re-inventing the wheel

A national 'Britain Day' could be introduced in a bid to reinforce citizenship and prevent communities becoming more divided, if senior ministers get their way.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly and Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said financial incentives may also be necessary to step up what they call Britain's "citizenship revolution".

In a Fabian Society pamphlet, the pair said it was essential to promote a stronger sense of Britishness and the values that people hold in common.

Suggestions included a new system of "earned citizenship" with a clearer points-based path for newcomers to earn the privileges of settling in Britain.

Ms Kelly and Mr Byrne said there was a "critical risk" that after 40 years of increasing diversity in Britain, communities start looking inward and questioning their identity.

"So instead of emphasising what they have in common with others, they stress the divisions and differences," they said.

"Our task in Britain, in the coming decade, is not to plan a separation.

"Nor can it be about assimilation into a mono-culture. Instead we must develop a meaningful sense of what we all - whatever faith, ethnicity and wherever in Britain we are from - hold in common.

"We need a stronger sense of why we live in a common place and have a shared future.

"Today, more than at any time since the Second World War, we need a more vigorous debate about what it is that holds us together and how we express these links more clearly."

Oh wait we all ready have a 'National Britain Day' it's called St. George's day! 

tags: silly