Britain salutes Gordon Brown's 'paid day off' idea

scotsman: Brown's 'British Day' wins backing

Chancellor Gordon Brown wants to set aside a day for celebrating all things British.

He put forward the concept while addressing the left-of-centre Fabian Society thinktank in London, and called for Labour supporters to "embrace the Union flag".

And his plan has been roundly welcomed by religious as well as tourist and cultural groups.

Mr Brown said Britain did not have the patriotic symbols of the US, such as the Fourth of July, the Declaration of Rights or the Stars and Stripes seen flying in gardens.

But he went on: "Perhaps Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday are the nearest we have come to a British Day - unifying, commemorative, dignified and an expression of British ideas of standing firm for the world in the name of liberty."

Labour's MP for North Swindon, Michael Wills, who advised the Chancellor on Saturday's speech, suggested that the Chancellor would like to see the creation of a Britishness Day along the lines of Independence Day in the US.

"If there is a set day in the calendar where people realise it has got a particular function in asserting our national identity together, collectively, all of us, wherever we come from, whatever our backgrounds, we together celebrate what binds us together, that is important," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"The French have it with Bastille Day. The Americans have it. Most countries have a national day and I think it is probably time that we did too." Read more

db: We are the British. It is our patriotic duty to bomb any country with oil that refuses to submit.