The 1948 London Olympic torch was a feat of British craftsmanship. It had to stay alight through all weather conditions, and be cheap for a war damaged Britain to make. But it also had to be something Britain could be proud to display to countries across Europe as the runners made their way from Olympia to Wembley – across the Mediterranean, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and finally across the English Channel.

Sunder Katwala reviews a week of thorny debates over the Union, human rights and the role of faith.

The government is right to want to deport Abu Qatada. He is a threat
to community relations in Britain. The Home Secretary is right to want
to use her powers to exclude him, say Shamit Saggar and Sunder Katwala.

Rather than being created by grand declarations of Britishness, British identity has grown organically through history, says James Forsyth, political editor of The Spectator.

British identity is about how we treat each other, and a civic sense of fairness is at the heart of Britishness, says Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

“When you go into school, or into college, you meet people from everywhere – from America, from Poland, everywhere – in one day”, says one Hackney Community College student at a British Future debate.

British Future went to Hackney to talk to students about whether they defined themselves as British, English or something else. The students’ debate, chaired by Anthony Painter, also focused on integration – in terms of the diversity they could see around them in London, and how they thought that was mirrored in the rest of the country.

Ipsos Mori research for British Future has found that the Welsh are more enthusiastic about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee than the English and the Scottish.

70% of Welshpeople expect the jubilee will lift the mood of the British public compared to 69% of English people asked, and only 55% of people from Scotland.

But, when asked about the Olympics, English respondents were the most positive with 66% believing it would be good for the mood of the British public, compared to 57% of Scots.

Ever since the Home Secretary announced her plan for the new integration strategy in June 2011, we have been waiting for it to materialise with a mixture of excitement and anxiety, says Zrinka Bralo.

Excitement because it might be different and better from those preceding it, and anxiety because of recent government announcements about further immigration restrictions. The rumour in the blogosphere is that a draft integration strategy called ‘Creating the Conditions for Integration’ has been circulating in Whitehall since November 2011. At The Forum, the organisation where I work, we are curious to see what’s in store for the future of integration as this is what we do and we need a constructive environment to be able to keep doing it.

The challenges of unemployment and rising living costs can be particularly damaging to young people. Providing them with support is essential and effective, argues Sarah Webster.

At City Gateway, I work with some of the toughest young people from the seemingly hopeless estates in Tower Hamlets. Each day we deal with cases of physical or sexual abuse, homelessness, illness and bereavements as well as concerning CRB checks. They have been written off by their teachers and would be considered unemployable (usually having less than 5 GCSEs). Yet when given education, support and encouragement – with the end goal being a link with job opportunities in city firms through our apprenticeship programme – they are transformed.