This is a twitter classic, isn't it? It has all the hallmarks of British nationalism: the writer thinks 'English' and 'British' mean the same thing. Gets a derogatory comment about 'immigrants' in in the first sentence. Is contemptuous of any poor soul who is not English/British. Thinks everyone outside the golden circle of English-Britishness is a poor soul.
Can we examine a wee bit what being English means?
In Scotland, we say anyone who has committed to living and working here, pays their taxes and contributes to our society is Scottish. Nothing to do with where you were born or what colour you are. Most of us don't really know much about our ancestry but we - I think - accept that we're probably a mix of several nationalities. In my own family, there's a bit of Gaelic Scottish along with southern Scottish, some Polish, a bit of Irish, a bit of Chilean. I think that's a typical definition of 'Scottish.'
Nationality is not our main concern in life. We are interested in what we can do to earn money, keep the family in one piece, get a home to live in, save for a wee holiday. We happily pay for the NHS (and would maybe pay more), we pay our council tax, we mostly don't try to evade the taxes we owe. All in all, we are good citizens.
It seems to a small section of English people that's not enough. So let's ask the question: who are these people of 'pure English or British heritage'?
It depends what you mean by English. Since Great Britain (the island, not the island state) was among the last places to lose the ice after the last Ice Age (When was that? 13 centuries BC? Forgive me, I'm doing this from memory), everyone who lives on this island is an incomer. So do you have to trace your ancestry back to that time to be 'pure English'? I'm not sure how you would do that. Or maybe you can count your ancestry from the arrival of the Celts (2 centuries BC?) or the Romans (55BC), some of whom forgot the way home? Or the Jutes, Angles or Saxons late 4thC AD onwards)? Or from the Normans - 1066 onwards? Is it okay to claim you're English if your ancestors were Huguenots - like Nigel Farage? Or German - again like Farage, not to mention the current royal family.
I'm happy to say all this talk of passports, nationality and loyalty by the 'English Brexiteer' is just so much tosh. What people like him really hate are brown or black faces; people who look different from him: Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, Africans, West Indians. People whose values and principles are held over from a previous life. This is pretty rich when people in many parts of England seem to be happy to ditch 'English' habits and traditions in favour of the worst of American traditions: trick or treat, the Easter bunny, shopping at the mall, running up vast credit card debts, not to mention tax-dodging and corrupt politicians, buy-to-let, etc.
I want you to understand I don't hate English people. I don't hate anyone - it just takes so much effort. But I am really horrified that decent English working people (with a lot in common with me) having been let down by generations of politicians since Thatcher's time (takes time to spit) have now been suckered into thinking the likes of Nigel Farage, Theresa May and the 'English Brexiteer' are their best hope.
Watching from the sidelines with all my hopes pinned on independence for Scotland in the next three years, all I can say to decent English people is: follow the money. Nigel Farage is complaining he's skint on a pension of £73,000 from the European Parliament, after doing nothing - nothing - for 18 years. Damien Green (I used to be a teacher and I promise you you should never trust anyone called Damien) gets sacked and picks up a redundancy 'settlement' of £17,000. Who stands to gain from leaving the EU? Not people like us, that's for sure.
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