Made in Britain

What does Great Britain mean to you? What would you use to symbolise it?

Some ideas:

• British passport (status, belonging, security)
• English language (including accents and dialects, status, identification)
• British National treasures (David Attenborough, Judy Dench)
• The Royal Family (history, culture, role models)
• Cultural hybridisation (blending of cultures)
• Shared traditions and religious identity (group belonging)
• Products (Mini, cabs, Dr Martens, fish'n'chips, Butlins)
• Practises (ice-cream at the beach, even when it's cold)
• Commodification of British culture (souvenirs, reinforcement of identity, economic benefits)
• Values (dominant ideologies)
• High and popular culture (linked to class, exported around the globe)
• Sub-cultures, tribes, gangs (variations on the norm, eccentricity, group belonging, personal identity)
• Authority and power in Britain (whose views matter? Politicians? Royal Family? Celebrities?)
• Ideological state apparatuses (education system, law, media?)
• Agents of socialisation (families in Britain)
• Income, wealth and poverty (within Britain, relative to other nations)
• Looking glass theory - how do we think others see us?

A national identity gives a sense of belonging. It stretches beyond our borders. People pick and mix the elements of the culture they wish to define themselves by. There are some universally agreed notions of the British identity born out of history and reinforcement through the media.