By Gove, Tristram's got it!

Tristram Hunt:

The latest British Social Attitudes survey had only forty-eight per cent of people living in England saying that ‘British’ was the best or only way of describing their identity. This was down from sixty-three per cent in 1992. It begs the question as to whether the state is trying to shore up for political reasons a declining sense of identity through the classroom. And whether the teaching of English, Welsh and Scottish identity in the devolved components of the UK might be more effective?

Sadly for us English, we don't have our own devolved government, and so will probably find that our young people are indoctrinated by Michael Gove's Britishness propaganda classes. Fortunately Gove has absolutely no say in the national curriculum in Wales or in his native Scotland, so his attempts to bolster Britishness in England will probably only serve to exacerbate the perceived distinctiveness of Scotland and Wales in all three countries that make up Great Britain.

As the British Social Attitudes survey shows, political attempts to portray England as indistinct from Britain, whilst allowing for Scottish and Welsh distinctiveness - and trumpeting that distinctiveness, appear to be floundering on the rocks of public opinion.