What is Britishness?
For Conservatives, Britishness has the delicacy of a Fabergé egg or, better, a Wedgwood figurine. It’s an infinitely precious thing, of which they are the only reliable custodians. They polish it, place it behind glass, check it daily for violations. As a party, they’ve lived off their unique stewardship of this display-piece for many decades: the party of crown, constitution, nation and Union Jack, ranged against the party of the people, the international and the Red Flag. Though this always was a false antithesis, these are recognisable party silhouettes. From Attlee to Thatcher, that was how things were seen to be. But the obvious cliché contained a latent paradox, which has burst unanswerably to the surface in the time of William Hague. On the one hand, he says, the British are uniquely strong, their history especially to be admired, their political system a wonder of the world, their national character proof against the alien hordes. On the other hand, apparently, their national i
