Are you an immigrant?

Strictly speaking, we all are. 

There's plenty of evidence now that humanity walked out of Africa, maybe 200,000 years ago, spread through the Arabian Gulf and moved east and west till we had populated most of the globe. Even the bits that seem uninhabitable at first glance. 

What were our ancestors looking for? Land to occupy. A place to settle. They didn't work the land then, although they learned how to as time went on. They were very adaptable. They survived a mini ice age and huge changes in the landscape of the places they settled. They met other species of hominids and intermingled with them. 

In the case of the British Isles, people may have walked across a land bridge from the European continent. They may have sailed from many parts of the mainland to settle here. The 'occupation' of Britain started about 13,000 years ago but it went on for a long time. 

In Scotland we're only now finding out about our genetic history. Now that we have access to DNA sampling, we can get closer to our origins.  

Bronze Age people probably came from Scandinavia. This is Ava, whose grave (3,500 years old) has been found in Caithness. 

It's thought the Picts also originally came from northern Europe a couple of thousand years ago. 

The Norsemen also came from the north of Europe over several centuries.  

The Celts on the other hand, who knows where they came from? Probably not the north. It used to be a romantic thing, to imagine your ancestors were Norsemen. But the Celts are much more interesting. They didn't flee across Europe and end up in backwaters at the edge of the known world, as we've always been told. They were master craftsmen (and women) whose work has been found all over the world, from China to India - all along the Silk Road - to every corner of Europe. They worked in metal. made swords and knives, and precious objects made of silver and gold. They travelled to find customers - and sources of the metals they needed. They were a very successful community. The evidence for that is that they could be found in so many places: eastern Europe, Germany, Galicia in Spain, Brittany in France, Ireland, Cornwall in England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man. They arrived in the British Isles in two waves: Goidelic-speaking Celts between 2000 BC and 1200 BCE and the Brythonic-speaking sometime in the period 500 BC to 400 BCE. 

It's worth remembering that the winners (like the Romans) wrote the story of the Celts and that's why we've come to believe so many lies about them. 

The Brythonic (Brittonic, Briton) people who settled vast areas of Wales, Scotland and England were Celts. They also lived in offshore islands such as the Isle of Man, the Scilly Isles, Orkney, the Hebrides, the Isle of Wight and Shetland.

England had its own invaders after the Celts. We know about the Angles and the Saxons (5th century) because everyone in the British Isles has been fed a sold diet of English history for centuries. But these people were not the original English people. They were immigrants too.   

It's also worth mentioning that the first black people to appear in Britain were probably Roman soldiers from many parts of the Roman Empire. Some of them settled here about 1700 years ago. They're entitled to claim they are more 'British' than a lot of us. 

All of the above can be verified by historical research. 

In the modern era, Britain has seen immigration from the Indian sub-continent, from France (Huguenots like Farage's family), Italy, Poland, Africa. the West Indies. Not in numbers that would suggest that any of these groups could ever take over any country of the UK in the way the Celts or the Anglo-Saxons did. Instead, they worked and settled here. 

So how have we ended up in the position where some people (and not just in England) think you have to be able to lay claim to Anglo-Saxon heritage in order to be British? How has it come about that someone like me can be accused - as I have been a few times - of being anti-British, pro-independence, living in an ivory tower (and worse) for stating any of the facts above? And for suggesting that the richness of life in these islands has to do with the mix of people who live here? Never mind that in Scotland we really need this mix to go on prospering, whether we gain our independence or not. 

How have we ended up with a UK prime minister who has set up a policy to deter people from coming to the UK, even if we need them? And who has in fact set up a system where people who came her 50 years ago on the invitation of the UK government are being deported or told to go 'home'?

I have to ask: is it the black faces among the immigrants that bother people? I don't think so, since most Europeans don't have black faces and they make up the bulk of foreign workers. 

Not that only white people are capable of prejudice. My Chilean niece was asked by a shopkeeper (who was obviously of Indian descent but a Glaswegian to listen to) why a Muslim woman was going around with a white man.

Is it all foreigners that some British people fear? If so, why? People from the EU seem to be targets at the moment. But why? They come here and work hard, often in jobs British people don't want. They pay their taxes. They don't claim benefits. They work to send money back to their families. 

I see them in the library, where they are emailing their families back home. One guy I saw recently was being consoled by a friend because his mother was very ill and he couldn't be with the family. 

The guy who brings my shopping from Sainsbury's is Polish. And a nice guy. Sainsbury has been unable to recruit drivers for years now. This is quite common - Tesco has the same problem: drivers have to pay to be trained. It costs big time. Drivers then take on any kind of driving work, in the hope of building up their hours and moving on to a decent job. Supermarkets don't pay well. As soon as they can, they move on.

I think what most annoys me is the lack of respect for, not just foreign workers but all workers. It's okay for journalists to get agitated in newspapers and on TV about any threat to their middle class way of life - as Brexit will be. What about the people who in fact do the work that keeps the UK going? The drivers, cleaners, mechanics, secretaries, plumbers, shop workers, gas engineers, nurses, classroom assistants, shopfitters...

British people have been sold a pack of lies by people like UKIP and the Tories: their enemy is not the immigrant or the poor or the scrounging worker. It's UKIP and the Tories.