Iconographic

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has decided that it would be great for our national self-esteem if we e-mailed suggestions for Great British icons to be posted on its website

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has decided that it would be great for our national self-esteem if we e-mailed suggestions for Great British icons to be posted on its website. Anything from the mundane (cup of tea, policeman's helmet) to the sublime (Constable's Haywain) will be considered. To argue that such an exercise resemble a tacky London tourist shop misses the point. Perhaps there's another agenda. Surely the next logical step is to ask immigrants to identify all the objects on the site as part of David Blunkett's Britishness test. Anyone who can identify a London bus and a chicken tikka masala by sight alone should be welcomed with open arms as a true Brit.