Olde England as Britain?

 

I picked up a Sunday Times magazine recently – and there was an article with the headline In Search of Olde England - under a photo of Olde England Morris dancers, which reviewed the book - Finding Albion Myth, Folklore, and the Quest for a Hidden Britain by Zakia Sewell. Sewell writes that she is the “least likely person to go searching for Olde England, or to give it its grown up name Albion.” 

She speaks of the ‘stale history” of Albion or England as Britain – but is she writing of an unreal “Britain” or the 4 nations of the UK? Perhaps stale because this 'Britain' she searches for is not real, not a country with a defined identity, and has no hinterland. Britain is actually four ancient nations!

I looked up the meaning of ‘Albion’, which is supposed to stand for ‘Britain’. Its no wonder many are confused, the terms England as Britain are interchangeable and the same. (On the very same page a respected Irish author spoke of Elizabeth as the Queen of England!) 

Most Americans interchange England and Britain, as meaning the same nation. Its hardly surprising as encyclopaedias, radio, tv and media articles and broadcasts do the very same thing! Where does this leave the other three nations of the UK? As mere regions of England/ Britain?  

Where on earth do the ancient nations of Scotland, Ireland and Wales fit into this narrative - with not one mention, as if their contribution, language, culture and music are of no significance. 

 

Sewell is searching for Britain as England’s “stale old island story” 

She feels there is wisdom to be found in tradition. In the Hebrides she visited Imbole, a Celtic festival to mark the winter solstice and spring equinox. She celebrated Samhaim in haunted York, and attended the Notting hill carnival.

Sewell’s love of urban music drew her to a career as a presenter on Radio Six music. Her father is Welsh and her mother from the Caribbean. 

She wants to counter balance the far rights use of the English flag, to follow Albion as Britain folk ways in order to resolve her mixed heritage. In the Caribbean Granadines, the locals have long played down folk practices of the ‘other world’ such as ritual dance or drumming, not wanting to appear backward. This is colonization of the mind, were language was used to suppress different cultures. And the portrayal of local cultures as less worthy or “backward.”

 

England as a nation certainly appears to have lost is sense of itself – it still has its Constitution of 1688, castles, monarchy, Tudors - all from !600s. but with London now being a melting pot, I’m not sure – what is England/ Britain’s, national identity, lost in this empire building, what is its national costume? Or national sense of itself outside of football or the red cross of St George? 

 

Britain is in fact a landmass, not a country. Britain only came into existence after the union of the parliaments in 1707. But what is Britain or UK as a country? It is not a country with any hinterland or sense of itself – apart from the world war one and the Victorian empire. But the British empire is bland and about elitism and barely taught in schools, even as the empire existed for many centuries and shaped how this Britain as England sees itself.

 

She claims there are signs of a “weird renaissance” bubbling in Britain as England, but her grasp of historical context is severely missing, as she skims the mere surface here. I guess she is searching for a lost 'England as Britain'. In urban London much culture is a cosmopolitan world culture – as heard in the Americanisation of the Brits award show, in London Pop culture and elsewhere. 

 

In this narrative there is not one mention of Scotland, Ireland or Wales – as if they don’t even exist or have any relevance or impact. Ignorance of history in this ‘Albion’ is clearly deep rooted.

England as Britain urgently needs to move from being an archaic state to a modern one – one that no longer controls and exploits an empire. 

“Scotland is a country NOT a county!”! Alex Salmond

 

**BOOKS*: For a deeper history of Scots and Celtic cultures I recommend 

Stuart McHardy’ Scotland’s Future History, 

Tom Devine, A Scottish Nation 1707 to present

Alan Raich - Arts of the Nation

Is Wales ahead of Scotland now

 

Wales has decided to improve the faulty supposedly PR (proportional representation) voting system given to its Devolved government in 1999, to a proper proportional system. 

Wales is proud of their Welsh language and culture. Even the Welsh Labour party stands before Welsh flags and uses Welsh Gaelic! Imagine that happening here in Scotland? 

 

By contrast Scots Labour stands in front of a Union Jack and is ashamed of Scots language and culture. They detest the use of Scots language or Gaelic in the Scottish parliament or in song. 

 

Its the usual Scots against Scots fight – that was encouraged here after Culloden. Were you a Jacobin/ Jacobite or a Hanoverian? Was this divide and rule by the British state not employed in Wales too? Was in all about religion?

 

Protecting Scots Gaelic

 

Funding for Welsh Gaelic – 125m

Scots Gaelic- 25m

Irish Gaelic – 80m

 

Support for the Scots Celtic language is not enough.  

Welsh Gaelic is their national language. 

 

By contrast Scots Gaelic has become a regional language due to the suppressions after Culloden and since. There is BBC Alba in Scots Gaelic.  Gaelic does offer economic potential 

 

The Deliberate Forgetting

Scottish culture has been not just ignored, but deliberately suppressed by the British state. That’s my main reason for wanting Scotland’s independence. Especially not because I want to be nostalgic about the past – of the Walter Scott’s version of a "romantic Scot's past, lost and gone forever" -  but of the living breathing here and now. The stories and songs that make Scotland unique in the world. 

A United Nations of Britain?

When I visited the Dublin Irish writers museum I picked up a card that listed the best of them.

As I looked at the illustrations list I thought of all the great Irish culture and how much the world has benefitted from these Irish voices.

Which made me think also of Scottish voices – our innovations, our Scots songs, the Scottish Enlightenment. Then there are the wonderful Welsh choirs. I thought of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Turner, Wordsworth too and the great English writers and artists.

I thought of the nations of Scandinavia – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark – they were also once joined through a royal marriage.

For the past hundred years each nation has been able to offer the world its own unique voice and are stronger for it – while they are still the nations of ‘Scandinavia’. In fact their voices are an even clearer, unique and positive force in the world than ever before.

Finland offers one of the world’s best education system with highly trained teachers. Norway, Iceland and Denmark too offer a more collaborative approach to running society, that favours equality, fairness and hard work at its heart. All Scandinavian countries are flourishing as independent nations. There is no point looking at the US – the story there is so different - a newer place where each state is fairly autonomous and is more comparable to the EU.

Then I look at us here in this disunited kingdom of islands – the routes of division and discord, misunderstandings, wasteful squabbles, power sharing, disharmony, extreme inequality and class divisions. Many of these wounds run deep and will not easily heal, disappear or ever go away. There is really only a simple answer – to look over the North seas to our Scandinavian cousins and learn lessons of how self-determining nations are working in a healthy way both independent and together.

Perhaps we too on these islands, can be a United nations of Britain and I hope Britain does not only mean England? England has historically been reluctant to offer Scotland real federalism. This half way house of 30% tax and limited control of welfare is unworkable and for sure something has to give. This doesn’t compare well to other devolved nations or states in America  - such as Quebec, Catalonia – who control their immigration and taxes and broadcasting. Catalonia alone has four tv channels! While Scotland has none1

Knowing that Ireland used the pound sterling for 50 years after its independence, it was demoralising for our supposedly fair and equal union to hear that England would not allow Scotland to use the pound and also knowing that if the Bank of England refused to allow the use the pound, it would also have to refuse other countries access to do business in pounds sterling and was like shooting itself in the foot! Scotland felt bullied and told off like a naughty child told to go to its room to play with only the toys assigned to it.. 

Why would Scotland be like Greece – rather than Iceland, Norway or Denmark? We have more resources than Greece, better universities and R & D. Fear is not a good way to cement a happy union. Let us try to look forward with positive expectations.

It is strange Gillian Bowditch Sunday Times 5^th March, sees Scotland as diminished by wanting what other nations have – I see Scotland instead as empowered and flourishing in the belief we are as confident, capable and able for self-determination as any other peoples!