Identifying the ‘British’

John MacInnes

University of Edinburgh

Univeristat Autònoma de Barcelona

Well now, look, let us try and start with a few figures as far as we know them, and I am the first to admit it is not easy to get clear figures from the Home Office about immigration, but there was a committee which looked at it and said that if we went on as we are then by the end of the century there would be four million people of the new Commonwealth or Pakistan here. Now, that is an awful lot and I think it means that people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture and, you know, the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in.

Margaret Thatcher 1978 Jan 27, Granada TV Interview

Earl (Stanley) Baldwin (1926)

the sight of a plough team coming over the brow of a hill, the sight that has been seen in England since England was a land, and may be seen in England long after the Empire has perished and every works in England has ceased to function, for centuries the one eternal sight of England

…just about every central question about our national future …. can only be fully answered if we are clear about what we value about being British and what gives us a sense of direction as a country. … the core values of Britishness … we do not love our country simply because we occupy a plot of land or hold a UK passport but also because that place is home and because that represent values and qualities – and bonds of sentiment and familiarity –we hold dear. … the UK has always been a country of different nations and thus of plural identities – a Welshman can be Welsh and British just as a Cornishman or woman is Cornish, English and British – and may be Muslim, Pakistani, or Afro-Caribbean, Cornish, English and British…’

Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Speech to British Council, July 2004.

Three types of variable

• Straightforward– Age, sex, birthplace, mother tongue...

• Complex but definable – Occupation, industry, income, class

• Hopeless– Ethnic group, national identity

Nation / Ethnie

• Not capable of definition

• Indefinability is essence of raison d’etre

• Indexical nature of language– Same term means different things– E.g. ‘Are you a doctor’

• Emic categories– Category boundary construction depends on

observer/ social actor

• E.G. Census pre-test on ancestry and culture

Table 1 Percentage reporting British National Identity by ethnic group LFS

N

Pakistani 69.4 447

Bangladeshi 67.0 176

Black Caribbean 66.4 440

Indian 65.0 758

Other Black 61.5 39

White and Asian 56.5 69

Other Mixed 48.9 45

White and Black Caribbean 48.3 89

White and Black African 45.2 31

Chinese 40.9 154

Other Asian 39.7 224

Black African 38.4 359

British 36.9 40396

Other 30.6 333

Other White 10.2 1747

Source: LFS 2000Q1 – 2004Q1. Excl. Northern Ireland. Ns are weighted

Table 2 Percentage reporting British National Identity by birthplace and by ‘colour’ N

‘Whites’ 37.1 40232

Others 38.2 5089

Born in Britain 36.8 40668

Born elsewhere 40.7 4654

Source: LFS 2000Q1 – 2004Q1. Excl. Northern Ireland. Ns are weighted

Table 3 ‘Britishness’: Birthplace by Nationality by National Identity by Ethnicity (000’s)

Birthplace Nationality National Identity Ethnic Group Total

Other British

Elsewhere Other Other 1912 141 2053

British 183 88 271

British Other 363 343 706

British 981 641 1622

Britain Other Other 153 511 664

British 10 106 116

British Other 715 24329 25044

British 770 14072 14842

Total 5087 40231 45318 Source: LFS 2000Q1 – 2004Q1. Excl. Northern Ireland. Ns are weighted

Figure 1 To which of these ethnic groups do you consider you belong [What is your ethnic group. Choose one from section A to E and then tick the appropriate box to indicate your cultural background] A White 42842 92.8 British 41071 89.0 Another white background 1771 B Mixed 238 0.5 White and black Caribbean 91 Whie and black African 31 White and Asian 70 Another mixed background 46 C Asian or Asian British [or Asian Scottish]

1755 3.6

Indian 782 Pakistani 461 Bangladeshi 181 Another Asian background 231 D black or black British [or black Scottish]

870 1.9

Caribbean 455 African 375 Another black background 40 E Chinese 157 0.3 F Other ethnic group 340 0.7 TOTAL 46103 Source: LFS 2000Q1 – 2004Q1. Excl. Northern Ireland. Ns are weighted

‘People have different views about what it takes to be truly British…’ ‘Some say that as well as living in Britain[England], to be truly British [English] you have to be white – rather than Black or Asian’ How much do you agree or disagree with this?’

British English

Agree strongly 4.8 5.5 Agree 9.7 13.2 Neither agree nor disagree 12.4 14.2 Disagree 44.4 40.3 Disagree strongly 26.4 24.6 Can’t choose, DK, NA 2.3 2.3 Total 100.0 100.0

(White) Ethnicity Census 2001

• England / Wales– British– Irish– Any other white

Background

• Scotland– Scottish– Other British– Irish– Any other white

background

• Northern Ireland– White – Chinese– Irish Traveller– Indian– Pakistani– Bangladeshi– Black Caribbean– Black African– Black Other– Any other ethnic group

I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman is so unsure of his Welshness that he needs a tick box to affirm it.Allan Rodgers, (Labour, Rhondda) to Simon Thomas (Plyd Cymru, Ceredigion) (House of Commons Hansard Debates 30 Oct 2000 col. 574.)

Meaning of ‘British’ in LFS questionnaire

• Pertaining to UK state

• Pertaining to mainland British state (excl Ireland)

• Pertaining to territorial area of Britain

• Pertaining to nation inclusive of others

• Pertaining to nation exclusive of others

• White

• Pertaining to ‘cultural’ or other background qualifying group defined by skin colour

Table 4 National Identity by Household location England Wales Scotland ‘Britain’ British 39.1 28.3 23.4 37.2 English 58.9 10.2 3.0 51.5 Scottish 1.4 0.7 78.1 8.2 Welsh 1.0 66.6 .3 4.2 > 0ne identity 7.9 8.4 7.7 7.9 N 39016 2293 4014 45323 Source: LFS 2000Q1 – 2004Q1. Excl. Northern Ireland. Ns are weighted

Table 5 – A comparison of the answer combinations given on the Omnibus Survey and the LFS

Omnibus (Britain last)

LFS

England English only 39 52 British only 26 32

English and British1 23 6 Other combinations 11 9

Don’t Know & Refused - 1

Total 100 100 Base 1504 22189

Scotland Scottish only 56 71

British only 13 17 Scottish and British 24 6 Other combinations 8 6

Don’t Know & Refused - -

Total 100 100 Base 151 15671

Wales Welsh only 50 60 British only 13 20

Welsh and British 19 6 Other combinations 18 14

Don’t Know and Refused - -

Total 100 100 Base 86 38280

Source: Haselden & Jenkins, 1999: table 8.

1 This includes all cases where English and British answers categories were chosen, even if others were also included.

Table 6 BSAS 2003 Household location by National Identity England Wales Scotland ‘Britain’ British 47.9 26.8 14.5 43.5 English 38.7 11.2 1.2 33.5 Scottish 1.4 1.1 79.4 8.7 Welsh 0.7 58.0 .5 4.3 > 0ne identity 47.0 40.6 48.8 46.8 N 3713 276 413 4412 Source: British Social Attitudes Survey 2003.

The ‘British’ in Britain• Gordon Brown 100%

• Brit. Soc. Att. Survey (ethnicity) 90%

• Labour Force Survey (ethnicity) 89%

• Brit. Soc. Att. Survey (any n.i.) 67%

• Brit. Soc. Att. Survey (‘best’ n.i.)43%

• Labour Force Survey (nat. identity) 37%

• Brit. Soc. Att. Survey (Moreno) 10%

The ‘British’ in Scotland

• Gordon Brown 100%• Scot. Soc. Att. Survey (ethnicity) 97% • Labour Force Survey (ethnicity) 94%• Scot. Soc. Att. Survey (any n.i.) 57%• Labour Force Survey (nat. identity) 23%• Scot. Soc. Att. Survey (‘best’ n.i.) 20%• Census of Population (ethnicity) 7%• Scot. Soc. Att. Survey (Moreno) 4%

Some people say the following things are important for being truly British. Others say they are not important. How important do you think each of the following is?

Very Fairly Not very

Not at all

CC/ NA

To be able to speak English 61 26 6 3 5 To have British citizenship 47 36 10 3 5 To respect Britain's political institutions and laws

47 35 9 4 5

To feel British 41 34 13 7 6 To have been born in Britain 44 26 19 8 3 To have lived in Britain for most of one's life 32 37 21 5 4 To have British ancestry 26 20 28 20 5 To be a Christian 15 16 24 39 7 N (weighted) for all = 881.

BSAS 2003

Table 7 Feeling on seeing the ‘Union Jack’ flag by national identity, England (BSAS 2003)

English not

British

English >

British

English =

British

British >

English

British not

English

Total

Very proud 40.9 41.4 34.0 36.4 27.9 36.5 A bit proud 22.1 32.3 24.3 26.4 29.8 26.7 Does not feel much either way

34.4 23.2 40.3 35.7 38.5 34.6

A bit hostile .6 1.0 .3 1.4 2.9 1.0 Very hostile 1.3 .5 1.0 .7

N 154 198 300 140 104 896 Source BSAS 2003.

How proud are you of being British? [Or do you not see yourself as British at all]

Self completion Face to face (number) (total %)

Very proud

Some-what proud

Not very

proud

Not proud at all

I am Not

British

DK/NA

Total

Very proud 283 71 2 1 0 9 366 32.0 8.0 0.2 0.1 0.0 1.0 41.4 Somewhat proud 68 220 30 4 7 9 338 7.7 24.9 3.4 0.5 0.8 1.0 38.3 Not very proud 6 33 35 3 1 3 81 0.7 3.7 4.0 0.3 0.1 0.3 9.2 Not at all proud 4 6 8 4 0 3 25 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.5 0.0 0.3 2.8

Not British 18 15 12 5 12 8 70 2.0 1.7 1.4 0.6 1.4 0.9 7.9 DKNA 0 1 1 0 0 1 3 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 Total 379 346 88 17 20 33 883 42.9 39.2 10.0 1.9 2.3 3.7 100 Source BSAS 2003 Weighted N’s author’s analysis.

Britishness as an emic category• Order of categories

– ONS study

• Presence of ‘tick box’– Wales, Scotland. BSAS v LFS

• Hints about meaning– Does British mean white?– Dual Identities

• Asking twice: Pride• What does Britishness mean• Englishness and Britishness

• ‘The problem starts when one expects to find ‘identity’ within the body or mind of the individual. This is to look in the wrong place for the operation of identity. … To have a national identity is to have a way of talking about nationhood. … only if people believe that they have national identities, will such homelands, and the world of national homelands, be reproduced. … Nor is national identity to be explored by taking a scale from the psychological library of tests and administering it to a suitable populations. … National identities are forms of social life, rather than internal psychological states; as such, they are ideological creations, caught up in the historical processes of nationhood.

Michael Billig Banal Nationalism (1995)

There is only one complete unblushing male in America: a young, married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual Protestant father of college education, fully employed, of good complexion, weight, and height, and recent record in sports.

Erving Goffman, Stigma (1963)

The ‘identity categories’ of successive censuses from the late C19 up to the recent present show an extraordinarily rapid, superficially arbitrary, series of changes, in which categories are continuously agglomerated, disaggregated, recombined, intermixed, and reordered (but the politically powerful identity categories always lead the list). … as the colonial period wore on, the census categories became more visibly and exclusively racial. … [however] the census-makers…[kept] their eyes modestly lowered to their own colonial borders.

B. Anderson Imagined Communities, 1991 164-5)

Conclusions

• Census and surveys do not create racialisation or discrimination

• Censuses and surveys should ask about ethnicity• Censuses and surveys DO ‘crystalise’ categories.• It is disingenuous to present these as ‘owned’ by

minority groups thus defined!• Analysis and presentation of ‘ethnic’ results

should be better monitored

And how closely attached do you feel to Britain as a whole? [How close do you feel to Britain]

Self completion Face to face (number) (total %)

Very close

Fairly close

Not very close

Not at all

close

CC/ NA

Total

Very closely 177 81 9 3 7 277 20.1 9.2 1.0 0.3 0.8 31.4 Fairly closely 86 257 61 9 17 430 9.8 29.2 6.9 1.0 1.9 48.8 Not very closely 13 53 59 14 10 149 1.5 6.0 6.7 1.6 1.1 16.9 Not at all closely 3 7 6 9 0 25 0.3 0.8 0.7 1.0 0.0 2.8 CC/DK/NA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 279 398 135 35 34 881 31.7 45.2 15.3 4.0 3.9 100.0 Source BSAS 2003 Weighted N’s author’s analysis.

‘Some say that as well as living in Britain[England], to be truly British [English] you have to have been born in Britain [England]’ How much do you agree or disagree with this?

British English

Agree strongly 17.0 13.5 Agree 36.0 38.4 Neither agree nor disagree 12.7 11.6 Disagree 26.7 27.1 Disagree strongly 6.0 7.0 Can’t choose, DK, NA 1.7 2.5 Total 100.0 100.0

How proud are you of Britain in each of the following?

Very Some-what

Not very

Not at all

CC/ NA

Britain’s armed forces 49 35 7 3 6 Its history 47 35 10 2 6 Its scientific and technological achievements achievements

26 51 10 3 10

Its achievements in the arts and literature

21 47 14 4 15

Its achievements in sports 16 47 24 6 8 The way democracy works 15 48 24 4 10 Britain’s economic achievements 13 50 24 3 10 Its fair and equal treatment of all groups in society

14 40 27 9 11

Its political influence in the world 9 45 29 8 10 Its social security system 10 37 33 11 9 N (weighted) for all = 881.

Now a few questions about minority groups in Britain.

Agree strongly

Agree NAND Disagree Disagree strongly

CC/ NA

It is impossible for people who do not share Britain’s customs and traditions to become fully British

16 52 17 24 4 3

Ethnic minorities should be given government assistance to preserve their customs and traditions

2 15 27 38 13 4

Scotsman 1979 (1)

Let us take as a premise that it is desirable to sustain the unity of the UK. Indeed, our close and cousinly links with the English, our affection for them and respect for their culture, the degree of domestic, social and economic intercourse between us - these facts make separatism (a pejorative word for independence) unthinkable.

Scotsman (2)

We have no written Constitution. As a nation we may have a temperamental aversion to anything too rigid and restrictive. We also have a distaste for systematic constitutional change, though we are perfectly capable of writing constitutions for other people, sometimes, as in the case of West Germany, with considerable success. …

Scotsman (3)As a nation we have produced a long line of administrators of the highest calibre. We have an experienced Civil Service. We have a legal system rooted in a distinctive tradition. Our Labour movement, so often portrayed as a sinister and threatening monster, is strongly influenced by its Christian traditions. And our religious history, in which presbyterianism imbued almost every area of life, has left us with an ingrained belief in democratic principles.

Which nationality best describes you? [2]

% by column 1974 1979 1992 1997 1999 2000 2001

Scottish 65 56 72 72 77 80 77

British 31 38 25 20 17 13 16