From the UK Parliament website:
"Communities Minister Stephen Williams said:
This is a great day for the people of Cornwall who have long campaigned for the distinctiveness and identity of the Cornish people to be recognised officially.We're delighted here that the Cornish have been granted national minority status, although we are suspicious of the government's reasons for doing so. The people of Cornwall are entitled to go independent and think themselves to be whatever they like as regards their origins. They're not Celts. But if they want to believe they are, then great. I don't want my taxes going towards feeding that myth though. and I don't want the UK Parliament to reflect it as it's simply misguided with more than a faint whiff of racism attached to it I feel. But if the Cornish believe it, that's up to them. Of course, you can be Cornish and separate from the English without the Celtic myth if you so choose to be.
The Cornish and Welsh are the oldest peoples on this island and as a proud Welshman I look forward to seeing Saint Piran’s flag flying with extra Celtic pride on March 5 next year."
But Bristol West MP and UK Communities Minister, that "proud" supporter of the Celtic myth Stephen Williams, scares us. The man believes in the Celtic thing to such a degree that he thinks the Welsh and the Cornish are "the oldest peoples on this island". Of course, DNA evidence points to the fact that this is not biologically true, and up until recent times the Cornish, Scots and Welsh were not even referred to as Celts anyway. The term "Celtic" came into play around 1700 and largely referred to languages. But this was extended, particularly in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall to include other things - archeological remains and culture for instance, which, in fact were not Celtic at all. A sense of exclusiveness was born and a sense of "We've been here the longest". It is accepted that, at the time of the Romans, what is now the UK was populated by a number of separate tribes, certainly not Celts. Read this - it's interesting - http://networkedblogs.com/SpsJk
But Stephen Williams believes that he is a Celt. And that the Welsh and the Cornish are the oldest peoples on this island. Oldest? Oh no, Mr Williams, the Celts are one of the most recent (invented) peoples on this island.
Perhaps his "Celtic heritage" is the reason that Mr Williams believes outrages like the West Lothian Question and Barnett Formula are perfectly permissable? After all, the English (the people of England) aren't pure breeds like he believes he is, are they? Thank goodness!
Meanwhile, England, which, in reality, has bloodlines going back just as far as the Scots, Welsh and Cornish (genocide was never practised by ancient invaders) and many that are far more recent, and is far more non-exclusive and cosmopolitan, is only worthy of inferior public spending and a democratic deficit that defies belief.
Oh, Mr Williams, the anti-English, "Celtic" supremacy agenda of the UK Government becomes ever more evident. Thanks to people like you. This is apartheid. And the reasons behind it hold up no better than those for apartheid in South Africa years ago.
These fake "Celtic" peoples, a UK elite, enjoying an invented pride and better public spending than the people of England? This is mind blowing.
And to the people of Bristol West: is it comforting to know that your MP is so deluded and exclusive?
