BRITISHNESS
Below is a copy of a report from the BBC website:
SNP dismisses Brown's flag call
Chancellor Gordon Brown has been accused of "waving the wrong flag at Scotland" after calling for Britain's national identity to be celebrated.
The Fife MP said Labour supporters should "embrace the Union flag" and reclaim it from the far right.
But Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said Britishness "went bust long ago" north of the border.
And he said Labour's opposition to a Scottish holiday on St Andrew's Day was a "fatal weakness" in the argument.
In his speech to the Fabian Society in London, Mr Brown said the modern Labour Party and its supporters should be unashamedly patriotic.
He said this could encompass "progressive" ideas of liberty, fairness and responsibility rather then right-wing beliefs.
"Instead of the BNP using it as a symbol of racial division, the flag should be a symbol of unity and part of a modern expression of patriotism too," said the chancellor.
"All the United Kingdom should honour it, not ignore it. We should assert that the Union flag by definition is a flag for tolerance and inclusion."
Mr Brown said promoting integration had become even more important since the London bombings.
"We have to be clearer now about how diverse cultures which inevitably contain differences can find the essential common purpose also without which no society can flourish," he added.
However, Mr Salmond claimed that the chancellor was motivated by self-interest.
"His repeated attempts to resuscitate British identity are looking increasingly desperate, a necessary move to make himself acceptable as a British prime minister.
"However, you cannot sustain a national identity just because someone wants to be national leader," he said.
"For two generations and more it is Scottish identity which has been on the rise. Bulldog Brown is waving the wrong flag at Scotland."
He said there was also a renewed sense of Englishness rather than Britishness south of the border.
Public holiday
And he added: "To suggest a new British Day while his own Labour colleagues in Scotland oppose the grassroots campaign to celebrate properly St Andrew's Day illustrates the fatal weakness in Brown and Labour's position."
Last year the Scottish Parliament voted against a bill to create a new public holiday, instead supporting a move to examine ways in which 30 November could be celebrated without the loss of a day's work.
Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major agreed with the concept being put forward by Mr Brown.
But he said the government had damaged Britishness by steps such as introducing devolution in Scotland.
Chancellor Gordon Brown
Alex Salmond
SNP leader
SNP dismisses Brown's flag call
Chancellor Gordon Brown has been accused of "waving the wrong flag at Scotland" after calling for Britain's national identity to be celebrated.
The Fife MP said Labour supporters should "embrace the Union flag" and reclaim it from the far right.
But Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said Britishness "went bust long ago" north of the border.
And he said Labour's opposition to a Scottish holiday on St Andrew's Day was a "fatal weakness" in the argument.
In his speech to the Fabian Society in London, Mr Brown said the modern Labour Party and its supporters should be unashamedly patriotic.
He said this could encompass "progressive" ideas of liberty, fairness and responsibility rather then right-wing beliefs.
"Instead of the BNP using it as a symbol of racial division, the flag should be a symbol of unity and part of a modern expression of patriotism too," said the chancellor.
"All the United Kingdom should honour it, not ignore it. We should assert that the Union flag by definition is a flag for tolerance and inclusion."
Mr Brown said promoting integration had become even more important since the London bombings.
"We have to be clearer now about how diverse cultures which inevitably contain differences can find the essential common purpose also without which no society can flourish," he added.
However, Mr Salmond claimed that the chancellor was motivated by self-interest.
"His repeated attempts to resuscitate British identity are looking increasingly desperate, a necessary move to make himself acceptable as a British prime minister.
"However, you cannot sustain a national identity just because someone wants to be national leader," he said.
"For two generations and more it is Scottish identity which has been on the rise. Bulldog Brown is waving the wrong flag at Scotland."
He said there was also a renewed sense of Englishness rather than Britishness south of the border.
Public holiday
And he added: "To suggest a new British Day while his own Labour colleagues in Scotland oppose the grassroots campaign to celebrate properly St Andrew's Day illustrates the fatal weakness in Brown and Labour's position."
Last year the Scottish Parliament voted against a bill to create a new public holiday, instead supporting a move to examine ways in which 30 November could be celebrated without the loss of a day's work.
Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major agreed with the concept being put forward by Mr Brown.
But he said the government had damaged Britishness by steps such as introducing devolution in Scotland.
‘We should assert that the Union flag by definition is a flag for tolerance and inclusion.’
Chancellor Gordon Brown
‘You cannot sustain a national identity just because someone wants to be national leader.’
Alex Salmond
SNP leader
posted by erc @ 5:35 pm
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