Wednesday 8 March 2017

First we have Fake News. Now Melanie Phillips brings us Fake History.

A English ( I am deliberately using English)   journalist has sparked outrage online after she questioned Ireland’s claim to nationhood in an opinion piece for The Times

Melanie Phillips wrote the column in the wake of Sinn Féin’s surge in last week Northern Irish elections and amid heightened speculation that Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon might seek to hold a second independence referendum in the coming year

Even more weirdly she dismisses claims that Northern Ireland — is intrinsically British. But no, Phillips clarifies:
“The Unionists hate this being said but they are not British. They’re the bit that got tacked on to Great Britain to make the UK.”
However She writes

 "Does this mean the Westminster Government, should tear up the Good Friday agreement and bid farewell to Northern Ireland . No because it has an obligation to Unionist and Ireland itself has a tenuous claim to nationhood, having seceded from Britain as the Irish Free State only in 1922,” 
Britain, by contrast, is an authentic unitary nation. It didn’t begin with the union with Scotland but as the British Isles, an island nation defending itself (or not) against invaders from across the seas. Throughout its history, it was beset by attempts at secession by tribes across Hadrian’s Wall [the historic Anglo-Scottish border] and across the Irish Sea.”
"Er this was when parts of these Island were under Roman Occupation  who were invaders from across the sea." and who were followed by Anglo Saxon Tribes who eventual united to form England

Like many a Unionist Ms Philips seems to confuse England and English history  with Britain even more so

She went on,,


 “It is a curiosity that the SNP and Sinn Fein want to leave the UK in order to remain in Europe. In other words, they want to reclaim powers from Westminster in order to surrender them to Brussels,” she noted.“Scottish nationalism and Irish republicanism are cultural phenomena rooted in romanticism and myth and hatred of the other in the form of the English or the Protestants… Britain is a nation with the right to rule itself. It is the EU which is the artificial construct, the imagined community that falsely claims for itself the hollow appurtenances of a nation… Faced with the contemporary resurgence of regional or tribal uprisings, it’s the ancient British Isles that must hold itself together to take its place once again as a sovereign nation in the wider world.”

As for Wales, 
it’s simply a bit of land with a language, having ‘lost its separate identity’ when it was ‘subsumed into the English legal system by Henry VIII’.


Even J K Rowling who was eligible to vote in the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, and campaigned for the "No" vote. and She donated £1 million to the Better Together anti-independence campaign (run by her former neighbour Alistair Darling) was prompted to Re-word the column,
 She wrote: 


"Scotland is the nation with the right to rule itself. It is the UK which is the artificial construct, the imagined community that falsely claims for itself the hollow appurtenances of a nation.
"Faced with the contemporary resurgence of far right populism, it is the ancient land of Scotland that must regain its independence to take its place once again as a sovereign nation in the wider world."

Ms Phillips interpretation of History would be laughable if his was in some obscure right wing blog.It was in the Times a so called "Quality!" newspaper.

First we get Fake News now we have Fake History paralytic from the right .

How long with a UK government officials s reportedly describing a post-Brexit Africa-focused trade policy as “Empire 2.0.” will we see Mrs May arguing that this and Ms Phillips interpenetration is taught on the curriculum?

2 comments:

Frank said...

Have only just seen this comment, so here is my `two penny-worth`. Just how far should you go back in history to justify the happenings of today, one generation, two, maybe three, or maybe one hundred years, even two, or three or even longer ! We are where we are now, I don't think Ms Phillips was at all trying to change history. Nations have become nations through history, Denmark is Denmark, Holland is Holland, Italy is Italy and all the other nations of Europe are themselves and should remain themselves, that is what I suspect Melanie is saying when it comes to the EU. You cannot cobble together a nation overnight, as the EU seems to be trying to do, this is what todays fight is all about ... look at the United Nations, does that work as a Federalist State, if the `powers that be` had attempted to do something like that, instead of trying to assimilate many cultures into one nation, it might have worked ...it wont now. Converting an Empire into a Commonwealth might just do it ...

Called as Watchmen said...

Sometimes "fake memories" can overpower, in our minds, "fake history". Does not necessarily make it so. But sometimes there are points and people that can never be convinced or proven, no matter what. Sometimes it is just better to smile and nod, just leaving certain oints and people alone. Might avoid arguments and hatred in those who might be so inclined.