Britishness in five little words

I want Comment Central to be at the cutting edge of participatory democracy. That's what the interweb is all about, according to someone in the office who has been on a course.

Following Matthew Parris's column this morning, please join in with the Prime Minister and other TV celebrities in an exciting new consultation launched by Gordon Brown and his friends.

And don't take this lightly. The consultation is the product of almost a decade of intense thought about the contents of a post-Blair agenda.

Help identify a new national motto!

Here's how the winning entry will be chosen:

Insiders said the motto will be chosen by a "citizens' summit" of 1,000 people for it to be "truly representative" of Britishness rather than be imposed by ministers or dreamt up by a team of highly-paid consultants.

Members of the public will be asked to come up with five or six-word slogans, perhaps based around ideas of fair play or national pride.

Sources described the plan as a "once in a lifetime chance" to capture Britishness in a few words.

I've thought of a two word reply. I'm working on the other three or four words.

I look forward to your contributions.

UPDATE: What was America's first national motto?

UPDATE: Top ten Aussie mottos

UPDATE: Vote for your favourite national motto

Comments

[Andy]

How about
"Britishness cannot be captured in..."

[Richard, Wales]

"embracing the tawdry and second-rate"

[Chris C]

Is "E pluribus unum" taken?

What about "Magnus frater spectat te"?

[William]

West Lothian Was My Undoing.

[Mike Giggler]

"Chicken tikka masala, chips and rice"

Right there you have multi-culturalism, the need to enjoy life, the importance of the service economy and a nod to our expanding waist-lines.

[Richard]

"We shall not cease"

[Baskerville]

"Yeah, but no, but, yeah."
"No, please, after you, honestly."
"That's really most awfully kind."
"You're having a laugh, mate."
"Pride comes before a fall."
"God Save Our Gracious Queen."

[Tom]

"We strive for valliant defeat"

[Pete]

"Let's discuss it down the pub."

[PK]

Pride, passion, history, monarchy & exploration

[Tim Brookshaw]

"past my sell by date"

After living in the US for 20 years we went back to the UK the year Blair was elected (personal reasons - not due to Blair). What a mistake - after 6 years we couldn't wait to get out and come back to the USA. Big Brother, Nanny State, sky high taxes, and people's answer to everything from city salaries to the weather was "the government should do something".

OK, so here in the States we have Dubya and not everything is rosey, but the England I knew and grew up in is long gone and I neither like nor belong in what has replaced it.

I wish the UK all the best, but high taxes and high government spending don't create wealth or improve living standards.

[Philip Wright]

Perhaps we should all adopt the Broon's motto - "I know that I am right"!

[Joe K]

A few too many words, but "Kept in the dark & fed on $#1t"?

Or, if you want Latin,

"Ex scolae, morionis"

[Douglas Ellison]

Oggy Oggy Oggy: Oi Oi

[Derek Storey]

Christianity, cricket, warm beer, rejection of state controls, English language

[Rick]

Your nation, ruined by Labour

[Matthew Bailey]

"We apologise for the inconvenience"

[Ian]

Our glass is half empty.

[Archimedes]

Either

'We're British - we don't do mottos'

or

'My word is [still*]my bond'

*except for Labour Party manifestos

[Lilly]

"National mottos are for wimps".

Probably sounds better in Latin.

[Mohammed]

"Football is coming home..."

[Chris Gillibrand]

Now New Labour with its idea that the past counted for nothing is now history, how about.

Ave Britannia! Vivat, Crescat, Floreat!

Hail Great Britain, live, develop and flower.

It has the advantage that those of the left can take it in one sense and those on the right in a slightly different one. A bit like liberty, fraternity and equality of the French revolution. The fact that I render it in Latin first gives a clue from which side of the political spectrum that I am approaching the problem.

[Home Rule for England]

England must leave the Union.

[david lovibond]

Britain and none other, always

[ibbo]

Britain is dead long live England!

[Brian Clacey]

Mind your own bloody business!

[Charles]

"Surrender? Not bloody likely!" - a sergeant, Gandamak 1842

[aDM]

"Tim Brookshaw was here"

"Keep Tim Brookshaw types out of UK"

"Ex Home of Meldrews, hurrah!"

"Britain is better without Tim"

[Simon]

"Britain; Live wrong and prosper!"

[Simon Lewis]

Some chicken. Some neck!
Keep a stiff upper lip. (Anyone got the Latin for this one?)
Wallowing in a post-colonial miasma.
This is not my England.
Full service will soon resume.

[nozza]

britain will always be england.

The other countries are always neglected when England has smething to celebrate. They then want us Scots to celebrate with them. Aye right

[rm]

It's all in the letter 'i':

Illusive, intellectual, inventive, ignominious, indomitable and isolated. Oh sorry, that was Britain only seventy years ago.

How about:

Ingratiating, ignorant, irrelevant, insipid and immigrated, ill-governed and maybe: irrecoverable.

Brown: immature, inflexible, impish, illogical, illiberal and this last one, from the thesaurus: incongruous. A fantastic word which actually is a complete definition of Brown:

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/incongruous

Adjective overload!

[Guessedworker]

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK

[Emma]

How about: Enigmatic, Erudite, Elusive, Eccentric, Elucidatory.
:)

[Bill Turner]

"Well we screwed this up"

[Jim]

"THIS was their finest hour!"

[John Bard]

I agree with Tim Brookshaw.
Having lived in the USA for a couple of years, I think that despite the many, many problems (and George Bush) that exist in America, it is still a far more pleasant place to live than the over-run, chaotic slum that Britain has become. And as for ADM who slagged off Tim's comments - when you're up to your neck in shit you really shouldn't criticise people with a better perspective than yours.

As for the motto - and trying to be positive - how about...
"Great Britain - Past, Present and Future!"

[Gadgie]

britain is expensive for England

[jay]

No balls,nerve or glory.

[Eileen]

Great people, Great country, Great Britain.

[mark day]

Fat,Rude,Arrogant,Racist,Sefish

[Maggie Millington]

Land & sea
we'll stay free !!

OR

Freedom for all !

[Linda]

Big Brother Is Watching You.....

[Garry Young]

Anti-English state ruling England as a colony.

[David Hoare]

Hey! We made this Game!

[Geoff Miller]

Decent, inventive, civilised native British

[Norman]

Arrogant, ignorant, greedy, selfish and dull.

PS - and I'm British

[brian]

Democracry for all, except England.

[Laurence Eyton]

My country, right or wrong!

[mark joint]

sorry, is this the queue?

[TxB]

"Liberty and justice for all."

oh, wait...already taken.

[Rob]

I respect who you are

[rob]

Oggie,oggie,oi,oi,oi!

[Sarah Phillips]

"Every man has two countries..."

Thomas Jefferson: (cont, "...his own and France."

[Jonathan Selby]

Growth through commerce, cohesion through humour

[Michael James]

simply

"England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland"

[KH, USA]

How about "At least we're not American".

[Freddie]

Drinking continues till morale improves

[Jake]

Land of yobs and morons

[Martyn Webber]

"Did you spill my pint?"

[steve]

no country mine, no more.

[Andy]

Yer've got to larf, aintcha?

[Edward]

How about a famous phrases whose initials are F.U.B.A.R.?

[Dominic Brennan]

"the plucky country"
or
England OK,BTC (bugger the celts)

[Jim MacDonald]

Britain no longer exists.

[Roberto Marchi]

Insula, in solis, isolated, island, iceland.

[Andy]

Hanging on in quiet desperation

[Cyril Berkeley]

I know my rights

[M. G. Stevenson]

High taxes,big spending, nanny state, and the concept of 'we must look to the government to do something' have held sway in the U. S. long before Mr. Bush as Meessrs. Brookshaw and Cade (?) suggest. I think it began with FDR.

[Neil]

We didnt win. Never mind.

[Erik Kowal]

"The land of Orwell welcomes you."

"We're just closing. Come back tomorrow."

"We live here so you don't have to."

" 'Ere mate, can you spare a quid?"

"Where gracious living comes to die."

"We love not having constitutional rights. Shouldn't you?"

"Après Blair arrive Scrooge."

"Buy one, get one free! -- Yep, just BOGOF."

"Your humility does us proud."

"It's more than my job's worth."

"Britain: Where being cheap still costs dear."

"Let Britain, like Lazarus, rise again! -- Without all the unseemly poverty, obviously."

[Brendan from Melbourne]

"Did you spill my pint?"

[John Lynn]

Americans who missed the boat

[Gareth]

English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish.

[Paul]

Health and safety, political correctness

[Luke Slayton]

"Taxation without Representation is Tyranny"

[David Cunard]

"In America We Trust"

[ColinB]

Is it because it's unoriginal that no one's yet suggested:
"Nemo me impune lacessit"
which loosely translates as:
"None provokes me unpunished"
but which most Brits articulate as:

"Sorry, that was my fault!"

[Peteran]

"Awfully sorry but I'm British."

[Mad_Tony]

Government thinks it knows best

[D paterson]

United we fall ,Divided we stand!

[Patrick]

How about -"we dont want to be british - love The Scots"

[Peter]

Britisness cannot be summarised.
There you go - that's in four!
Folk have written entire books on the subject and still failed to capture what Britishness is. What would work for the English would probably not do so for the Welsh or Scottish - and why should it.
Why should we waste time trying to copy the concept of the Gettysburg address. That was a speech for a new nation, not for one as established as ours.
Most of us know what it is to British, or Scottish, English,Welsh or Irish more importantly. However, we have been encouraged to feel somewhat ashamed of who and what we are, and indeed what has shaped us, by a do-good, liberal minority who can only view history through contemporary lenses. Now we are afraid to state what it is to be us for fear of offending minority interests.

[Richard Marriott]

Britishness - created by heroes, destroyed by Labour!

[Simon James]

Wet and Windy.

[Drew Murray]

It can ONLY be:
God Save Our Gracious Queen!

[Andy Bowles]

It's only four words, but how about "I hate the French"?

[Andy C]

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

[James]

What it means to change...

[Tom Freeman]

"Promoting ahistorical unity myths since 1066."

[laurence]

"impossible to not be cynical"

[Ros]

The world's dustbin & EU funder

[NPC]

"Please turn off the lights"

[John Marshall]

Britain is great without a motto.

I may have the spelling wrong, but...

"illegitimi non carborundum"

or

"Corruptio optimi pessima"

or

"O tempora, O mores!"

with thanks to /www.latinsayings.info

Maybe even:

"Ours is yours, please take"

[James]

Afraid we already have one.

'Dieu et mon droit'

Case closed.

[Mikey]

'Tolerant, Decent, Xenophobic'

[Alex S]

How about:

"Bear and bulldogs called nelson"

It collaborates our love for alcohol, pets and national historical pride, whilst appealing to the pop culture of the day...evryone has a little bobble head dog on their monitor.

[Chris Bowman]

Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland.

Kind of sums Britain up :-)

[R]

Born here, but not British!