Britishness: Perspectives on the British Question / Edition 1

by Andrew Gamble, Tony Wright

Overview

Distinguished contributors from a range of disciplines explore the question of Britishness – past, present and future.

• A lively and authoritative discussion of an important, timely and contemporary issue
• Investigates how devolution has brought a new focus on the future of Britain and the nature of Britishness
• Discusses the challenge of a more diverse society, with the search for a basis of social cohesion and solidarity
• Examines Gordon Brown's Britishness project, with its aim of producing a statement of British values

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781405192699
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/26/2009
Series:	Political Quarterly Monograph Series , #1
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.78(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Andrew Gamble is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield. He is joint editor of The Political Quarterly and his books include Between Europe and America: The Future of British Politics (2003) and Politics and Fate (2000).

Tony Wright is MP for Cannock Chase and Chairman of the Public Administration Committee in the House of Commons. He is joint editor of The Political Quarterly and his books include The British Political Process (1999) and Socialisms: Old and New (1996).

Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright have also co-edited The New Social Democracy (1999) and Restating The State? (2004).

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors vii

Introduction: The Britishness Question
Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright 1

‘Bursting with Skeletons’: Britishness after Empire
David Marquand 10

Does Britishness Still Matter in the Twenty-First Century—and How Much and How Well Do the Politicians Care?
Linda Colley 21

Being British
Bhikhu Parekh 32

Britishness: a Role for the State?
Varun Uberoi and Iain Mclean 41

England and Britain, Europe and the Anglosphere
David Willetts 54

What Britishness means to the British
Peter Kellner 62

The BBC and Metabolising Britishness: Critical Patriotism
Jean Seaton 72

Don’t Mess with Missionary Man: Brown, Moral Compasses and the Road to the Britishness
Gerry Hassan 86

Britishness and the Future of the Union
Robert Hazell 101

Devolution, Britishness and the Future of the Union
Charlie Jeffery 112

Englishness in Contemporary British Politics
Richard English, Richard Hayton and Michael Kenny 122

The Wager of Devolution and the Challenge to Britishness
Arthur Aughey 136

Do We Really Need Britannia?
Bernard Crick 149

Churchill’s Dover Speech (1946)
Peter Hennessy 159

Index 167