It is difficult to gauge how important the term Britishness is to the British public, because the British public consists of a wide variety of different groups who all have different opinions about what constitutes Britishness. Even individuals of a similar age, from a similar background and from the same region may not agree what Britishness is. However, there are certain aspects of belonging to Britain that everyone shares, from the existence of the monarchy to an obsession with the weather! The media is obviously keen to highlight the similarities in order to portray a unified Britain.

This is far from being the case, though, as devolution means that Scotland and Wales are responsible for many of their own affairs. The devolved governments have limited powers when it comes to setting taxes and managing foreign affairs, but they are able to establish their own spending priorities. Many in England have begun to question whether this is an equitable system, since it often seems that it is the English who get the raw end of the deal. At the same time, there are people in Scotland and Wales who feel that devolvement does not go far enough and that they should have complete independence.

Clearly, anyone who believes in independence is not going to perceive Britishness to be important to their identity when, for them, it is being English, Scottish or Welsh that matters most. They are not the only ones to dispute the significance of Britishness, as there are those who consider their religious identity to matter more than belonging to their nation. There are some who feel alienated from British society, particularly those on the religious fringes, for whom Britain seems to offer little.

At the opposite end of the scale, there are those for whom Britishness is everything. There are some individuals who decide to join political groups that are supposedly designed to promote the interests of ordinary British people. In reality, they have a very narrow definition of what Britishness is and it usually revolves around being white. They obviously have to be careful what they say in public, as there are laws in place to avoid the incitement to racial hatred and political parties such as the British National Party (BNP) are not exactly known for their tolerance and peaceful sentiments.

Most British people reject the policies and ideas that are propagated by parties such as the BNP, which is why they receive so few votes. However, despite the fact certain notions of Britishness may be rejected by the British public at large, it is clear that there is no universally-accepted definition of what it means to be British. This makes it impossible to ascertain how important the concept of Britishness is to every single inhabitant of Britain.