"England, that great colonising land, has itself become a colony," chirrups George Monbiot here - fascinating article, well worth a read. Unfortunately, it contains more than a whiff of PC priggishness and inaccuracy. Firstly, BRITAIN was the great colonising land, surely? The Scots were disproportionately involved in the British Empire.
And the Union was "forged by a dominant England"? - not so, the Scots elite were as eager as could be.
George is, apparently, a "global citizen" - lucky him - sophisticated and well-travelled enough to be instantly a part of things wherever he may go. Sounds a bit arrogant and cocky to the likes of us, because, sadly, we can't even afford to take a weekend break outside of England. We could visit Scotland and Wales, of course, but we don't want to run the risk of getting beaten up.
Still, Mr Monbiot has woken up to some of the realities and his article may do some good. In fact it's a great achievement for somebody who comes across (to our tiny, working class minds) as a snobbish, upper middle-class English git.
Yup, I've been in conversation via email with Clive Anderson for exactly the same thing. Before Xmas, he was on the radio slagging off the English because of her apparent 'imperialism'...
ReplyDeleteI will be uploading our emails on Monday.