Who are you?

National identity is a useful anchor in the sea of cultures that constitutes modern Britain. But defining oneself is not easy, and working out what it means to be British is even harder, as Raúl Peschiera discovers

It's not easy being British. In fact, there are very few people who would even call themselves British—those from England, Wales and Scotland normally align themselves with their home country rather than declare themselves British. In some ways being British takes a conscious effort. Is it an affectation of the psyche adopted by those who feel neither English, Welsh nor Scottish? This may explain why those who are naturalised as British, or feel both at home and alien in the UK, are more likely to call themselves British than those who are born, bred and raised here.

I should know, having always had an iron in the British fire. Being half-English and half-Peruvian, I quietly endured being dragged to and raised in Canada, and the numerous highly inappropriate Paddington Bear comments that followed. So with little terra firma to call my own, and having already lived in Britain for a great deal of time, I consider myself British. Britain is as comfortable as a place can be for cultural chimeras like me. But what do other outsiders think of this concoction of cultural identity?

Born in the US, Cosmo Landesman of the Sunday Times has been in Britain for 40 years and acknowledges that the idea of Britain as a nation or Britishness as an identity is perhaps a little out of date.
"I don't really believe in the idea of Britishness. There is Englishness, Welshness and Scottishness, but 'British' is an artificial construct—I don't know anyone who is British," says Landesman. "For the past two decades, the English have been having a debate about what is Englishness, which I don't think anyone else indulges in. It's no longer a confident and bold nation and, for some time now, politicians have been trying to grapple with this idea of what is Britishness."

The wry and reserved Englishman with a lip as stiff as his white collar is a relic of the past. Landesman gives credit to Margaret Thatcher for introducing Britain to a culture that rewards individual go-getters.
"The idea of the reserved Englishman died in the 1980s, along with those other things that we associate with Englishness, such as self-effacement, when we moved towards a more entrepreneurial economy," says Landesman. "After Thatcher, we incorporated a style of American business culture, that entered British life and which had a profound effect on young England."

Swedish designer Martin Brudnizki agrees. To him, the British are revitalised, having tapped into the same entrepreneurial spirit that flourished 100 years ago.

"The British are incredibly entrepreneurial," says Brudnizki who has redesigned Scott's, London's iconic 150-year-old seafood restaurant, and is now working on another English dining institution, The Ivy. "People take an enormous amount of risk here, compared to the rest of Europe. The difficulty was after the Second World War, when there was an identity crisis. Britain was bankrupt and it took from then until the Thatcher years to revive an entrepreneurial spirit."

Yet for Simon Carter, owner of the British fashion brand of the same name, this effect is starting to wane. Instead of rampant entrepreneurialism taking root in this green and pleasant land, subsequent generations are failing to live up to new Britannia's glories.

"I don't think we are getting more entrepreneurial and it's because a generation of young people have been conditioned, from an early age, to absolutely never take any risk whatsoever," says Carter. "The late-30s entrepreneurs are probably the last batch that really came up in the tail end of Thatcherism, when entrepreneurialism was actively encouraged. There is a kind of self-centred streak of not taking risks this time around. It's not like we're returning to some kind of halcyon days of collective responsibility."

So, the British are changing—and whether it's for the better or for the worse remains to be seen. But with a new generation accustomed to the brash individualism imported from the US, but without the requisite conviction to make something of themselves, the British could be losing some cultural momentum. Carter attributes this lack of inspiration to a quintessentially British attitude to failure. "The British have a bizarre cynicism and scepticism about success," says Carter. "Failure makes us feel better, which is not a particularly attractive quality."

With so many British successes—from world-beating entrepreneurs to the City of London's role as the world's top financial marketplace—it is hard to see how Britain is floundering. From the outside, Britain looks like the land of opportunity and wealth, while within, the British are less sanguine about their nation's status.

Whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, the British have gone through a remarkable transformation. Nearly 20 years after Thatcher took office, the "Cool Britannia" leadership promised a better and brighter Britain under a more with-it management. While the jury is out on Blair's legacy, the past 10 years have changed the way the British are viewed by others and how they view themselves.

Peter Ting, who worked as a design director at Asprey before turning freelance, says that the British have retained the typical traits that those outside associate with them. Their humour, their penchant for eccentric tastes and their knack for sticking to tradition remain strong.

"Britishness is always something that is eclectic and slightly unusual," says Ting.  "It is not in-your-face unusual—it's almost something subversive, like the bright lining of a Paul Smith suit. At the other extreme, there's punk. Yet Vivienne Westwood's clothes, which are quintessentially punk, are traditionally inspired."

But will future Britons maintain this very British taste for tradition? Craig Sams, co-founder and president of Green & Blacks and chairperson of the Soil Association, came to Britain in 1966 to launch the first macrobiotic restaurant. "There was a heritage going back to the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Peckham Project in south London, that showed healthy eating made a difference to ordinary people," says Sams. "The Soil Association was founded in 1946 on the belief that if the soil was healthy it would produce healthy plants and animals, which could provide food for healthy people. The philosophy was in place but it was a bit rarefied. What we did was bring it to the High Street and it was a success because it was a groovy place to go."

This trend for good wholesome food is a marked contrast to the popular image of the "bad food, bad teeth" sort of Brit many outside the UK enjoy to pillory. Sams sees trends such as the growing interest in healthy food as intimately linked to Britain's appreciation of tradition.

"If you have a trend, it may appear novel, but I'm with Marie Antoinette on this: 'There is nothing new under the sun, only the newly undiscovered'," says Sams. "Traditions are similar to trends; they both require a sufficient number of people to agree on them. And both reflect the idea that the British are wedded to tradition."

Carter adds that while tradition is important to the British, it often takes an outsider, such as Sams, to make a success of bringing it to people's attention. In effect, the British are slow to make the most of homegrown traditions—Carter points to Ralph Lauren's success as one example.

"We had it all here and there was nothing stopping anyone from saying that there was a global demand for that absolutely classic English, early 20th century, styled look," says Carter. "Every single Englishman within the fashion business turned up their noses at the idea and it took a pushy American to make it successful. That tells you everything."

Landesman believes that, in many ways, the past 30 years have seen the British emulating American ways of thinking. The brash, self-assertiveness of Americans is seen in Britain more than ever.
"When talk shows like Jerry Springer first happened in this country, people said it would not work because people are too reserved," says Landesman. "And it had a very profound effect on young England. It is a more money-orientated culture, but we also have much more of the values of a meritocracy. British society has loosened up incredibly; it's less rigid and class-based. If you see a man in a bowler hat now, you think he is a weirdo; but when my family first came to this country, that was considered quite normal."

British television is filled with programmes that mark a definite shift in what someone would consider typically British—the Big Brother extroverts, the make-or-break theme of Dragon's Den, the obsession with property and profit, all point to a change in British contemporary culture. But while the crass self-promotion popularised in the US has washed up on these shores, there is still a core Britishness that remains untouched.

"The British are a very quietly proud people," says Ting. "They ooze self-confidence and don't feel that they have to shout about their achievements—but it can be seen as a kind of inverted snobbery."
But will David Niven, once the epitome of Britishness to the world, be eventually replaced by the likes of Jade Goody? Even though class barriers are eroding slowly and Britain is adapting to a more global culture, the definitive British person remains someone who champions individualism by deferring to others. In a world where cold-blooded commercialism runs rampant, it is nice when, once in a while, a stranger holds a door open for you. And that person will usually be a Brit.

What makes the British tick?

Everyone agrees the British are eccentric. Yet this eccentricity is often subtle. Hence the growing trade in strange and unusual cufflinks; ties that give away the personality behind the pinstripe, and socks that bring subversity into a sterile office environment. They all exert individuality without making too much of a fuss. At least that's how the Brits see it. But how does it look from the outside?

The British see themselves as:    
• Rational and fair-minded
• Passionate
• Adaptable and accommodating
• Humorous
• Culturally fragmented
• Polite to a fault
• Ironically amusing
• Understated

Others see the British as:
• Reactionary and slightly bonkers
• Cold and aloof
• Quaint and charming
• Funny
• Civilised and cultured
• Polite to a point of rudeness
• Sarcastic and ridiculing
• Ambiguous