For many years until very recently patriotism was treated by most people who had received a university education as kind of embarrassing enthusiasm indulged in by less educated members of society. It was a kind of base emotion, fit only for the tabloid-reading masses. In the 1940s, George Orwell remarked that Colonel Blimps and highbrow intellectuals both accepted as a law of nature that patriotism and intelligence were incompatible. England was, he thought, the only great country whose intellectuals were ashamed of their own nationality and felt it their 'duty to snigger at every English institution'. Such hostility has found recent support from no less a figure than the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 2005, he apologised at an international conference for the sin of making 'cultural captives' of people subject to missionary work by the Anglican church during the days of Empire.

Nationalism

In the 1970s and 1980s the hard left disliked patriotism because it was a strong sentiment that bolstered support for the established order, which they opposed. But in recent years, the strongest reason for disapproval has been the association of patriotism with nationalism, which in its turn was associated with aggression towards foreigners. The Second World War was said to have been caused by the squabbling of nations. The solution was to replace nations with an international body, the United Nations, based on human rights and committed to settling disputes by negotiation not war. The counter view is that World War Two was not caused by quarrelling nations, but by the aggression of Germany and its totalitarian allies. Liberal-democracy was saved, not by international discussion, but by the free nations fighting and defeating the fascists. Without free nations held together by legitimate national pride, totalitarianism would have been victorious.

Patriotism

However, patriotism as Orwell defined it - 'devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people' - has been rehabilitated. In the week before his enthronement as Archbishop of York in 2005, John Sentamu, urged the English to stop being embarrassed by their own culture. He owed his own success, he said, to Anglican missionaries in Uganda. The English way of life was democratic, based on reason, and allowed 'genuine dissent without resort to violence'. And while in office he intended to remind everyone that English culture was rooted in Christianity.

Prospect magazine has been central to the restoration of the intellectual respectability of national loyalty. Its editor, David Goodhart, has pointed out that the solidarity necessary to preserve the welfare state was being eroded by multiculturalism and Professor Rowthorn of Cambridge University has warned that immigration can weaken the sense of solidarity on which any free people must rely. Oxford University's David Miller has also been quietly restoring respectability to legitimate national pride, not least through his book Nationality.

Britishness

Gordon Brown has been the most prominent political leader to advocate a renewal of patriotism, and has returned to the theme repeatedly. In a debate organised by Prospect magazine in 2005 he went so far as to say:

'I think almost every question that we have to deal with about the future of Britain revolves around what we mean by Britishness, whether it is asylum or immigration, the future of the constitution, our relationship with Europe or terrorism. Who are we, what we stand for, what are we fighting for, is crucial to any nation's future in the modern world. Unless you have a strong sense of who you are, you will not succeed in the global economy and global society. And I believe that we have not been explicit enough about what we mean by Britishness for far too long.'

He listed tolerance and liberty, a sense of civic duty, a sense of fair play, and a sense of being open to the world, as among the central British values he wished to celebrate. He thought a loss of self-confidence had eroded our commitment to these fundamental beliefs:

'I think the reason that this is a difficult discussion is that after the second world war, as we lost the empire, and as our economy went into relative decline, we lost confidence in ourselves, and forgot that the basis of Britain's success was the values that bound us together. I think we have got to rediscover them.'

Gordon Brown would probably have agreed with George Orwell when he said that:

'Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same. It is the bridge between the future and the past.'

In other words, patriotism should be the name for the loyalty we feel for the beliefs and ideals we hold in common, whatever our party affiliation.

Publications:

• Disunited Kingdom: How the Government's Community Cohesion Agenda Undermines British Identity and Nationhood
  - David Conway, 11 May 2009