Alas Goldsmith and Jones

Commentators on Lord Goldsmith’s review of citizenship have focused on a specific proposal, that schoolchildren should swear oaths of alliance to the Queen. The oaths, he said, would tackle a “dimunition in national pride” and address the divided nature of Britain. But polls and surveys about national identity suggest nationalism in Britain is not necessarily diminishing, but rather changing and evolving. Take a walk in Cardiff Bay and you will see the Senedd building and the Wales Millennium Centre – two monuments in the Welsh capital to a changing Wales.

Whereas some national groups define themselves on primarily ethnic grounds Wales’ emerging identity is rooted in these new institutions. A Welsh ethnic category does not exist and neither does a British one, except in the minds of a few at the extremes. British identity in more modern times has often been wedded to the British/English/UK state and to the promotion of democracy at home and abroad.

But there are now democratic institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and these have had tangible effects on the nations they represent. Recent coverage of the Welsh Assembly Government’s decision to phase out hospital car park charges show the UK media are slowly beginning to report the differences arising within the UK nations. There have been faults and Freudian slips that reveal a concerning ignorance of UK events. More than one UK broadsheet newspaper has in the past year mistakenly referred to July 1, 2007, as the date of the ‘UK smoking ban’, missing the fact that Wales and Scotland banned smoking in public places earlier.

When George Bush made his 'you're either for us or against us' speech about terrorism, a lot of people decided they were against 'us' not because of the attractiveness of the opposition but the unattractiveness of 'us'. The measures proposed by Lord Goldsmith could well have the similar, unintended effect of alienating anyone who does not wish to swear allegiance to the Queen. What is needed is a better, less polarised debate about what the union is and where it is going.