Britishness, nostalgia and national identity: Why a clear-headed view of the past helps to understand who we are

Or is Britishness to do with birthplace, ethnicity and religion - a view espoused to the extreme by rioters this summer, whose actions after the terrible murders in Southport were accelerated by false rumours that the perpetrator was someone with a Muslim name?

In the aftermath of a new survey by the National Centre for Social Research, it’s enlightening that even how this has been reported shows how the different people - and political leanings - see the question.

This survey showed that overall there had been a steep decline in the proportion of people who take pride in the country’s achievements, the survey found. While 86% in 2013 stated that they were proud of Britain’s history, this fell to less than two thirds (64%) 10 years on.

And fewer people than a decade ago believe someone must have been born or have ancestry in the UK to describe themselves as British - so the country overall would seem to be becoming more tolerant and inclusive.

The Daily Telegraph thinks that pride is dwindling as the Second World War generation dies out, as “polling has consistently shown that those who fought in or lived through the war, and their children, are more patriotic than younger generations”.

But the finger is also pointed by one contributor at teaching that starts from “an assumption that the empire was inevitably malign”.

I’d argue that the truth, as ever, is somewhere in the middle. It’s easy - and rather lazy - to equate a small group of statue-topples with a change in attitudes across the country. It’s certainly getting too easy to talk about “this woke madness” - firmly in inverted commas here, as it is a phrase that means nothing - to describe something that you may disagree with.

But I’d rather see a questioning attitude to our country’s history, which is not the same as slating Britishness and all it stands for. I’d like to think most of us accept now that slavery was not a laudable phenomenon. It’s completely correct to explain how that money helped to fuel some of this country’s wealth. It’s the same motivation, a curiosity to understand more about the past, that means we should be interested in the kitchens of stately homes, not just the lavish dining rooms. Like most of the population, my ancestors were far more “downstairs” than “upstairs”. Finding the truth of the past doesn’t always mean losing pride in it.

And here we link to a recent and unpleasant trend on social media. Facebook and Twitter (change its name to something that doesn’t look like a placeholder, Elon, otherwise on publication it looks as if I’ve forgotten to add in the details) are becoming full of nostalgia photos, looking back at how “times used to be” (again, inverted commas doing some very heavy lifting).

Beneath the pictures, the comments make clear who is attracted to the posts - it’s those who like a white version of the country and aren’t keen on a non-white one.  And while celebrating the past most definitely is not a racist view - of course it isn’t - celebrating one aspect of the past while decrying the present as degenerate does have a lot of overlap with far-right views. 

So it was no surprise to see muscular meathead and alleged human trafficker (though underage sex participant denier) Andrew Tate, a favourite of some parts of the right wing, jumping on the bandwagon with his much-mocked Oasis tribute, which somehow made out that there was no crime in the, er, 1990s and that the Oasis reunion frenzy “isn’t just about their music. It’s about the height of Britain. It’s about the nostalgia of remembering how amazing Britain was.” 

He has about a half of a quarter of a point. Reunions - of bands, television shows, whatever - generate warmth because they remind us of our past. And it’s not just our past - it’s often our youth, when we were probably healthier, younger, prettier, thinner, more hirsute, and so on. Nothing wrong in that. 

But, for example, it’s an absolute nonsense to say that nobody was scared of being stabbed in the 90s. I know because unlike Andrew Tate, I was a teenager in London then. Nostalgia by its nature filters out the bad memories and remembers the good. But don’t let those with malign intent co-opt it. And likewise, when we are looking at Britain’s past, look at it as history, not just nostalgia. Use your head, not just your heart.