The inference is that a lack of national purpose is a bad thing. The opposite is true. Our lack of national purpose is our national purpose. It is the essence of Britishness. We are an ancient mongrel nation, adept at rubbing along, happy to let others do their thing just as long as we are left alone to do ours and nobody frightens the horses.

Britain's lack of purpose is not unique to Britain. Rather, it's a product of a modern time, which brings along with it that "mongrel nation" feeling: we're all just here to make a living, and we're not joined by anything but that surface attribute. We have no culture in common, barely a language in common, no values in common except in small groups, and so on.

The solution is to divide out into those small groups, remove state support, and see who thrives. Not just survives, thrives. Those are the ones doing something smart.

It's hard to talk about "national purpose" when our nation-states aren't even nations, but are political creations. We have no allegiance to the modern state, nor to its ideologies which are generally marketing, nor to its police state which is generally ostensibly for our protection and covertly to keep the lawful in line as well as the lawless. Of course we don't.

Britain, like America, is about halfway to a mongrel state. Politically alienated from its parent states as well as the constituents of its heritage, it needs to forge a new identity. Picking an "We'll agree to disagree" identity results only in all of us staying at home, watching television, hoping no one bothers us because it's a hell of confusion out there and no one understands our individual points of view.