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April 30, 2007
Jack Straw and Britishness
Blackburn Jack want's to be slightly more careful about what he celebrates as Britishness.
"We should do the same, bringing out the freedom that lies at the heart of the story," Mr Straw writes in The World Today, journal of Chatham House, the foreign affairs think-tank.
"That means freedom through the narrative of the Magna Carta, the Civil War, the Bill of Rights, through Adam Smith and the Scottish enlightenment, the fight for votes, for the emancipation of Catholics and non-conformists, of women and of the black community, the Second World War, the fight after that for rights for minority groups, the fight now against unbridled terror."
If people do actually learn that story then there'll no doubt be some wag who starts to plot freedom on a chart. The shape will end up as a skewed Bell Curve, with there being little freedom around 1066 for the Anglo-Saxon population rising to a maximum just before WWI at the peak of the last wave of globalisation, a time when the average Englishman could live his entire life without meeting the State except in the person ofthe postman and the policeman on patrol.
And then shrinking again, to now, where Jack and his partners in crime are reimposing the State controls upon us and our freedom.
Careful there Mr. Straw. Teach people this and they might wake up and get all medieval on you, start setting up the gibbets on the village greens again.
Another way of putting this is in the form of a simple question. "So, Mr. Straw, if you think our island history is one of the narrative of freedom, why have you and your colleagues been so assiduous in removing those freedoms?"
April 30, 2007 in Law | Permalink
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Comments
Note that Magna Carta, an ENGLISH achievement is described as "British", but the "Scottish Enlightenment" (resulting from an examination by Scots after the Union in 1707 of what made the English successful) is ascribed to Scotland.
I also note that under this government English schools are forced to teach "Britishness" whereas the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are free to teach children all about Scottish values in Scotland, Welsh values in Wales, etc.
I also note that Jack Straw has a history of making nasty comments implying that English people are violent racist thugs that is only kept at bay by a veneer of "British" civilisation.
Personally, as an Englishman, I've had enough. I am now English, NOT "British".
Posted by: David B. Wildgoose | Apr 30, 2007 12:02:27 PM
a maximum just before WWI at the peak of the last wave of globalisation, a time when the average Englishman could live his entire life without meeting the State except in the person of the postman and the policeman on patrol
Well done, Tim - that's the most fantastical claptrap I've read in a long time.
Posted by: Gregg | Apr 30, 2007 12:49:41 PM