recreational drugs are

too dangerous to be sold but that it shouldnt be a

crime to possess them. The pressure on the

government to act on legal highs has been relieved,

without ordinary users being criminalised. For all the

problems with the new law, its a step in the right

direction.

Leo Barasi is a former Head of Communications at the UK

Drug Policy Commission. He writes in a personal capacity

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