I recently had an experience that really made me think about what a popular sense of national belonging and obligation means in 21st century Britain. I think building this inclusive and modern sense of national purpose in the world is becoming more urgent given the threats we face, and it’s something we feel particularly awkward talking about in the UK. So I am going to!
I gave a career talk last week on ‘what a diplomat does’ for 13-year-old kids considering their GCSE choices at a school in South London. It’s a very diverse school and I would say most kids in the assembly had strong international links and backgrounds. It was tough at first to connect – this was a Friday morning and everyone was tired after the school week. I said some careers can be harder to explain than others, and the role of a diplomat can take a bit of time to get your head round at 13.
I spoke a bit about what diplomacy is and raised some interest, but not that much. I could have explained it better. I then went on to talk about the skills and GCSEs you might need to be a diplomat – geography, history, maths, science – a broad range really. However, the bit that really got people’s attention was on background and languages. I said if you or some of your family have lived in different countries – and particularly if you have some experience or connection with different languages – you may be particularly well positioned for a career in diplomacy.
I said, for instance, if you have knowledge of even a small amount of languages like Pashtun, Somali, Yoruba, Swahili, Arabic, Krio, Chinese or Spanish – these are the languages of the future, and you should really be thinking about a career in diplomacy because you are ahead of the competition. We need more language skills and experience of this type representing the UK and helping us all find solutions to the big challenges facing the UK and the world like climate change, war, hunger and poverty.
I must have somehow framed this better than the first part of my talk because suddenly there was a buzz in the room, and it genuinely felt as if a whole bunch of kids who had not really thought diplomacy was for them were now paying attention. The questions and enthusiastic approaches I got afterwards really bore this out. And it was not just about diplomacy – there was something about how just for a moment some of those children imagined a different connection and sense of their value as part of our country.
I hope maybe one or two of those kids had discovered a future career in diplomacy, but more importantly it suggested to me that we could and should be doing more, far earlier, to help build a sense of modern national inclusion – and a more inclusive stake – in our national life.
This is a really complex space, but I have felt for a long time, and particularly since Brexit, that our country really needs a constructive conversation about what it means to be a citizen of the UK in an increasingly complex and competitive world, with instability and war creeping ever closer to our borders.
How do we talk about all of this? I have my views of course, but I’d really value other people’s thoughts, and I’d love Wilton Park to play a helpful role in curating an increasingly timely debate on what patriotism looks like in the 21st century.