Ellee Seymour

Cheeky Girl Gabriela has given the thumbs up to the mid-Wales constituency  of her Lib-Dem lover Lembit Opik which she visited recently with twin sister Monica.

And keen to establish herself as the perfect MP’s partner, she enjoyed a “Mad Friday” night on the town, as well as going shopping with two local newspaper photographers, gushing how friendly the local people were, how much she liked the area.

Gabriela also joined the Fit 4 Life gym in Newtown a stone’s throw from Lembit’s office, enabling her to retain her sylph like shape while he tackles his mountain of paper work.

I wonder how long she took out her membership for, I didn’t realise they met on Friday the 13th, thought to be the unluckiest day of the year. Is that a sign of their destiny? How long do you give them?

Well good luck to them both, if we didn’t have a few light hearted moments like this in politics, it would be totally dull. She will certainly add some sparkle to fund-raising coffee mornings and raffles.

A report today recommends that schools in England should teach “core British values” in our diverse, multi-cultural society, I wonder exactly what this means. What is Britishness today?

If we went to a school and asked the kids for their views on this, what would they say? They may refer to the queen, perhaps even parliament, in other words, our traditional heritage.

Yet today’s young British people prefer chicken tikka to roast beef. What British traditions do they still follow?

David Blunkett went down this path in 2002, and here are some views on Britishness which were reported then:

Sophie Dahl: “Earl Grey and John Galliano”

Elton John: “Sense of humour”

Andrew Motion: “Beer on tap”

Norman Cook: “Most people speak your language when you go abroad”

Denise Lewis: “Gin and tonic”

This government has itself to blame for the loss of many of our much loved British traditions, like school nativity plays, as well as encouraging kids to enjoy conkers and participating in school races, to have fun and learn fair play, that life is not always about winning.

We need our school curriculum to applaud our British heroes through history and literature lessons so young people can feel proud of their heritage. But what about today’s Britain, what are the key British values that schools should be teaching? What does Britishness mean to you today?

Update: The BBC is asking the same question. I had hoped to use some nice pics of British flags on this post, but unfortunately, the template is not behaving itself today.

Update: 26 Jan, The Times and Britishness.