LONDON (Reuters):

Here's a question. What's existed for 400 years but is no longer quite sure what it is?

The answer, according to a new survey, may be Britain.

A poll in the Daily Telegraph newspaper yesterday showed that only 37 per cent of English people would describe themselves as British if asked for their nationality abroad.

What's more, 78 per cent said England would be 'better off' or 'no different' without Scotland - the country to which it was joined by King James I in 1603 to create Great Britain.

Yet at the same time, nearly six out of 10 of the 869 surveyed said it would be a good idea to create a British football team - rather than having separate English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish ones.

Clearly there's something of an identity crisis going on.

Since coming to power in June, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot, has worked hard to promote the idea of Britishness - the pooling of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales under one banner - in an attempt at inclusiveness.

Assaults

Yet as much as he's tried to talk it up, others have been pulling at the ties that bind the nations together.

One of the more recent assaults was on the flag - usually dubbed the Union Jack - which combines the banners of England, Scotland and Ireland, but not Wales.

Piqued, a Member of Parliament from a Welsh constituency pointed out that it might be more inclusive if Wales had some representation - the Welsh dragon or leek emblem.

Yet legally Wales is a principality of England - Prince Charles, the son of the queen, is the Prince of Wales - and so does not get its own symbol in the Union flag. There may be a Welsh national Parliament, but it has only limited autonomy.

The Scottish Parliament, on the other hand, has grown increasingly self-confident since its founding in 1999 and now makes all sorts of decisions on national issues ranging from health care to education not taxation.