"British values"

Today I went to A Thing in Darlington. As the Minx doesn't work on Mondays, we were able to travel up together, taking a leisurely route along the A roads and B roads, which was lovely.

Once we'd parked the car, the Minx went to find a coffee shop to do a bit of work and I met up with some other people who were also attending The Thing. The four of us were sat along one side of a table and there were four people, civil servants, sat along the other.

Their job was to interview us to see if we were suitable candidates to be allowed to do something. I was pretty impressed by them, actually; their questions were incisive and they catered well, I thought, for the fact that I suspect we were different from the people whom they would usually assess.

Towards the end, one of the ladies on the other side of the table asked us  whether we could assure them that we would be incorporating "British values". In my memory - but perhaps just my imagination - one of her eyebrows elevated slightly, in the manner of Leonard Nimoy's Mr Spock, almost as if she was challenging us to take exception to the question. The other interviewers were expressionless. I suspect that poker faces were being worn on our side of the table, too, although I am rubbish at that, so I expect that my distaste for the question was evident.

The chap next to me - wiser, more restrained, a better diplomat - smoothly fielded the question, talking persuasively about values without repeating the word British. Everyone seemed happy with - and, maybe, relieved by -  his response.

I carried on quietly fuming, though. I hate the arrogance behind the question, especially coming from my own government. This isn't the bloody 1960s. I can't stand the idea that there might be a set of values that we lay claim to as being inherently British. I sat there thinking of all the ways that the term might be interpreted - that, perhaps, as British people we all automatically had those values - and I couldn't think of one that I didn't find in some way repulsive. 

I'd calmed down by the time we were driving back home but I was still mulling on it. I feel like we've stopped looking forward as a nation: partly our departure from Europe, and also looking at the prospective candidates for our new Prime Minister, all backward looking, all offering a return to an England that saw itself - but never was - better than everyone else. I feel that, as a nation, we're displaying values that I want nothing to do with.


PS Apologies for the quality of the photo: I took it out of the car window as the Minx drove us through a small town on the way home.