Saturday, 4 October 2008

Being English...

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

I think it was Oscar Wilde once said, 'Being an Englishman is to belong to the most exclusive club in the world.' He was dead right as he was on many other things. But it is not a bed of roses. I have walked this world much and, at times, felt like a leper. Consider:

- should we not have dismissed the Celtic aspirations to nationality and moved forward as the United Kingdom? You don't hear of Bavaria or Tuscany fighting for secession or independence. And you don't get Germany or Italy fielding several quasi-national sides in major sporting events.

- are we honestly to blame for all the shit that has happened since so much of the Empire either won or was given independence?

- and then there was the Uganda border post where I was spotted smoking where I shouldn't, threatened with imprisonment or deportation. Told that 'us English' thought we ruled the bloody world. Well, I just never saw the 'No smoking' sign

- we are crap at sport or so we are led to believe so why is it so important to beat us?

- the democratic values of this state, created after Hastings, and developed over the successive hundreds of years have served this world well (by and large). Do you really want to adopt China's set of values?

- and now for the conspiracy theorists. Do you honestly think that politicians used to sit down in London and ask themselves, 'How can we screw Sierra Leone tomorrow?' Grow up! There was no grand strategy. It was all built on opportunism and the ability to trade.

I don't feel in the least bit guilty, so there!

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