When 'Britain' Chose Europe
I've just read an article by Simon Schama in the Financial Times. He's a brilliant man, is Simon. I don't know anything about the FT because I've never read it.
https://www.ft.com/content/68c8efa8-39df-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0?fbclid=IwAR2Qs9LYRKbmsm1V_jN0S8-xxpLPO_17vS8cetsJ2ZISVkp_Q8iozbw05c8
The events Schama is writing about involve Richard Cobden and John Bright. I'm sure both these names came up when I did my Higher History 50-odd years ago. These men were active in public life in the period that all Higher History students in Scotland studied: the Industrial Revolution. We heard all about the rise of manufacturing and about other topics that now sound frankly odd: like the Corn Laws and the Repeal of the Corn Laws.
But Cobden was responsible for this:
<<the first free-trade agreement of the industrial era: the 1860 Cobden-Chevalier Treaty, which sharply reduced duties on goods flowing between those ancient enemies, Britain and France.>>
And this is the sentence where I started to look more critically at Schama's article.
Let's start with 'those ancient enemies, Britain and France.' France was not the ancient enemy of Britain - if by Britain, you mean the United Kingdom. If by Britain you mean England, then yes, that's the case. England invaded France and occupied large areas of it for a long time. But France was the ancient ally of Scotland, never an enemy.
The words 'Britain' and 'British' appear throughout Simon Schama's article.
It seems there was hysteria over the possibility that the French were building ships to invade 'Britain' in the 1850s but that really meant England.
When Schama compares what happened back then in 1860 with the current brexit fiasco, I have to express some alarm:
<<Some of the standard rhetoric of All-For-Englanders would have seemed depressingly familiar to him: the imputation to the continentals of devious, quasi-despotic plots; the blandishments of trade some sort of cover for invasion, if not by ironclads, then by commercial conspiracy.>>
In fact, I think Schama and a lot of English politicians are deluded. The hostile attitude to and dislike of the French have never changed since Cobden's time. In fact, it seems many English people dislike a lot of other Europeans ('continentals' as Schema calls them). French people are still referred to as 'Frogs.' The Germans are also loathed and referred to as 'Huns.' Italians are still for some English people 'Dagos.'
Anti-European racism is rife since brexit. We've got Polish people being told off for speaking Polish among themselves. EU workers, who for English racists at least have the benefit of having white skin, are leaving and being replaced by black people - the immigrants that the English xenophobes really dislike. But you can't get your fruit and veg picked or your building sites manned or your care homes staffed any other way.
And we even have the laughable situation where a Welsh family speaking Welsh were told to 'speak English.' In their own country.
My friend JP puts this down to Thatcher's 'dis-education' programme of the 1970-80s. Just when England should have been educating its young people to see that the Common Market/EU as a great opportunity, the Thatcher government reduced access to information in schools, with less and less time given to history and geography. (You can even see it on TV quizzes, where contestants say cheerfully: this isn't my strong point: general knowledge, history, geography, science, literature, etc)
In Scotland, we don't really encounter anti-European hatred. Anti-black racism, yes. We have that and it would be stupid of us to deny it. Some also say we're too busy hating ourselves for speaking Gaelic and Scots. Not to mention tolerating religious bigotry that should have no place in the 21st century.
https://www.ft.com/content/68c8efa8-39df-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0?fbclid=IwAR2Qs9LYRKbmsm1V_jN0S8-xxpLPO_17vS8cetsJ2ZISVkp_Q8iozbw05c8
The events Schama is writing about involve Richard Cobden and John Bright. I'm sure both these names came up when I did my Higher History 50-odd years ago. These men were active in public life in the period that all Higher History students in Scotland studied: the Industrial Revolution. We heard all about the rise of manufacturing and about other topics that now sound frankly odd: like the Corn Laws and the Repeal of the Corn Laws.
But Cobden was responsible for this:
<<the first free-trade agreement of the industrial era: the 1860 Cobden-Chevalier Treaty, which sharply reduced duties on goods flowing between those ancient enemies, Britain and France.>>
And this is the sentence where I started to look more critically at Schama's article.
Let's start with 'those ancient enemies, Britain and France.' France was not the ancient enemy of Britain - if by Britain, you mean the United Kingdom. If by Britain you mean England, then yes, that's the case. England invaded France and occupied large areas of it for a long time. But France was the ancient ally of Scotland, never an enemy.
The words 'Britain' and 'British' appear throughout Simon Schama's article.
It seems there was hysteria over the possibility that the French were building ships to invade 'Britain' in the 1850s but that really meant England.
When Schama compares what happened back then in 1860 with the current brexit fiasco, I have to express some alarm:
<<Some of the standard rhetoric of All-For-Englanders would have seemed depressingly familiar to him: the imputation to the continentals of devious, quasi-despotic plots; the blandishments of trade some sort of cover for invasion, if not by ironclads, then by commercial conspiracy.>>
In fact, I think Schama and a lot of English politicians are deluded. The hostile attitude to and dislike of the French have never changed since Cobden's time. In fact, it seems many English people dislike a lot of other Europeans ('continentals' as Schema calls them). French people are still referred to as 'Frogs.' The Germans are also loathed and referred to as 'Huns.' Italians are still for some English people 'Dagos.'
Anti-European racism is rife since brexit. We've got Polish people being told off for speaking Polish among themselves. EU workers, who for English racists at least have the benefit of having white skin, are leaving and being replaced by black people - the immigrants that the English xenophobes really dislike. But you can't get your fruit and veg picked or your building sites manned or your care homes staffed any other way.
And we even have the laughable situation where a Welsh family speaking Welsh were told to 'speak English.' In their own country.
My friend JP puts this down to Thatcher's 'dis-education' programme of the 1970-80s. Just when England should have been educating its young people to see that the Common Market/EU as a great opportunity, the Thatcher government reduced access to information in schools, with less and less time given to history and geography. (You can even see it on TV quizzes, where contestants say cheerfully: this isn't my strong point: general knowledge, history, geography, science, literature, etc)
In Scotland, we don't really encounter anti-European hatred. Anti-black racism, yes. We have that and it would be stupid of us to deny it. Some also say we're too busy hating ourselves for speaking Gaelic and Scots. Not to mention tolerating religious bigotry that should have no place in the 21st century.
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