But there is a problem with Britishness.
"Notions of 'Britishness' are in decline.
Opinion polls show it more associated with ethnic purity than Britishness, an identity more attractive to blacks and Asians.
The trouble is that Britishness is hard to define-especially since devolution has encouraged the Scots, Welsh and even English to prefer their more specific identities-and even harder to inculcate.
Beneath the surface, he saw an angry, lost society in which the centuries-old pillars of Britishness - empire, church, navy, class - were crumbling.