quote:
Originally posted by lazygamer:
Tis funny how shit works in other countries. I always thought England was one big happy family.
maybe england
is one big happy family (actually it isn't, but we'll get to that in a second) however scotland (which is certainly not, never has been and hopefully never will be, part of england) is not one big happy family. england has obliterated our population, and it was only a couple of hundred years ago. this is the sole reason why there are
twelve times as many english than there are scots. the ancestors of many canadians and australians (might i point out that both of those countries are
still part of the 'commonwealth') were scots who had no choice but to leave their country or be killed or starve because of england. i might add, most scots who were forced out of their homes did die. the few who made it abroad were most likely the lucky ones, even though they had to work hard to get any sort of living out of the new, unfamiliar and often hostile lands.
now, as to england being one big happy family, they should be one, shouldn't they? after all, they are getting money from selling scotland's oil (yes, the english helpfully sell our oil for us), their economy profits from scotland's various industries (such as tourism and scotland's various high quality exports) and their overpopulation problem is eased somewhat by the fact that they can go and buy property cheaply in scotland without having to worry about passports or anything of that sort.The english despite all this, do not seem to have a very happy country. many english people don't even admit to being english at all. most of the people in the northern half of england like to distance themselves from the south for many reasons, the welsh maintain they are not english even though they don't want independence on the whole, and even the cornish claim they are not part of england (which is justified i suppose).
It seems that many english people are ashamed of their englishness, and in my opinion rightly so. England, sadly, is one nation i could not be proud of if i came from there. Their country has been responsible for too much injustice and hurt that it has never repented for. Unlike many other countries who have commited atrocities, england has never attempted to make amends, and it still retains the air of aloofness that makes it think it is somehow better than the rest of europe and by extension the rest of the world.
Again, nothing against the english personally, just i think their nation and government have a lot to answer for, and also i like to say these things since awareness brings change and since i think many international readers may not be as aware of the history of 'britain' as perhaps i am.