Is it OK to be Proud of Britain?

Yes, of course it is, and not only is it ‘OK’ …it’s critical.

Sure, like any other nation, we have our share of flaws; the weather; bank holiday traffic; Morris dancers; members of parliament. Granted some may argue there is very little difference between the latter two of that list, other than Morris dancers are a little less embarrassing.

There are also a lot of things we can and should be proud of. I don’t know about anyone else but frankly I’m a bit bored of hearing how ‘shit’ we are. I also don’t buy it, and to be honest I think it’s pretty unfair on the 65–70million people who are the ones who actually make Britain great.

British Engineering

Engineering has always been a field us Brits excel at. However, with names like George Stephenson and Barnes Wallis you’d be forgiven for thinking this was an accolade of a bygone time. In fact, in more recent times, courtesy of brands like Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen that accolade seems to have passed to Germany as the mark of quality. With British engineering becoming more the domain of kipper ties and patched jumpers than building Ultimate Driving Machines.

However, it was Maurice Wilks one of those British engineers with the questionable dress sense that gave rise to, and thanks to more current British engineering, remains one of the most successful car brands in the world.

In around 1945, Maurice Wilks sketched an idea for improving the drivetrain for an off-road vehicle (according to legend he first sketched his idea in the sand on a beach in Anglesey). Those lines in the sand became the engineering keystone for his new ‘Land Rover’. A keystone that is still the foundation for probably the best and most accomplished SUV brand in the world today.

What’s more if the rumour mill is anything to believe, one of the main reasons BMW acquired and fairly quickly broke up and sold the Rover group, was to get line of sight of the Land Rover engineering to put it into their own SUVs.

It’s not just in land travel where British engineering is still at the tip of the spear. In 10–20 years Hypersonic travel promises to enable commercial passengers to go from London to; New York in an hour; and, Sydney in a mind boggling four hours. I don’t think aviation passengers have had their minds that boggled since the Wright brothers demonstrated that balloons weren’t the only way to fly.

As you can probably imagine the usual suspects; Boeing; BAE; and, Lockheed Martin are investing heavily to become the first at being the fastest. However, the company at the heart of the tech behind that is an Oxfordshire based company called Reaction Engines who are developing a new type of jet engine called SABRE. For the doubters.

Still A Benchmark of Quality

British craftsmanship is another area that may earn some unnecessary scoffing from the Anglo-sceptics. However, British craftsmanship is a strength that not only mega brands like Bentley and Princess Yachts have staked and built their reputations on. It is also the domain of smaller enterprises like Cumbria Crystal.

Cumbria Crystal are one of the last remaining producers of hand blown and hand-cut English lead crystal in the world. Founded in 1976 by the Cavendish family in Cumbria, their crystalware represents British craftsmanship in all of our embassies around the world. Their artisanal expertise is not only sought after by Royal Families from around the world, but also customers of high end retailers like Fortnum and Mason.

The work of this small, but perfectly formed team of exceptional craftsmen and women has also had starring roles in Downton Abbey and Casino Royale. Not bad considering there is only 14 of them.

Earning Our Stripes in New Areas Too

Perhaps one we would attribute more to the US or the far east than this green and pleasant land, believe it or not, is in technology and innovation.

Did you know outside of Silicon Valley, according to KPMG’s latest ‘Technology Innovation Hubs’ report, our capital ranks third in the world after New York and Shanghai, don’t believe me? See for yourself.

This isn’t just down to the World Wide Web being a British invention, or that global organisations like Google, YouTube, Snapchat and Facebook have major European offices in our capital.

It is down to British startups like Inavya Ventures. Those rather clever people at Inavya have developed an Artificial Intelligence platform called ‘Avatr’(forbes.com 16 March 2018). This rather ingenious AI not only gathers realtime biometric data from wearable smart devices, it interprets this information and feeds it directly into an early warning system with a healthcare professional enabling them to treat an event before it happens.

Quite literally a smart prophylactic that saves lives. What’s more, with the impact rehabilitation has on the lives of the individuals affected, and the resources of our healthcare organisations the ripple effect of increases the immediate benefit exponentially.

More than a Sector

Having said all that, what makes us great is down to some natural or innate talent in specific sectors, it seems to be more about an attitude that is specific to us Brits. A stubborn refusal to accept the odds (particularly if they are stacked against us) and to do it anyway. As Winston Churchill famously (and quite frequently put it) “Keep buggering on!”

Take the A.W. Jenkinson Group of companies, a client we have had the privilege to work with for a few years now. The business started just over 50 years ago, when Allan Jenkinson the teenage son of a Cumbrian tenant farmer, spotted an opportunity; sawmills (of which there are a few in Cumbria) produce sawdust as a waste product; there are also ‘one or two’ livestock farms in Cumbria, and sawdust makes excellent livestock bedding. So, in the mid-sixties and way before we got multi-coloured bins, one of Great Britain’s first recycling success stories began.

The business soon paid for a tractor and trailer to transport the sawdust to the farms in the area. The tractor became a wagon, the wagon became a fleet of trucks, and then another stream of business. Today A.W. Jenkinson Forest Products is the flagship of a multi-million pound corporate group that spans around 40 different locations and incorporates; transport; forestry; wood recycling; and biomass fuels to name a few.

So What?

As I said earlier, we do have our failings, but we also have a lot to be proud of, and it seems like I am not the only one that thinks our achievements deserve a bit of credit.

HSBC’s recent ‘We Are Not An Island” reminds us … some might say in a cringy way … that we are part of, and therefore make a valuable contribution to a bigger community (whether that’s the world or the EU, I’ll leave that up to you).

It also reminds us that one of our strengths is actually our diversity.

Whether you like the campaign or not, I can tell you from many many many years (probably too many years) of sitting through consumer reports and studies, brands like HSBC don’t hang their hats on a sentimental whim. There has to be a fundamental mass market consumer truth or belief behind the message they are trying to deliver.

Likewise, Carling, after years of silence, have finally stuck their heads back over the parapet with a bold statement of pride that their beer is brewed in Burton-on-Trent.

What’s more, this isn’t just a quick attempt to cash in on some patriotic sentiment, Carling have gone the whole hog to celebrate what being British truly is from; the ‘North Sea Surfers’ who not only brave the waves of the North Sea in Scotland, they do it on locally made surfboards; to, ‘Black Country Fusion FC’ a truly indiscriminate bunch of Sunday League footballers. Take a look.

So it seems that even though there are a lot of things that could divide us, there are also a lot of reasons that we can and should be ‘Proud of Britain’.