There is an ongoing debate about what it means to be British. Hand in hand with that is the shifting sand of how we define British values. No one can seem to quite agree on either.
So, the Institute for Public Policy Research came to the rescue this week with a survey. The lefty think tank was not entirely happy with the result. A third thought is that someone must be born British to be British, up from fewer than one in five in 2023.
My wife, Claire, was born on a British army base in Cyprus, her father on one in Singapore. I came into the world on the incontrovertibly British soil that Ealing General Hospital then stood on. Does that make me more British than them?
The same poll showed that 71 per cent of Reform voters reckon British ancestry must be added to the mix to make anyone truly British. One in ten thought being white was important.
The IPPR’s Parth Patel said: “Politicians on the right are trying to change how we think about ourselves and one another.” I think he’s onto something.
While there is much less racism about than there was, it has been replaced by a growing attitude that there are two different types of people living in this country: British people and lesser people.I do not absolve today’s Labour Government from helping to foster this.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants to extend the period foreigners can apply for settled status from five years to as many as 20. The laudable aim is to cut the benefits bill and deter immigration by making migrants wait longer before they can qualify for Universal Credit.
Britishness is built on shifting sands. That's exactly why we must defend it at all costs - Nigel Nelson
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Whether you applaud this or not, it does create a two-tier society – of those who pay their taxes and contribute to Britain and can get something back immediately should they need it.
And a second tier who also pay their taxes and contribute to Britain and get nothing back, possibly for decades, whether they need it or not. That is not a comment on this policy, which has all sorts of complexities to consider, merely an observation about its effect.
Of course, no migrant should come here expecting a free ride on benefits, and visas stamped with no recourse to public funds remind them of that. But even brain surgeons and nuclear physicists can find themselves without work temporarily.
The majority of people still believe that Britishness is about having shared values, which takes us to what British values are. The nearest IPPR came to this was to ask what made a good British citizen?
Obeying the law came top, followed by raising children to be kind and working hard. A migrant may do all those things. The Government definition of British values is respect for democracy, equality under the law, individual liberty and a tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. I don’t like that word ‘tolerance’.
It suggests a grudging acceptance of the weak by the strong. I prefer freedom. So, I’m already at odds with the official line. Which means I probably wouldn’t pass a citizenship test. If I were looking for my own definition of British values, it might include the right to life, liberty, security and a fair trial and the right not to be tortured.
I would add freedom of speech, freedom of worship and the freedom to protest peacefully. Helpfully, these are all enshrined in law in the 1998 Human Rights Act, which is lifted from the European Convention on Human Rights - the same treaty that the Tories and Reform want us to turn our backs on.