As speechwriter to the prime minister, it was the comment I dreaded most. While perusing a draft of the latest speech I had written, some wise head or other would make the inevitable suggestion: “What this needs is a really powerful passage on British values — y’know, what makes this country great.” A flutter of nods and off I would be sent to arouse the nation’s patriotic sentiments in a way that would have had Lord Haw-Haw repenting and bedroom jihadists breaking out the Union Jack bunting.

How to distil the essence of Britain into a few lines? Desperate, I would resort to lists: the Beatles, Shakespeare, queueing, D-Day, Bobby Moore in ’66 . . . might these do to conjure British values? No! Far