THE letter from Ronald Livingstone McNeill (Jan 10) revisits the “Britain” myth. Changing the name of lead to “gold” does not make it gold, or change its value, no matter how many people use the new name!
Changing the name of England or the island of Great Britain, to “Britain”, and all the residents “British”, does not change the reality either! “Britain” simply does not exist. Therefore, it can have no nationality!
Don’t argue! Cartographers deal in facts! There is no island called Britain off the coast of France. It has been a remarkably successful political ploy, intended to show England’s ownership of the island and, of course, specifically, Scotland.
The earliest known name of this island was “Prettanike”, which the Greek Pytheus referred to, and the later, better-known name adopted by the Greeks, of Albion, was superceded as the Romans found the place populated by Britons, and called it Brittania.
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Then, as they worked their way north, they met a more powerful foe, in a country the Romans named Caledonia. We now call that place Scotland and the people Scots! The Britons eventually were pushed over into Wales, and today we know them as the Welsh.
So the island was known as Albion, but the conquering Romans called it Brittania (after the people they found there!) until they reached what we now call Scotland.
They had to build a few walls then, to protect themselves, but it was quite clear that the island was clearly established as having two countries, two peoples, Brittannia and Caledonia, British and Scots. The Romans called them “Scotti” because they thought them to be Irish, but that’s another story.
Move on a bit, and the Romans had gone, leaving England open to invasion, and they poured in! The Britons simply couldn’t cope and they were pushed further and further west, into what became Wales. The place they left behind was filled with Jutes, Saxons, Norse, Gauls, Huns, Angles and more. The hotchpotch of all those languages that were used in that place, was a real mixture of tongues, and became known as Anglish and then English, and accounts for the untrustworthy and illogical spelling of our words. The Ak became the Oak. (Though we retained the acorn). So, the name of that land followed suit, it being logical that the English speakers lived in England!
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But it is clear now that the term “Britain”, derived from the Romans, simply didn’t apply, and in fact was no longer used.
In 1600 and a few a Scottish king was crowned King of England as well. He really wanted to be king of a new country, which now covered the whole island – he even invented a name for it, Great Britain. But it wasn’t a new country, and didn’t become one either.
Calling GB “our country” and “British” is, as I said, an age-old political trick. It’s odd though to find that the English (and even some Scots) are happy to deny their heritage, and be called British, even though it can only truthfully be applied to the Welsh.
Those that benefit richly from Scotland’s wealth only use terms like “our country” and “we will”, as though “we” were a nation.
Scotland is our nation. It was that even before the Angles came, before the Normans too. Remember this, we are not making a new country, but intending to regain control of our own resources.
The word “British” has been fed into our subconscious by the BBC and the system; this makes it no less of a lie, a scam, a conceit.
Please don’t use the words “British” or “Britain”. They exist only to eliminate Scotland!
We’re not taught this at school of course! Yet!
Christopher Bruce
Taynuilt
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