A struggle to redefine 'Britishness'

LONDON -- Steven Whitelock, who answers the door to his flat in flimsy shorts and wool socks, considers himself a patriotic Englishman. His apartment, after all, appears to be the only one in row upon row of buildings and houses in the East End section with the Union flag flying outside. He might very well be one of only a handful people who fly a flag in this city of 7 million.

''It's patriotism, that's all," he said about the threadbare banner that hangs above his door. ''I was brought up flying a flag."

Whitelock, 46, who organizes sporting teams for a living, says he occasionally gets funny looks about his show of patriotism. Indeed, love of country is not something that many Britons wear on their sleeve. Many say that part of being from these isles is being reserved -- which means no hurrahing for a flag, unless, of course, there's a soccer match on television.

But as tensions still smolder more than six months after home-grown terrorists struck in London, leaders are trying to rally people around an inclusive definition of ''Britishness."

Recently, Gordon Brown, a Scot who is expected to inherit the leadership of Tony Blair's Labor Party, called for a ''British day" to celebrate the country's ''unique values" and urged Britons to take pride in their flag. And in November, the government instituted an exam for citizenship applicants based on a 146-page ''Life in the UK" booklet that includes information about cockney dialects, pub manners, and the queen.

This is not the first time there has been a discussion about Britishness. In 1997, the media and Blair's government spoke of ''Cool Britannia," which highlighted Britain's role as a worldwide center for cultural trends. Before that, the head of the Conservative Party defined Britishness as playing for the national cricket team even if you were born elsewhere.

Now, the ever-increasing role of the European Union in British politics, and an escalating political contest between Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron, have resurrected the debate. The July attacks on London's transport system have imbued the debate with a more serious dimension.

''The reaffirming of a plural, changing, inclusive British identity, which can be as emotionally appealing as the appeal of jihadi sentiments, is critical to isolating and defeating extremism," said Tariq Modood, a professor at Bristol University.

Leaders are finding it difficult to get people to agree on what this identity means. In January, a conference sponsored by a left- leaning think tank on defining Britishness produced diverse recommendations, including one to write down the country's constitution.

Linda Colley, a British historian who teaches at Princeton University, said the presence of a monarchy makes it more difficult to unite citizens. The national anthem celebrates the queen, and technically, Britons are subjects of the queen rather than fellow citizens. ''British schoolchildren don't have the same citizenship rituals that American schoolchildren have," she said by telephone. ''Some Brits would find it strange or offensive for schoolchildren to sing the national anthem and have the flag in the classroom."

Britons are famously ambivalent about patriotism, according to anthropologist Kate Fox, who wrote a book on English behavior and who says patriotism violates the values of moderation and modesty that are part of being British. ''The English have a horror of earnestness, especially the sort of heart-on-sleeve sentimentality and solemnity indulged in by other nations expressing patriotic pride," she said, citing Americans as an example.

The renewed interest in cohesion is also occurring as parts of Britain are gaining more autonomy, which has allowed Scotland and Wales to establish their own parliaments.

In England, self-definition is now doubly important as other parts of Britain go their own ways. The Ministry of Culture recently introduced an exercise to define ''Englishness" through a project that allows people to nominate and vote on English icons online.

In this campaign, there is evident difficulty in choosing images that represent the past and present. The nominations range from the monarchy to the Curry Mile -- a stretch of restaurants in Birmingham, in northern England, started by immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Iran. Both of these nominations also received vociferous opposition, from English people who detest the monarchy as well as from those who said they don't consider immigration ''English."

St. George -- whose flag, a red cross on a white background, is the flag of England -- was nominated as well, although the saint lived in Turkey and never made it to England. To people such as Whitelock, this makes St. George's flag the perfect symbol of the diversity that has come to symbolize both England and Britain as a whole. He explained this as he pointed to his wall, where a picture of a local soccer team is poised below a red-and-white flag.

''They're immigrants, from Greece and India and everywhere," he said. ''The flag represents all of them."