The much picked upon, picked up and dropped Britishness agenda has caused various arguments and diatribes in the past. The basic problem that advocates of Britishness believe exists is the appearance of a growing detachment between British citizens and Britain. This is not to say that British citizens don’t feel at home, want to emigrate or don’t like their country, if anything British people are the complete opposite. But there is certainly an unshakeable feeling that citizens of our countries couldn’t really put their finger on a shared identity or passion other than football and certain clichés: fish & chips; the laws of cricket; beer from a tap; and cynicism. One chap said to me, on his feelings of Britishness: “Better to be safe than sorry.” I didn’t really understand at first, but having mulled it over, I kind of grasped it, although I hope our national identity isn’t an overriding feeling of ‘oh, you shouldn’t do that, something bad might happen’.

The union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is something other nationalities should envy. The richness and range of Britain’s cultural identity is so vast you could become completely lost in it forever. We have more patron saints than most European countries have major airports, and our ‘tribes’ of people all share a common language and community which is unparalleled across the globe. Yet from our first schooling to our national media, it feels as if so much of this is lost and many of us are too shy to display our flag and identity with Britishness with any real relish.

No argument about patriotism or national identity can begin fully until you have the image of a true, patriotic scene in your mind. The one that always comes to me when I consider patriotism and national identity is of Americans in the midst of political protests during the last administration. A common quip on allegations of a lack of national identity is: ‘give us something to be proud of then’. Well, these people despised sections of their government, they walked along the street shouting all kinds at politicians they felt had let them down. But overwhelmingly, they appeared immensely patriotic. Their country was for saving, and they draped the US flag over their shoulders in way that said, I’m proud of my national identity, but mightily bothered by the cartoon running it. I’d struggle to imagine this in Britain, it seems that if some element of British identity is associated with something negative –the far right springs to mind – we’d rather throw the flag and other symbols to one side as if it was forever sullied.

From dark and difficult times in a nation’s past, and we’ve had our fair share, tend to come the true heroes of history. Abraham Lincoln is a hero to millions of people because he ended a dark time in America’s history; so too, should be William Wilberforce, a man who helped end slavery across the whole of the British Empire. However, it is a reflection of our national identity and of what it is to be British when name recognition of Wilberforce falls well below that of many TV soap actors on the streets of Britain.

Obviously you can feel British without feeling any particular attachment to William Wilberforce, and this can be labelled a failure of a curriculum rather than an identity crisis, but it is all part of the same thing. Our identity has moved from being about prestige, power and influence to being more closely linked with consumerism and the fortunes of one or two sports. What is it to be American? Many citizens who have more interest in sports and entertainment would still turn around to you and say it’s about freedom, Lincoln, the pursuit of happiness and living some kind of dream. What is it to be British? The answer should surely be close to the previous, after all, we did much of this hundreds of years before America came into being. Surely it would be preferable for our themes of identity to be less cynical, less self-flagellating and more focused on why British people are held with great esteem in places few of us will ever travel.

I don’t think you can force an identity upon others; it’s not something that can be spun for political gain, but it is something in which our political leaders can set an example. You can be proud to be British in other ways far more preferable than congratulating this year’s FA Cup winners, perhaps by championing British culture and history in every walk of life, from school to parliament, from our TV programmes to flying the flag in village halls throughout the land. For people to begin feeling a truer sense of Britishness, it has to come from small communities everywhere.