Políticas de identidad y ciudadanía: el discurso de Gordon Brown sobre britanidad

Abstract

Brexit has again highlighted the importance of British identity for the future of the UK. This paper examines former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Britishness discourse, and then goes on to examine the way in which these ideas were implemented in legislation concerning citizenship tests and naturalisation. The paper identifies a number of tensions: between identity and difference, inclusion and exclusion, particularity and universality, and descriptive and normative. From this critical engagement with Brown’s discourse and with the legislation, I develop the idea that, central to Britishness, should be the question «what is Britishness?», and I suggest how this might open up a different way of approaching British identity and the way that is transformed into law.