As I understand it Bonnie Prince Charlie didn't speak English or Gaelic. Had he succeeded in his ambitions the Scots would be speaking French and probably under the thumb of the French who would have been bankrolling him.
By the way, my concern about the ability of Scotland to fund itself is borne of my Scottish ancestry even if I am now an exile. Should they become independant I'll apply for a Scottish passport then, with dual nationality, I'll be able to decide which bunch of idiots I want to be ruled by.
James I did try to impose unity by merging the churches of Scotland and England but the former were too depressingly Calvinist for the English to stomach and the Scots saw the church of England as being too Catholic. he did, however, grant grace and favour to many of his cots nobles which put many English noses out of joint. It was when his descendants reverted to Catholicism that William Of Orange was invited in and then when that lot proved childless they offered it to a German prince, way down the line of succession, because they needed a Protestant.
As for Northern Ireland, the Protestants there are descendants of the Scots that William of Orange brought in to fight against the Catholic insurgents and then settle there to maintain his victories. That's why there are "orangemen" parading to celebrate ancient battles and burn ludicrously large, environmentally unfriendly bonfires.
The "orangemen" are so enlightened about human rights that as late as 1968 you could only vote in NI if you paid local rates and to do that you had to have income and the system was fixed so that the Catholics were most likely to be unemployed, have poor housing and thus not pay rates and thus have no votes.
Discrimination against anyone for their sex, sexuality, abilities, race, colour, creed, nationality is just stupid and we should have grown out of it by now, knowing as we do that the world is round, was not made in 7 days and is not the centre of the universe. The world is a finite place with finite resources. we need to get along and collaborate and cooperate to make it better for all, and not just the humans.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Now you're just 'aving a larf.... I'll give you Caratacus - yep, that's him, the one wot invented the flying chariot based on his cousin's Phaeton's earlier designs. Dick Van Dyke portrayed him in a moving film allegedly.
Why do people who want to belong to an ethnic group always stop at a point? Irish history (from the little I've read) is one bunch supplanting another isn't it? Ditto Scottish history - why Picts or Gaels - didn't they just nick the land from someone else? Is there any country in the world where the people are truly indigenous? And if not, why reject one bunch that invaded, but embrace another? I really don't follow that at all.
England/Wales/Ireland and Scotland to be just seem to be a hotchpotch of migrating tribes (and sometime invasions). I'm no more Angle than I am Norman or Saxon Or Reprobate (although the last one is questionable eh?). I am here because I was born here - because someone in my dim and distant past decided to come here. But that's just fluke isn't it - I couid have been born in France - and France would be my home (even though I can't speak French).
I like that idea that Scotland is under the influence of England. It's not because there isn't an England parliament to exert the influence only a parliament of the Union. However England does get a lot of Scottish influence. Ignoring the fact that Scots have had a higher representation on cabinets over the years than population size would indicate. They've also had Scottish MPs voting on laws only affecting England or England and Wales. Scotland has its own high level of devolution but it has always resisted any attempts to give English matters to English MPs. EVEL was one very bodger solution but it is being or has been scrapped?
My view is either completely end selective devolution and have one parliament with one set of laws and judiciary. Religion is an private matter IMHO. Or have full and equal devolution in the form of a democratic federal system. A final system is complete end of the Union. Cut everyone loose from each other. Even if Scots get independence there's still issues with remaining devolution. Which is why I think one goes independent they should all do so.
If Union stays then devolution needs to be equal and I'd say devolution for Northern England should be included in that.
BTW an amateur Brythonic language expert and historian of Welsh history once explained the Celtic languages to me. Another source with perhaps greater claim to knowledge informed me that modern Welsh has its origins in a tribal grouping that was in control of an area from South Cumbria through to Cheshire and even Wales. I think they were called the Omric. They basically got kicked out by a bigger rival to the North East. They then worked there way south eventually living in North Wales. Their language evolved into old Welsh which then changed into modern Welsh? That was told by a guy who was strongly proud of being Welsh born and bred.
Cornish language officially died out in the early 1900s I believe when an old lady who was the last native born Cornish speaker. They did however know enough of the language and similar types of Celtic languages to bring the language back.
In some ways that's close to the Catalan language except it never actually died out, perhaps Gaelic is closer to Catalan with small pockets of Ireland where Gaelic was the first language of a majority of people. Catalan had plenty of villages and small towns who used their language in preference. The cities it had died out in. There was one linguist who campaigned for it to be taught in schools. That got made local law IIRC so schools be taught it. They brought it back from not extinction but from close to the edge.
I think Cornish campaign for its language and culture is like the early days of catalonian actions with their language I think.
Should it too have devolution or independence? Possibly the former but the latter is extremely risky IMHO.
It seems our stone age ancestors were linked with the whole of Europe and even further afield. There's bodies buried in UK who originated far be and wide before settling here back in the stone age. Could we be more open back then than now?
We're all mongrels anyway. Not one of us is English or Scottish we are many races and cultures and origins. Apart from a very small proportion of course.
Aren't we multi-coloured anyway? Isn't that the stupidity of all the bigotry? We are all a fluke of circumstance - of cause and effect. That's it. Hopefully I've got black,brown, yellow..whatever in me. What does it matter? The problem is the other way surely - where you get Shaun's like Philip IV with the Hapsburg jaw as a product if in-breeding. More diversity. Although I do draw the line with any one of my clan having children with anyone on the current front bench.
Sorry about your news - from one that's been there. You do come through the other side - maybe not quite the same person, but you do come through. You'll tackle and handle it in your own way - but Shaun's are there to be leant on when you need them.
It may help if we stopped categorising by colour - I am supposedly White but if I compare my skin colour ( even in the depths of winter ) to the background - "white" - which I am typing on now - there is no comparison. It also seems a bit odd why "white" people do all they can to alter their skin colour - sunbathing, tanning salons, fake tan products. Who the hell cares what colour a person is ? It's the person that matters surely and the more we persist in this colour rubbish, the more we divide ourselves. If that isn[t Curmudgeonly enough for this thread, it's also raining - again !
Posts
As for Northern Ireland, the Protestants there are descendants of the Scots that William of Orange brought in to fight against the Catholic insurgents and then settle there to maintain his victories. That's why there are "orangemen" parading to celebrate ancient battles and burn ludicrously large, environmentally unfriendly bonfires.
The "orangemen" are so enlightened about human rights that as late as 1968 you could only vote in NI if you paid local rates and to do that you had to have income and the system was fixed so that the Catholics were most likely to be unemployed, have poor housing and thus not pay rates and thus have no votes.
Discrimination against anyone for their sex, sexuality, abilities, race, colour, creed, nationality is just stupid and we should have grown out of it by now, knowing as we do that the world is round, was not made in 7 days and is not the centre of the universe. The world is a finite place with finite resources. we need to get along and collaborate and cooperate to make it better for all, and not just the humans.
My view is either completely end selective devolution and have one parliament with one set of laws and judiciary. Religion is an private matter IMHO. Or have full and equal devolution in the form of a democratic federal system. A final system is complete end of the Union. Cut everyone loose from each other. Even if Scots get independence there's still issues with remaining devolution. Which is why I think one goes independent they should all do so.
If Union stays then devolution needs to be equal and I'd say devolution for Northern England should be included in that.
BTW an amateur Brythonic language expert and historian of Welsh history once explained the Celtic languages to me. Another source with perhaps greater claim to knowledge informed me that modern Welsh has its origins in a tribal grouping that was in control of an area from South Cumbria through to Cheshire and even Wales. I think they were called the Omric. They basically got kicked out by a bigger rival to the North East. They then worked there way south eventually living in North Wales. Their language evolved into old Welsh which then changed into modern Welsh? That was told by a guy who was strongly proud of being Welsh born and bred.
Cornish language officially died out in the early 1900s I believe when an old lady who was the last native born Cornish speaker. They did however know enough of the language and similar types of Celtic languages to bring the language back.
In some ways that's close to the Catalan language except it never actually died out, perhaps Gaelic is closer to Catalan with small pockets of Ireland where Gaelic was the first language of a majority of people. Catalan had plenty of villages and small towns who used their language in preference. The cities it had died out in. There was one linguist who campaigned for it to be taught in schools. That got made local law IIRC so schools be taught it. They brought it back from not extinction but from close to the edge.
I think Cornish campaign for its language and culture is like the early days of catalonian actions with their language I think.
Should it too have devolution or independence? Possibly the former but the latter is extremely risky IMHO.
We're all mongrels anyway. Not one of us is English or Scottish we are many races and cultures and origins. Apart from a very small proportion of course.
Nobody would be Black , or White within a generation or two.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Who the hell cares what colour a person is ? It's the person that matters surely and the more we persist in this colour rubbish, the more we divide ourselves.
If that isn[t Curmudgeonly enough for this thread, it's also raining - again !