Leading article: Shared purpose and national cohesion

The proposals published yesterday by the Immigration minister, Liam Byrne, and the Communities Secretary, Ruth Kelly, have all the coherence of the ideas usually found scrawled on the back of an envelope. Among their suggestions for reinforcing a shared sense of nationality are a points-based path for newcomers to earn the "privileges" of settling here, financial incentives for "active citizens" and the establishment of a "Britain Day". The proposals are, by turns, patronising, bossy, arrogant, gimmicky and deluded.

Consider the idea of citizenship "bonus points", which conjures up images of supermarket loyalty cards. How would such points be earned? One suggestion from Ms Kelly and Mr Byrne is that they be accrued by those who "live in a law-abiding way". Are we to understand that criminality is no impediment to citizenship under the present arrangements?

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The problem is that Mr Byrne and Ms Kelly appear to regard our national culture as something that can be altered by pulling a few levers in Whitehall. If there is no day given over to national celebration in Britain it is because there is no tradition of it, not because some publicity-seeking politician has never thought of one before. Do these ministers really believe that creating another bank holiday and naming it "Britain Day" will magically increase levels of community cohesion and make Britons as showily patriotic as Americans? Mercifully, Ms Kelly does not expect us to "stand in our front gardens and salute the Union Jack". But that raises the question of what exactly we will be expected to do? Perhaps Ms Kelly will demand a short period of quiet patriotic reflection in each household - at a time of our own choosing, naturally.

But underneath all this nonsense there is a serious issue: national cohesion. Its disintegration has been grossly exaggerated. But it is not as robust as it ought to be. And there are things the Government could do to foster a national sense of shared purpose. It could address the creeping social segregation in certain cities by demanding reform of local housing policies. The Government could bring back the free English lessons for migrants that it so shamefully - and hypocritically - scrapped. Ministers should do more to counter the lies of the reactionary press about immigrants and stress the economic benefits they bring (and have historically brought) to the country. They might mention that the NHS could not function without migrant workers.

What it should not be doing is chauvinistically demanding "British workers for British jobs", as Gordon Brown did yesterday, and spreading the toxic impression that all migrants need a thorough education in "our values" before they are permitted to settle here.