Sunday 24 September 2017

I have never felt at home being part of the United Kingdom

Lets face it Prime Minister  Theresa May's claim that   “the United Kingdom has never totally felt at home being in the European Union”  certainly has an element of truth in some quarters.

I suspect that in Europe there has also been a feeling that somehow the UK has never really been a willing partner .

But as I write this I realise that never totally felt at home being in the United Kingdom more so than I have not wanted to be part of Europe.

Wales may have been under the control of the English Kings since the conquests of Edward I and had been ruled as a principality. This meant that some laws were different in Wales to those in England. 

This ended with the  Act of Union with Wales between 1536 and 1543 as a result of a series of laws passed in the English Parliament ended that  and we have been under English rule ever since.

For Scotland The two countries had shared a monarch since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his double first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I. Although described as a Union of Crowns, until 1707 there were in fact two separate Crowns resting on the same head (as opposed to the implied creation of a single Crown and a single Kingdom, exemplified by the later Kingdom of Great Britain). There had been three attempts in 1606, 1667, and 1689 to unite the two countries by Acts of Parliament, but it was not until the early 18th century that both political establishments came to support the idea, albeit for different reasons.

Wales of course was considered part of England in the Act in reality no longer existing.
The Acts of Union were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland. Followed by The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes erroneously referred to as a single Act of Union 1801) united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801.


In all that time  there was those who never felt truly part of the United Kingdom'

Ireland was the prime example and parties like the Liberals and Labour embraced the idea of Home Rule all round

When the major part of Ireland left in 1922 much of the engine that drove Home Rule in Wales  and Scotland died away , until the 1960 when Plaid and the SNP began winning seats in the UK Parliament.


Over 700 years since the conquests  and nearly 500 since we were Incorporated into England many Welshmen and Women have never felt at home in the United Kingdom (rather England).

Indeed some may well share my feeling that being part of a "Nations of Europe" that recognises our existence is infinitely better than part of  where we are considered to be "Poor West Britons" by those who see Britain meaning  England.


1 comment:

Cibwr said...

Very well put, sums up how I feel very well