Brexit and the pandemic are a very unhappy combination and have brought much uncertainty about the future, not just the present.
But there are still huge and positive opportunities, which are in danger of being overlooked.
There is an urgent need for greater unity in our country, and a vision which looks forward to a future we can all aspire to: a vision which shares common goals and celebrates differences.
Now 70, I confess that I have no idea what our national
values are, and those that are promoted tend to hark back to a past which I
recognise, but do not feel is relevant now. Though my personal future is short,
articulating national values which look forward feels exciting and inspiring.
At President Biden’s recent inauguration, Amanda Gorman read
a poem which looked forward to a brighter future that the recent mean-spirited
and self-serving past. And I found myself crying at Stefani Germanotta’s
stunning rendition of the national anthem, in a performance which made clear
reference to the storming of the Capitol two weeks before.
I found myself this week thinking about our national values, and our national anthem, and wondering whether the latter could ever stir or inspire, as perhaps it did when written in long-gone past.
When it was written, it must have strongly reflected our national values. Does it still do that now ?
The pompously turgid tune and lumbering words feel as hideously inappropriate as the statues of racists, and look entirely backwards. I tried to imagine it being sung with passion and a relevance that could move people to tears. Impossible to do, and impossible to imagine more than a tiny section of the populace feeling passionate about it.
Our national anthem, once relevant, is a musical fossil. Both values and anthem are mired in history, and fail to look forward.
Our national values are hazy and difficult to articulate. They are as wispy as our famously unwritten constitution. Conveniently unwritten, the constitution does not actually exist except in the minds of those who benefit from pretending its certainties.
Surely this is the moment to try to renew, unite, and set out a vision of the UK well beyond that of any current bunch of transient politicians. In the past we have been bold in articulating what made us pleased, or even proud, to live here. We need that again. And we have an unmissable opportunity.
One group of workers badly affected by lockdown is musicians. Unable to travel easily of perform, musicians are looking for new ways to promote music. Music can change our mood, inspire, comfort, cheer.
We have brilliant artists in every medium: writers, painters, sculptors, architects, printers.
It might be captivating to have a year-long project to re-boot as a national community. We could engage in an open competition to create a new national anthem which looks to a brighter future for all our citizens. Schools could join in, and could even start now. Politicians would not be the arbiters. Democratic voting could determine the outcome.
This might be an uncomfortable idea for those who venerate tradition. But tradition is always radically new at its birth, and a rebirth is what we need now if we are not to become entrenched in tribal divisions. The national anthem has served us well, but perhaps we could see it as a draft in need of revision.
Similarly, we could look to writers to articulate national values in an accessible way, and to artists to create works to reflect the riches of the nation, our diversity, our shared humanity, the things we stand for.
And finally, we could establish a written constitution for the first time, and one in which the people are involved in determining what should be there.
This project would not end up with a millennium dome and a theme-park transience. It could result in exhibitions and displays, in a celebration of who we are, and who we want to be, as a nation.
A clear statement of national values, a written constitution, and a national anthem relevant to all of us today, and to our grandchildren in the future. All three a stirring and powerful statement of hope and aspiration.
It is hardly subversive. Can we afford not to do it ?
