Hard work is part of the national self-image.

Faith in mobility, after all, has been consciously woven into the national self-image.

The national self-image had been in a droop.

That is not the national self-image anymore.

Their spirit has long since been incorporated into our national self-image.

Tragedy is not part of the national self-image.

Adaptation will require developing a new national self-image, less simplistic, less grandiose, but better suited to a changed world.

Once more, the septuagenarian got to shape a national self-image as Blair dragged Britain into another American president's belligerent fantasies.

And here's the important point: these blows to our national self-image are mutually reinforcing.

Which again sits oddly with the national self-image as a nation that's moved beyond class snobbery.