Elephants and debates

I missed this debate on Britishness (the perils of having given up reading the Guardian) but Martin Kettle has summed it up nicely.  Sunny Hundal went to the debate and also was invited to one on European identity and values, sponsored by Demos and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and funded by the Ford Foundation (you can almost hear the rustle of tinfoil hats being donned by Europe's Stoppers & fellow travellers when they hear about that one).  The news releases about this from the two organisations show an inadvertent clue to one British value, modesty (sometimes false) - JPR describes Demos as "the UK's most influential thinktank" whereas Demos' version of the press release says "influential UK thinktank".  JPR reports on the debate here. 

As Sunny Hundal says, the elephant in the room is the reason these debates are happening now; because of worries about how to deal with home grown terrorists amongst a minority of young Muslim males.  Which means that, as Martin Kettle points out, other parts of the debate about British identity, such as class, tend to be ignored.

If you're in the mood for more debate on the subject, without the need to be physically present, an e-congress on Negotiating Identities is taking place in ten days, hosted by the Open University.