Abstract

Nick Groom's study of the union, The Union Jack: The Story of the British Flag, was published in 2006. In this paper, he brings that story up to the present day by surveying the past five years of 'Union Jackery', from Gordon Brown's initial enthusiasm for new definitions of Britishness through ongoing redefinitions of the iconic image of the flag to the almost complete absence of issues of national identity in the debates preceding the 2010 UK General Election. 

Nick Groom

Nick Groom is professor in English at the University of Exeter (Cornwall Campus) and Director of the Exeter Centre for Literatures of Identity, Place, and Sustainability (ECLIPSE). He has written widely on national identity, and is the author ofThe Union Jack: The Story of the British Flag (Atlantic, 2006).