The culture minister, Margaret Hodge, will today criticise the Prom concerts as one of many British cultural events that fail to engender new common values or attract more than a narrow unrepresentative audience.
She will make her remarks in a broad-ranging speech that examines the role culture should play in developing a stronger sense of shared British cultural identity.
Hodge will also suggest that British citizenship ceremonies should be held in places such as castles, theatres, museums, art galleries and historic houses.
In a speech at the IPPR thinktank she will also propose that a commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the accession of Henry VIII to the throne next year could be an opportunity to explore the strengths and weaknesses of British history in the same way that the abolition of slavery last year looked at uncomfortable and sensitive issues. Insisting that she wants to play a part in championing the role culture can play in building a sense of belonging, she will argue: "All too often our sectors are not at their best when embodying common belongings themselves.
"The audiences for many of our greatest cultural events - I'm thinking in particular of the Proms - is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this.
"I know this is not about making every audience completely representative, but if we claim great things for our sectors in terms of their power to bring people together, then we have a right to expect they will do that wherever they can."
Proposing citizenship ceremonies in Britain's great historic spaces, she will say: "Being made a British citizen in those kind of surroundings allows people to associate their new citizenship with key cultural icons, and then offers them the chance to build a longer-term engagement."
She will admit that Henry VIII's accession, given the more unsavoury parts of his reign, is not a straightforward event to celebrate.
"Whether in separating state and religion, or in instituting English as a common language or in being the first clearly to define and map our boundaries, a deeper understanding of his reign may help the important debate on England starting to emerge," she will say.
Charles Darwin could be another great figure on which a debate about British ideas can converge in next year's anniversary.
In recent years ministers have shifted from a belief in multiculturalism to finding ways of encouraging a sense of shared British identity. The speech is an attempt to show how culture can play a role in that goal.
Hodge, who is MP for Barking in east London, will also warn that she has seen "over and over again" the dangers of politicians failing to be seen on the side of those worried by the loss of identity. "The cracks in the community turn to gaps. And those gaps, those voids, are always exploited mercilessly and cruelly by the extreme right," she will say .
She will also express her concern that "mainstream parties, in their determination to capture and maintain power, have perhaps allowed a blurring of their ideological value base as they seek to attract the all-important centreground of politics. In doing this they inadvertently create a value vacuum which is then filled by fundamentalists in religion and the extremists in politics."
In established poor communities where choice is least, "people can be left with the feeling of imposed change or being subject to forces beyond their control".
Hodge will also hint at her doubts at overstating the importance of a statement of values or of a national motto, such as that planned by the justice ministry.
"National mottos and statements of shared values have to be lived and made real if they are to fulfil their purpose," she will say, adding that such abstract notions will mean little to the "good burghers of Barking" faced by rapid change.
"The riots in Paris shows the uselessness of investing solely in the grand icons of a common culture without investing in those services which are essential to secure more equal life chances."
Culture, and celebration of local heritage, she will argue, can at its best act as a shared safe space to explore difference and identity.
But she will also warn that "culture can often be a source of intense difficulty and conflict, as the play Behtzi [about the Sikh community] in Wolverhampton or Jerry Springer: the Opera have demonstrated. Just as culture which pushes the boundaries can make some people proud to belong , it can make others feel isolated and deeply offended."
Pomp and patriotism
Land of Hope and Glory, otherwise known as Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, is a regular feature in the traditionally patriotic second half of the Last Night of the Proms. Sir Henry Wood's 1905
Fantasia on British Sea Songs is also played. The medley of sailors' sea shanties marks the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, and culminates with the Proms stalwart Rule Britannia. The penultimate performance in the concert is a rendition of Jerusalem, with William Blake's words set to C Hubert H Parry's score. The Last Night of the Proms finishes the season with the orchestra and audience combining forces to sing the national anthem. In recent years Proms audiences have made a habit of going off-programme and singing Auld Lang Syne at the end of the concert.
