British Values? Why don't you just let us get on with being British??!!!

The government reckons we need to clarify exactly what we mean by "British values" because...I’m not really sure why really; according to the Green Paper, it’s because we need a "statement of values that will set out the ideals and principles that bind us together as a nation."

Again, why?

Will anyone feel anymore British simply because there will be a checklist of values that we all need to measure ourselves against?
Or is it simply a backdoor attempt to intimidate those "furriners" wanting to work and live here ("can you please prove your commitment to British values before we allow you in here to subsidise our health and pension system")?
And anyway, are "British values" (defined by Brown two years ago as, "liberty to all, responsibility by all, fairness to all") really that much different from, say, French, Canadian, Australian or, for that matter, English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh ones?
Is there any modern democracy which doesn’t (theoretically at least)follow those principles ?
Will anyone feel anymore British simply because there will now be a checklist of "values" that we can measure ourselves against?
Of course not, I was born British, I'll die British; that's a fact which no government-inspired quango can add to or subtract from.

Friday night Robin Lustig (listen here, read transcript here) hosted a special edition of the BBC’s World Tonight "discussing British Values" with the constitutional renewal minister, Michael Wills; the Conservative front-bench spokesman David Willetts; the author and columnist Joan Smith; Birmingham city councillor Salma Yacoub; and the Scottish historian and journalist Neal Ascherson.

Whilst others, such as Our Kingdom, have focussed on Michael Wills’ not so liberal assertion that if folk don’t like the "British values" that are finally "decided" (ie dictated by Brown and co.), they can basically bog off somewhere else, for me it was, perhaps surprisingly, the Respect Party councillor Salma Yacoub who got it almost 100% right:

But if I had to point to values which I think should underpin Britishness, then they would include a number I believe we already have, but actually just need reasserting.

The values of British democracy and freedom of expression are renowned around the world of course, but what’s interesting is not the label but how these values are enacted. So how those who invaded and occupied Iraq did so in the name of democracy and freedom, and those of us, millions of us, who opposed that, we also called on these very same values. So was one side more or less British than the other? Of course not.

And it’s also very sad that in Britain today we see the contradiction of denying freedom in the name of protecting freedom, citing security needs, the notion of innocent until proven guilty, habeas corpus, these have suffered huge blows with the introduction of 28 days for detention without trial and the proposal to extend to 42 days.

Similarly, it is easy to say that we live in a society that upholds the right of freedom of expression, but this is tested when people express that right in a way that we personally may not like. For example, the problem with how Muslim women dress today in the name of asserting core values is a throwback to the days when Sikh men had to fight for the right to wear a turban and Rastafarians to have dreadlocks.

We’ve been there, done that, don’t want to go back there. I like a Britain where we have a genuine live and let live attitude. This is the basis of a healthy pluralism, not multiculturalism gone made.

British values will be written much more through our actions, not words. The ideas of British democracy and social justice are inspiring and they’ve been around for a long time. Our aspirations should be to consistently live up to them.