British Values in 5 Minutes

This is a talk I gave to a group of pupils from a range of local schools in Eton College's Jafar Hall today together with the Mayor of Slough, a survivor from the Serbian Concentration Camps and a Judge.  The overall project was developed and led by the local charity based in Slough Art Beyond Belief.

The pupils also presented their perspectives which was really impressive  and showed the value of ensuring schools cover this important subject area.  I was really impressed how the public and private schools mixed during the conference.  The calibre and maturity of their discussions as 14 year olds was just incredible and a delight to witness. I think the UK is going to be alright if these pupils represent our future.  Anthony 

The Talk

I grew up in Northern Ireland as a gay english catholic in a republican supporting council estate so I am a bit of an expert in intolerance!  I am now a humanist and and want to talk about British Values for 5 minutes from the perspective of an atheist, my experience of Ulster and as a gay man. 

In Britain We find it hard to talk about things like values - we sort of get a little bit embarrassed because we don't really do ideology

We don't have a written constitution and rely on our common law approach - we’re a habit forming society with each generation adjusting to their new challenges and changing as required…. as circumstances change - its a very pragmatic approach….

When I first heard that Cameron’s Government were working on defining our shared British Values I was to be honest a bit shocked and worried.  

As a Humanist and a secularist I was worried that we might end up with a sort of pseudo written constitution by the backdoor which might entrench the current privileged position of religion even more than it is already!

Well Im glad to say that when the 5 British Values were published I was very pleasantry surprised.

In fact, I’d humbly go as far as to say that I couldn't have written them better myself - if I’d tried - which I didn’t try at all!  

Anyway.  

Why was all this effort put into coming up with the blindingly obvious list of 5 things which we actually take very much for granted and which were labelled our Shared British Values?  

We’ve done okay so far relying on our pragmatic common law approach to everything, so,  why do this and why now?

Well it was recognising the huge ways Britain has changed in the last 20 years - our population has increased by over 7 million people - the scale and speed of which is unprecedented in our history.

And this increase has created a kaleidoscope of communities with an incredible array of different beliefs/religions, cultures and ethnicities.  Slough for example is one of the most diverse communities in the whole of the UK.  

Baroness  Schloss excellent Report on Living with Difference highlighted how we have not been very good at integrating this diversity with many communities existing side by side in the same area but living parallel lives with little interaction.

I grew up in Northern Ireland where the two communities - nationalist and loyalist have lived separate parallel lives for almost a century and when this happens violence is never far away.  

Even now that the so called Troubles are over the two communities are just as divided as they ever were - attending different schools, living in separate areas, playing different sports .. its sad when people have so much in common but prefer to focus on their differences.

I’d hate to see this happen in the UK.

So for me the British Values provide a shared language so that our diverse communities can live together with each other.  They provide a bedrock on which we can build common understanding and provide the ‘glue’ to keep us talking and interacting, and learning from each other.

So what are these wonderful pieces of wisdom we call our values? 

Democracy - which is much more than holding elections, thats the easy bit, the harder bit is the peaceful transfer of power, Churchill concluded that democracy was not perfect but it was the best way we've come up with to chuck one lot out and put another lot in without going to war.

Rule of Law -  constrains our human behaviour and primitive impulses so we can all live our lives  peacefully.  Law also protects all of us from people in charge who get too big for their boots!

Individual Liberty - for me is the most important one, never ever take your existing freedoms for granted, the freedom to think and express and associate, and love, whoever and whenever you want is a magical and special thing.  I’ve lived and worked abroad in countries where there is no liberty and its not a nice experience to watch your every word, and gesture!

Mutual Respect - means listening and hearing different points of view and realising all of us have a right to live our lives our own way but without dictating how others should live their lives - respect has to be 2 way which is why the word mutual is so important here. 

Tolerance -  this one is really under a lot of threat on all sides at present nd perhaps is the hardest one to live by.  Everyone is taking offence about others’ opinions, beliefs and habits that we disagree with driven by social media.  I would go as far as to say someone who is always taking offence at others and howling down those they disagree with using offence and defence as their argument is perhaps someone who is not very tolerant at all.

So thats them - our 5 British Values.  

When we debated them at one of our Windsor Humanist Meetings there was a general feeling that these were so universal we struggled to  see how these were uniquely British!  

Like our sense of humour or our irony….

But I suppose thats the point isn't it - these are a basic set of universal values that we think are acceptable to, and, can be adopted by all our diverse communities living on these British Isles. 

I have yet to find anyone who has any problem with these 5 British Values - they might argue there should be more but personally I like them and I think they will serve us well and are a basic template for living a good life.

So in the end I’m not very embarrassed about our British Values after all. 

In fact they represent an honest and pragmatic approach to the huge changes we are witnessing in the UK and I would dare to suggest that I am actually proud of how we have approached this.

But that wouldn't be very British to be too proud.

So I remain wary, a little cynical but proud all the same.

Thank you.