Comments on: “British Values Day”

By: Cathy Hume

Cathy Hume — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:56:06 +0000

In Kate Fox’s Watching the English she comes up with quite a lot of plausible sounding British values, such as ‘not taking things too seriously’ and ‘being self-deprecating’, plus choosing the weather as the predominant form of grooming, phatic conversation and being committed to queuing. This could make for a very quirky National Day where we laughingly went to bus stops, queued up, whined about the rain and agreed that the fact that we had turned up was quite ridiculous. However, any enthusiastic publicity for such a day would be quite at odds with its spirit.

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:27:10 +0000

And thinking of sex with inappropriate people, venereal disease and national institutions, I’ve just heard the commentator on Radio Five Live after England’s 3-0 defeat of Estonia saying that “the fans are giving England the clap.” Please, God, no.

By: National Days « Not Saussure

National Days « Not Saussure — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:09:21 +0000

[...] National Days Filed under: UK — notsaussure @ 7:09 pm Pretty widespread condemnation for the plan by Ruth Kelly and Liam Byrne to celebrate a Britishness Day, ranging from some excellent suggestions at both The Virtual Stoa and Blood and Treasure as to how, perzactly, we might celebrate it (the latter has a most useful link to The London Riot Re-enactment Society) to a really rather good leader in the Telegraph, including the observations Being British means not worrying too much about what it means to be British. [...]

By: harry b

harry b — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:00:40 +0000

Sorrym, I got that wrong, the day he died. That’s a better idea.

By: harry b

harry b — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:59:42 +0000

Why not May 31st, CLR’s birthday (see post below). He embodied the British values worth having — left wing humanism combined with a poetic love of cricket.

By: David

David — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:40:05 +0000

B “VD” - aren’t we back to Chris’ point about having sex with inappropriate people?

By: Marc Mulholland

Marc Mulholland — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:20:56 +0000

‘Empire Day’ was 24 May, so that seems to be the appropriate date.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:00:04 +0000

“forcing a rebranding exercise as ‘BVD’, prompting angry letters in the Telegraph, but failing to halt the slide.”

…whereupon it’s rebranded ‘bvd’ or ‘b:VD’ and given a snazzy new logo. I believe £400,000 is the current going rate.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:06:01 +0000

Shouldn’t British Values Day start off as a well-loved if rather dull public holiday, then after about 60 years suffer a huge slump in its popularity, forcing a rebranding exercise as “BVD”, prompting angry letters in the Telegraph, but failing to halt the slide. A few years later it would be rebranded as “Moresagia”, with a new logo likened to a cartoon character performing a sexual act. Finally, unloved and untaken, it would be bought by “Independence Day”, a popular and successful American holiday, and renamed “British Independence Day”.

By: Ben Saunders

Ben Saunders — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:47:42 +0000

Did she mean just once a year? Why not replacing (say) Tuesday? Then our week would go Sunday, Monday, British Values Day, Wednesday, etc…