Published Tuesday | March 11, 2008
Mixed Reaction to Idea of British PledgeBy GREGORY KATZ
The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - The idea sounds simple: Build British pride with a new pledge of allegiance, a new national holiday and citizenship ceremonies for children and immigrants.

But the proposal Tuesday from a government panel calling for the introduction of American-style patriotic rituals raises thorny questions in the sometimes fractious United Kingdom.

Are people in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who seek more independence eager to pledge allegiance to a united country? Will republicans who want to end Britain's monarchy offer undying devotion to queen and country?

And does Britain really need to embrace the American way? This is a country where Americans' flag-waving tendencies are usually lightly ridiculed, not emulated.

A government-commissioned committee said an oath of allegiance and citizenship ceremony like those already instituted for new citizens should also be required for young Britons as a way to boost pride in country and mark the transition to adulthood.

Unlike in the U.S., where many children start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance, the British pledge is envisioned as a one-time event.

The report also urged that Britain adopt a national holiday for celebrating the United Kingdom's shared heritage and citizenship, saying it should start in 2012, when London hosts the Olympics.

The initial response to the pledge proposal, part of a report requested by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, suggested a tough road ahead for his campaign to emphasize British pride and British achievement - a constant theme of his first year in office.

"It's another foolish attempt to ape an American practice that is generally mocked," said Paul Flynn, a Labour Party member of Parliament from Wales. "This is part of a fascination with America. But the adoration of the national flag in America strikes us as a bit eccentric and foolish."

He said the proposal will fall flat in Wales and Scotland, where many people want to break free of control by the central government, as well as with those opposed to the monarchy.

"It's a nonstarter," he said.

The prime minister's spokesman, Michael Ellam, was noncommittal about the substance of the 138-page report, "Citizenship: Our Common Bond," which was produced by a committee led by a former attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.

"It seems to have sparked quite a lively debate and no doubt there will be discussion and debate about this, going forward," Ellam said.

But he stressed that Brown believes more must be done to "entrench the notion of Britishness."

Goldsmith's report did not propose specific wording for a pledge of allegiance, and he said it would not have to specifically mention loyalty to the monarch.

Under Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, Wales and Scotland were given unprecedented autonomy in a devolution of powers from the central government to regional parliaments. In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday agreement has brought a coalition government that includes politicians committed to a total separation from the U.K.

These sustained movements away from a centralized United Kingdom will complicate Brown's effort to reinforce a collective sense of British identity, said Anand Menon, director of the European Research Institute at the University of Birmingham.

"One of the problems with Britishness is that it's contested in a way that Americanness isn't," he said. "Given devolution, it's very hard to identify any real sense of Britishness. As people look into this, they may realize there is no such thing. I think this country is very, very fractured."

He said some practices taken for granted in America are difficult to envision in Britain.

"There is a different temperament in America," Menon said. "It's very hard to conceive of a bunch of English teenagers pledging their allegiance. I think it is very hard to suddenly change the way you do things and try to impose a sense of nationhood when we haven't done it beforehand."

The public response to Goldsmith's plan was mixed. Some people questioned in central London welcomed it as a way to show national pride, but others were skeptical.

Carla Jordan, a law student at the University of Exeter, said the plan would help children understand what it means to be British.

"I'm quite for people having a more patriotic outlook on their country," she said. "I think it's a good thing. I don't think a lot of people understand British values or what they stand for and I think if children were taught them it would help."

But sales manager Paul Hughes said a pledge of allegiance would not have an effect on the slow rate of integration by new groups of immigrants, which he considers a problem for Britain.

"People aren't bad because they don't like the queen or pledge allegiance to the queen," he said. "But what they've got to do is work within the confines of English law and support the structure of U.K. law and integrate into society."

Phil Thomas, a systems administrator in London, doubts a pledge of allegiance would have much impact.

"I think people think of themselves as being English or Welsh or Scottish or Irish," he said. "I don't think there's a great national identity."

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Associated Press writer Regan McTarsney contributed to this report.
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