A notice on a damaged ATM in Manchester. (Reuters)

London, Aug. 11: Tea and muffins, leather on willow, old maids on bicycles... and now, hooded men looting shops.

It’s now officially confirmed that the riots in Old Blighty are as much a symbol of Englishness as “warm beer and maiden aunts cycling to Evensong” were for former Prime Minister John Major.

The BBC will be labelling the unrest “England riots” rather than “UK riots” after viewers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pointed out that all the violence was happening in England and only in England.

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, was worried that the “UK riots” tag was endangering Scotland’s reputation as a tourism destination.

“We know we have a different society (from England),” he said, “and one of my frustrations was to see this being described on BBC television and Sky as riots in the UK.”

Whether or not the objections were met with a still upper lip at the “Beeb” — already forced to dump the politically correct “protesters” for “rioters” — but the broadcaster decided to bite the bullet.

“While the rioting and disturbances have been taking place in England, our initial approach was guided by the story’s impact for the UK as a whole — for example, the UK Prime Minister returning from holiday and the decision to recall the UK Parliament,” a BBC spokesman explained.

“However, with the events confined to several cities and towns in England and not Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we have listened to feedback from our audiences and are now referring to ‘England riots’... for absolute clarity.”

Clarity, though, often tends to be as coyly elusive as a maiden aunt when it comes to Britishness, a notion that came to be equated with Englishness during the heyday of the empire but began to unravel in the latter part of the previous century.

Surveys have shown that over eight in ten people in Scotland now see themselves as Scottish and not British, and while Wembley Stadium was full of Union Jacks when England won the World Cup in 1966, English fans now mostly wave the St George’s Cross at their team’s matches.

Critics may complain, however, that the concept of Englishness itself remains as foggy as the country’s weather in a multi-cultural Britain where chicken tikka masala has replaced roast beef and fish-and-chips as the favourite food.

Does “Englishmen” fit the mainly African-origin youths accused in the riots as snugly as their hoods? Or England’s captain Andrew Strauss and fellow South Africa-borns Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior who are pummelling the Indians in a game long celebrated as the emblem of Englishness but in increasing danger of being hijacked as the Badge of Bharatiyata?

PM hails Punjabi TV

The Scottish, Welsh and northern Irish may want to distance themselves from the riots but not the island’s Sikh community.

Striking a blow for integration and multi-culturalism, the mainly Punjabi-language channel Sangat TV has won universal praise for its riot coverage, with Prime Minister David Cameron hailing it as an example of a media company’s commitment to social responsibility.

Run primarily on donations, the Birmingham-based channel has emerged as the unlikely hero of the ongoing unrest, with its live pictures showing its correspondents helping the police tackle looters.

The channel’s “most jaw-dropping moment” came on Tuesday night when crew were filming, from a car, a police chase of rioters down a back street. With the police lagging far behind, Sangat presenter Upinder Randhawa shouted to the officers: “Do you need a lift? We’ll give you a lift. Get in the car.”

Twenty seconds later, the rioters had been arrested. “Another live Sangat TV exclusive,” Randhawa told his audience. Major broadcasters like the BBC and Sky News have been carrying Sangat TV feeds prominently. Cameron’s praise came in response to a question from Indian-origin Conservative MP Paul Uppal at Parliament today.