I sympathise with those who wanted us out of the EU because I myself know what it is like to want out of gruesome amalgamations. I've never liked the Yewk Aye, which, after all, dates only from the early 1920s, despite all the pseudo-History we unload on to gullible tourists..
My hopes for 2021? If Ms Sturgeon gets Scotland out of the Yewk Aye, that will leave it looking rather stupid, won't it? Then, as the Good Friday Agreement envisages, we could be heading into the zone where a referendum will draw nearer on the departure of the Six Counties into the Republic of Ireland. Splendid, as far as I'm concerned.
That would leave just the historical kingdom of England, together with what Bankers term "the Crown Dependencies": i.e., Man, the Three-legged island; and some fragments of the Duchy of Normandy. People might even learn to refer once again to the Atlantic Archipelago as "the Three Kingdoms". Sounds lovely, doesn't it?
I'm a simple soul. I could live with that. Especially if it meant we were spared seeing the (post 1800)"Union Jack" on flagpoles. A flag with absurd complexities. Enthusiastically 'patriotic' flag-flyers often fly it upside down by mistake. Would-be tourists to this island would do well to learn the design carefully just for the simple pleasure of counting the number of occasions they see it inverted. Are we the only country in the world in which the 'National Flag' is so commonly hoisted the wrong way up? What is the symbolism of this?
The flags with the most appealingly simple designs are, surely, those of Greece and Brittany. Nobody ever flies them upside down. Texas, ditto.
Moi? I think of myself as a Citizen of the Colonia Claudia Victricensis, my ancestral town. I am very proud of that. Very very proud. Like the man from Tarsus, I value what follows, the affirmation "Rhomaios eimi".
But ... oops ... Saul of Tarsus, himself a man not indifferent to matters of citizenship and civic pride, seems to have posed awkward questions to people who, like me, are over-proud of the citizenship of our coloniae: " humon pou to politeuma huparkhei??"
John Robinson pointed out the parallels between 'here we have no permanent home, but we are seekers after the city which is to come' (Hebrews 13:14) and 'Ye know that ye, who are the servants of God, are dwellers in a foreign land' (Shepherd of Hermas)
ReplyDeleteAs a proud resident of the state of Texas, I appreciate your shout-out to our excellent flag! The state flag does bear an uncanny resemblance to the Chilean flag - when walking past the Chilean embassy in DC I had to do a doubletake ("Texas has its own embassy?")
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your wisdom and humor, Fr. Hunwicke - keep up the great work!
Why not a free and independent Wales?
ReplyDeleteWhy not a free and independent Wales for the Welch?
ReplyDeleteNone of my business as an American, Father, but I do sympathize with your point of view.
ReplyDeleteYou are not the only one who might like to escape from a gruesome amalgamation. When you say that "That would leave just the historical kingdom of England", I am constrained to reply "Ydych chi wedi anghofio tywysogaeth Cymru?"
I don't think Fr. Hunwicke "has forgotten the Principality of Wales," Chris. While the Acts of Union of 1707 and 1800 united, respectively, the realms of England and Scotland to form a "United Kingdom of Great Britain" and then that United Kingdom and Ireland to form a "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" (further modified in 1921), Wales (strictly, only the Principality of Wales, not the Marcher lordships) was formally annexed to the English Crown in the Statute of Wales in 1284, and then Wales as a whole was fully incorporated into the realm of England by Acts of Parliament in 1536 and 1543. Sections of these acts were repealed in 1967 and 1993, and in 1998 the Government of Wales Act erected a Welsh Assembly (the Senedd Cumru), which since 2011 can legislate on Welsh matters without consulting Westminster. Curiously, though, the legislation incorporating Wales into England has never been repealed, although since 1967 legislation enacted by the Westminster Parliament has used the phrase "England and Wales," whereas it previously simply used "England," as a consequence of the "Wales and Berwick Act" of 1746; cf.:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales_and_Berwick_Act_1746
There was also a long-running, if low-key, dispute over whether Monmouthshire (now Gwent) was part of England or of Wales, only resolved in favor of Wales in the 1970s.
The flag of South Africa is flown inverted almost as often as not, especially at police stations.
ReplyDeleteI used to be an ardent Unionist but since becoming Orthodox, and therefore rejecting the bloodstained Norman policies, I'm happy to say that I am a little Englander.
ReplyDeleteWondering, dear Fr. H., given your admission, if you'd recognize the legitimate heir of Constantine XI Palaeologus your liege lord, if he could be found.
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