It isn’t enough to celebrate the Britain of today, we need to celebrate 400 years of the United Kingdom and over a thousand years of England. And that means teaching the myths, telling the stories
Who will teach these myths? Schools? I fear not. Get a class of kids singing "Boney was a warrior" or "Bold Nelson's Praise" (as we did at primary school) and you'd be accused of excluding marginalised voices and ignoring the diverse and contradictory forces that have made England/Britain. Its all going to be down to a handful of grandparents with old Ladybird books, a copy of Kim, and gifts of Sandbrook's Nelson, Hero Of The Seas for their bemused offspring's offspring. Can't see it happening.
It’s good to know the heroes, myths, history and stories of your own country. The problem is that there’s always someone ready to use them for their political agenda.
The country we probably both live in has had 4 names in the last 400 years: Kingdom of England until 1707, Kingdom of Great Britain until 1801, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1922 and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since. Like the size of government it just keeps getting larger.
Who will teach these myths? Schools? I fear not. Get a class of kids singing "Boney was a warrior" or "Bold Nelson's Praise" (as we did at primary school) and you'd be accused of excluding marginalised voices and ignoring the diverse and contradictory forces that have made England/Britain. Its all going to be down to a handful of grandparents with old Ladybird books, a copy of Kim, and gifts of Sandbrook's Nelson, Hero Of The Seas for their bemused offspring's offspring. Can't see it happening.
It’s good to know the heroes, myths, history and stories of your own country. The problem is that there’s always someone ready to use them for their political agenda.
The country we probably both live in has had 4 names in the last 400 years: Kingdom of England until 1707, Kingdom of Great Britain until 1801, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1922 and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since. Like the size of government it just keeps getting larger.