Blair, Brown and Britishness : the end of an old song ?

Abstract

This article examines the positioning of New Labour, in particular in the discourse of Anthony Blair and Gordon Brown, concerning the break-up of Britishness in the contemporary period. In the introduction it is argued that there has been a conspicuous convergence between Blair and Brown on almost all issues of domestic and foreign policy despite arguments to the contrary used in both of the warring New Labour camps. There is however a significant difference between Blair and Brown on the issue of British identity. Brown has mobilized not only his considerable political experience but also his specialist knowledge as a professional historian in defence of a revamped Britishness, portrayed as the vector of the key values of liberty, tolerance and inclusiveness. This is the mainstay of Brown’s imagined community of “Britain”. This article stresses the hiatus between the facts of British imperial history and these new representations of historical British identity and raises the question of the political effectiveness of Brown’s identitarian campaigning.