Things that really .. really piss me off: part V
The idea of a United Kingdom is gone.
I say let all of the other nations do their own thing.
I'm English, not British.
I'm from England, not the United Kingdom (which on one occasion resulted in a standing argument with an American customs & immigration official when arriving at Los Angeles LAX .. but that's another story)
So the thing that pisses me off is some of the athletics commentary you get with television coverage.
If someone like Kelly Holmes picks up a medal, she's done it for England.
If someone from Scotland, Ireland or Wales pick up a medal, then they've done it for Great Britain.
Parading itself as some kind of inclusive patriotism, when in actual fact, you're listening to something bordering on patronizing racism.
Thankfully, this kind of things is lessening, but it's still a source of irritation, non the less...
posted by Wayne Smallman at Sunday, March 27, 2005
9 Comments:
What is 'British' and what is 'English'.. always confuses me.
Commenting is quite a pain today at my end. How is it with you?
Any idea what the Carrot-Girl is upto? Her page is blank with a single line of garbage....
"What is 'British' and what is 'English'.. always confuses me."
It's quite simple: British is the collective term for all citizens of the British Isles.
While being English is .. well, being born in England, which I was.
Don't know what's up with Lucretia. I'm guessing she's fart-arsing around with her 'blog, given that the source code is just a partial extract of the whole page.
Either that or there's an error with Blogger yet again!
I had some problems yesterday. Some of my comments were going doolally, but things seem to have settled down a little...
Roll on regional parliaments! I'll be happy when I get my Geordie passport.
Oh, and disolving the United Kingdom into it's constituent parts should allow us to send all the Scots back home. Oh no, that would leave parliament practically empty, and who'd run the budget?
I remember spending a couple of nights in Glasgow when I was at college.
Me and my mates went to a local pub and enjoyed a few ales.
At some point, this guy came over and sat with us.
Quite uninvited and he clearly looked a little annoyed, anxious and distracted.
He began talking to us with a series of rapid-fire questions that all seemed to be building to a point.
The other guys were all laughing 'n' stuff, I feigned a thin-pipped smile, but I've been in that kind of place before.
Then it came.
Scottish guy: "So, you must hate the Scots?"
A question, yes, but in a very matter-of-fact way.
The guys looked at each other, I edged my chair sideways ready and waiting for the guy to turn into a kickoffasaurus.
I thought I'd try and disarm the conversation in my usual style, "Well, not really. We've got our own little North-South divide going on in England."
I replied as I turned to my mate Ollie with a smile.
"What with Ollie here being a Southern shandy-drinking pufter and me being Northern scum, we're too busy battling each other to give a shit about hating the Scottish." I added.
Ollie just laughed and told me to fuck off .. or something like that.
The guys face just changed. His eyes became wide and he sort of snorted in surprise.
He started looking to get all nationalist on us and I shot the idea down in flames, diffusing the situation by pissing on the touch paper.
Looking back, that was a near-miss, and maybe a cautionary tale of sorts.
The underlying theme is, there's a lot of resentment amongst our neighbors.
Let's face it, if you're Welsh, Scottish or Irish, you want self-autonomy. You want devolution.
In short, you want to be the master of your own destiny as a nation, not some tacked-on, quaint little holiday village for the outward-bounds people among us .. which really is the attitude among some people.
And given the shit we've given the Welsh, Scottish and Irish over the years, you know what? I don't blame them.
If I were them, I'd probably hate the English, too...
We had similar problems in India, which escalated during the 70s-80s. Everyone has a grievance against almost everyone else. But development trumped all that (and the fact that everyone was screwed by the British rule helped), and now there are less incidents/news of inter-regional fights/suspicion.
I find it ironic that Europeans were able to get past so much recent animosity and build the EU. Why cant the Brits do that?
Perhaps the solution is to break up UK, and then allow each part to join EU on its own merits :-D.
"Perhaps the solution is to break up UK, and then allow each part to join EU on its own merits..."
You're being humorous, I'm being serious; why not?
We need the political nose of Gindy here to tell us whether that'd work or not.
I'd say that it could given the Republic of Ireland have already entered.
If they can do, why can't Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
How is the monarchy viewed in Scotland etc.? Is that a source of contention?
That's a good question .. and I'm not too clear on the answer to be perfectly honest.
We did had a Scottish guy pop in last week, it would be nice to get his opinion.
If I must stab at a guess, you're going to have your nationalists who want nothing to do with the the monarchy, and there will be those that bestride Scotland and the idea of a monarchy and wish to remain a part of.
I think the monarchy is a tired old institution that needs a bit of a pruning to clear off all of the remaining dead, vestigial ceremonial crap.
There's no doubting that the royal family do an enormous amount of work for British trade, but they have no political sway anymore...
"'How is the monarchy viewed in Scotland etc.? Is that a source of contention?'
That is a great question. What does the UK think of the Monarchy in general?"
Probably much the same.
I think you'll always have your traditionalists who want to look up to a figure head and not a government, but personally, I think it's time to move on...
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