Cover Story

The Left’s war on Britishness

Anthony Browne

23 July 2005

In their hatred of this country, says Anthony Browne, the terrorists were in one sense very British: self-loathing is the national disease

The historian Simon Schama wrote that ‘to collude in the minimisation of British history on the grounds of its imagined irrelevance to our rebranded national future, or from a suspicion that it does no more than recycle patriotic pieties unsuited to a global marketplace, would be an act of appallingly self-inflicted collective memory loss’. And as the American philosopher George Santayana warned, ‘A country without a memory is a country of madmen.’

Britain is one of the few countries where it is a source of pride to despise your country. We are all repeatedly taught the things to be ashamed of about Britain, but what about the things to be proud of? The truth is that Britain’s self-loathing is as unique as it is unwarranted. Britain really is great. These small rainswept isles off the western end of the vast Eurasian landmass have contributed far more to the well-being of the rest of humanity than any other country, bar none.

Sometimes it takes a foreigner to open your eyes. A Norwegian diplomat told me long ago that he was taught at school, as British kids aren’t, that Britain gave the world industrialisation, democracy and football — its economic system, its political system and its fun. That is just the start of it. It is true Britain gave the world its most popular sport — football — which emerged in the 13th century in the north of England as a holy day game, and was given the modern rules in 1848 by undergraduates at Cambridge University. But Britain has also given the world almost every other internationally played sport. If you can score points by hitting or kicking something, it was almost certainly invented by Britain’s leisured classes, keen on exercise, team spirit and clear rules.