National Day plans scrapped

Plans for a "national day" first put forward by Gordon Brown as part of his bid to encourage the celebration of Britishness have been dropped by the Government, it has emerged.
The idea of a patriotic celebration similar to America's July 4 or Bastille Day in France was first promoted by Mr Brown as Chancellor in 2006, months after the 7/7 bombings.
And it was one of the key recommendations of a citizenship review he commissioned from former attorney general Lord Goldsmith when he became Prime Minister last year.
But Constitution Minister Michael Wills told MPs it was not now on the cards.
Shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said "First a national motto, then an oath of allegiance, now a patriotic day - one token initiative after another in Gordon Brown's Britishness agenda has sunk without trace.
"Labour still hasn't worked out that British identity is bound up in our institutions, culture and history. It can't be re-manufactured by their spin doctors."