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Rebranding brand Britain

Crisis-racked economic basket case or the world's

first truly post-modern nation? We examine whatbeing British stands for in 2010.

The last time the UK had a serious try at rebranding was 1997's Cool Britanniaepisode. They were the days when Things Could Only Get Better.

Now, as Brand Britain faces another round of reinvention, the mood is somewhatdifferent: more sombre and altogether less confident.

Times may be tougher, but MT (Management Today) doesn't believe Britain is

irretrievably broken: on the contrary, we still have an awful lot going for us. But ifwe're going to emerge as the leaner, stronger, fitter nation we all hope for, it's timefor a proper look at what Britain really is in 2010, what Brand Britain means and whatit should stand for. Before you can play to your strengths, you have to understandthem.

There are those who say that as a nation we have lost our way, forgetting the rootsthat made Britain great in the first place: industrial prowess, for example. We live in acountry where everything seems to be up for sale, from Jaguar Land Rover andCadbury to our utilities, our top football teams, even airports and bridges. By someestimates, 75% of the UK's largest firms are now in foreign ownership. We are the

world's sixth largest manufacturer, but where will it end?

The free market strategy may not be perfect, but it has delivered 25 years ofeconomic prosperity, years that might otherwise have been spent in the mire ofindustrial decline. It is all very well to curse the City and the role it has played in thedownturn, but financial services are something we're very good at and the sector stillpays an awful lot of tax. Chasing out the bankers to Zurich and New York is not inour long-term interest.

There's another way of looking at this. Although less often expressed, it should notbe neglected in our quest for the new meaning of Britishness: could the UK be the

first truly post-modern nation? As Howard Davies has written, the UK is 'a countrywhich embraces the imperatives of globalisation more warmly than any other,certainly more than the US, France or Germany, not to mention Japan'. And it's acountry confident enough in its own sense of self to realise that, so far as commerceis concerned at least, national borders do not mean all that much any more. (Trytelling the supremely nationalistic Chinese that, though.)

Another thing that has changed since 1997 is the composition of the population.Since the heady days of Cool Britannia, 1.6 million people from abroad have beengranted permanent right of residence, the large majority from developing countries.

As a result, 24% of all births in England and Wales in 2008 were to foreign-bornmothers, rising to almost 50% in London.

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Assimilating this huge wave of migration is no easy task. Anxiety among the existingpopulation about jobs and access to services such as social housing is marked andcannot simply be dismissed. But neither should we be blind to the huge economicand cultural benefits of the process. Fresh blood - in the form of migrants with thedrive and ambition to build a better life - is a good thing for all of us. That's what built

the US, although its flag-waving patriotism remains decidedly un-British.

Our openness to foreign talent and skills reaps perhaps its greatest dividends in thearena of scientific research. Dr Andre Geim and Dr Konstantin Novoselov, the twoManchester University professors who won the Nobel prize for physics last month,were both originally from Russia. Novoselov, who is only 36, holds joint British andRussian citizenship. The UK has won 118 Nobel prizes, a total surpassed only by theUS. China has six and India four, although we can expect them to catch up fast.

This is a reminder of the huge continuing power of our higher education system inthe UK. Exporting education is bigger business for UK plc than ever. Whatever

changes are made to the funding of our universities as a result of the Browne reviewthey must not be allowed to imperil their quality.

Another trait which defines the British is independence of spirit. Hence our deepunease about involvement in the EU. Despite having been in the EU since 1973, weremain semi-detached Europeans, highly suspicious of Eurocrats and their desire forpolitical union. It's a position in which we get the best of both worlds - free trade withour continental neighbours, but no euro.

The history of British economic success is intrinsically mercantile. The Romanstaught us about the benefits of international trade and we've been hawking our waresever since. All that commerce has made us opportunistic, flexible and pragmatic. Wekeep our options open and remain suspicious of dogma of all kinds - religious,political, economic.

But if in future our political and diplomatic ambitions have to be cut to fit a moremodest budget, we shouldn't let our commercial horizons shrink with them.Compared to many, we're open, liberal and have got a 20-year head-start in theglobalisation race. Surely the great British talent for improvisation can create aworthwhile future out of that?

01 November 2010(From Management Today)

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