Emma Raducanu and Marcus Rashford can stop Welsh and Scottish independence says Gordon Brown
Sportswomen and men like Emma Raducanu and Marcus Rashford can stop Welsh and Scottish independence by showing that British nationalism can be based on inclusion and diversity, Gordon Brown has said.
According to the former Prime Minister, the multicultural diversity represented by the two sports stars challenges the “muscular unionism” of Boris Johnson that attempts to “subsume Englishness, Scottishness, and Welshness in an all-consuming Britishness”.
He said that “unity does not require uniformity and solidarity does not demand the elimination of regional and national differences”.
“To be British does not mean having one identity. Citizens can be comfortably Muslim, English and British,” he added.
“Only a minority now believe that the main characteristic of being British is that you were born in Britain. It is possible to be born in Canada of Romanian and Chinese parents and be, like Emma Raducanu, a new British sporting icon.
“It will be a Britain whose unity evolves out of our diversity and is built on a shared belief in equal rights guaranteed to all, with personal responsibility the duty of all.”
‘Crisis’
This was in contrast with the form of Britishness now being promoted by the Conservative party, he said.
“That is why Boris Johnson’s ‘muscular unionism’ simply plays into the hands of Nicola Sturgeon and her plans to provoke a constitutional crisis next year,” he said.
“Describing the UK as ‘one nation’, he is abandoning the bigger idea – and better reality – that we are a ‘family of nations’. He wants to badge new Scottish roads and bridges as British, as if hoisting more Union Jacks will make people decide they are only British and not also Scottish or Welsh.
“Once the champion of more powers for London, he now sees devolution outside London as ‘a disaster’ and – ironically for an avowedly small-state Conservative Party – its Internal Market Act and Shared Prosperity Fund override devolution in favour of bolstering a centralised unitary state run out of London SW1.”
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Always wondered why Gordon Brown is such a strong supporter of “The Union”. Having just returned from Scotland I wonder if at least part of the reason is that for many “The Union” is code for the “Protestant Ascendancy”.
Sectarianism still exists in Scotland – nothing compared to the divisions in Northern Ireland of course. But found with Orange Orders and where football support is determined by one’s religious affiliation.
I’ve never seen Gordon Brown as anything other than ‘old’ Labour, and not ‘sectarian’. But he is “the son of the Manse”. Just a thought.
Desperate stuff from Brown. He should read his compatriot Tom Nairn. It’s economic inequality that’s driving the break up of the UK. People in Wales & Scotland are waking up to the fact that the UK is a Tory stitch up and they want their own nations to exercise their own political power rather than a despicable Tory party with no mandate to govern us. Brown’s Nationalism like that of the Labour party shackles Scots and Cymry to a Tory rule that we don’t vote for. Disgraceful.
Yes, Gordon, you can identify however you wish. Please don’t assume that we identify with you or any other British exceptionalist, those who (necessarily) preclude the Welsh and Scottish bits of the broader British identity (rendering it meaningless, save as a tool of a small coterie of elites). You can feel British, define it however you wish and still want a sepearte state for Wales – try as you might, our identity still exists, and can be all they things you just vapidly ascribed to Britishness (but with a far older, real history). Marcus Rashford is a good footballer. Emily… Read more »
We will be free nations…………. in Europe!
Free first, then we can decide on EU membership – I’d probably be pro, joining the new ‘hanseatic league’ to grow alongside Estonia et al. But I think there may be decent arguments against too. I’m sure we can conduct a process for both decisions in a better manner than recent referendums…
That’s okay, I don’t insist.
btw notice, that Brown doesn’t assail the now quasi-fascist Tories for Nat. Ins. contribution increase, attacks on judiciary, power grabs from Cymru, N.I. and Scotland, rather he attacks people who want their countries to be free and decent societies. So he betrays the very people who traditionally vote Labour.
…………..Mr Drakeford, you seem very quiet at the back there?
Yeah. I usually balk at the use of the F-word when discussing contemporary politics, but it seems to be increasingly apt re the current Westminster government. Is it any shock that a cash-glutton plutocrat like Brown would low-key side with them? His version of the Union is no less autocratic, it simply dons a better PR mask borrowed from the American culture wars.
So this fat judas liars answer is to shove more English people down our throat and trying to shove HIS IDENTITY onto us while expecting us to turn our back on our real life identity that isn’t a political union between two foreign countries.
I don’t know how he expects us to identify with Marcus Rashford when our government didn’t deliberately starve children from poor backgrounds during a pandemic. To me, this shows me how incompatible we are being linked to a country with people who would do that to children. If anything what Rashford did shows me we are nothing like the English because it would never have got to that point. I applaud Rashford for what he did, but he did it for his own country because the rest of the UK didn’t go down that child abusing path.
Is this the same Gordon Brown who praised Gascoigne’s goal in Euro 96 against his own country?
Marcus Rashford plays for England and not the United Kingdom – big difference.
As for Emma Raducanu (put her Canadian and Romanian heritage aside for one second) will her British identity ever be called into question the same way Andy Murray’s was because he was Scottish?
If you want to fight for the Union – first things first. Stop treat the UK as if it were an extension of England.
Emma might be off to Monaco or some other lightly taxed sun spot as soon as her advisers suggest a move. No reason for her to stick with a nation of flip flopping racists.
Oh, please. Is this failed former Prime Minister who sold-out his country Scotland to Whitehall serious? Is this the man as part of New Labour voted to introduce ATOS, a private agency employed to terrorise the disabled & unemployed. A man who as chancellor sold half of Britain’s gold reserves at rock bottom price losing billions. Who was recorded insulted a voter by calling her ” some bigoted woman” who merely asked s civil question after his microphone was accidentally left on. He now thinks an England football international and a Chinese-Romanian Canadian tennis player can stop either Scottish or… Read more »
Especially like the Private Frazer quote at the end!
Diolch. 😎👍
Well said but you could add the same man who gave away over £200 billion on PFI projects to private entrepreneurs because he wanted to take those costs off the books whilst Chancellor to look good and enhance his chance of becoming PM. Also, remember how he removed the 10 pc tax rate, affecting the poor, so that he could reduce the basic rate and earn some Brownie points with the Daily Mail. This and Brown’s views that matters affecting Cultural issues in Scotland and Wales can be solved through promoting UK sportspersons suggests his brand of unionism is little… Read more »
Thank you. Yes, so much to say, so little little room to say it I can recall back in 1997, Gordon Brown & New Labour project happily continued with Tory policies whist in government, and how Brown & Blair invited Thatcher to Downing St for tea. Blair even stated how much he admired her. This should have rang alarm bell with Labour voters. Sadly they were blind to the obvious where us Nationalists were alert and observant. And as you highlighted with the removal of 10 pc tax rate that affected the poorest in society. Most Labour voters were in… Read more »
We are not so dumb as to base our political opinions on the likes and dislikes of young sportspeople, even less so on the ramblings of a Quisling.
Why is it Blair and Brown still ‘Labour’ under the misaprehension that they have anything relevant to say. We had high hopes of ‘New’ Labour. It gave us 10 year break from the even worse Conservative and Unionist Party, but failed.
A prolonged period of silence would be appreciated from both of you.
F off and let us work it out for ouselves.
Radford, Raducanu and others might have a go at saving the Union, but one thing for sure Brown could save any bloody thing. Butter fingers, garbled thinking, unsure of his position, he’s all over the place. Blair knew that, he worked Brown a treat while developing his own warped vision with the daft Jock toiling away in the background trying to legitimise all sorts of deviant schemes. And in the end left to inherit the mess as the financial house of cards came tumbling down. Yes indeed Gordon is so full of good ideas !
Sorry Gord, we can respect our neighbours sports people, especially when they are wonderful people with fantastic stories, without wanting to hold our country back in an outdated union we never agreed to join.
Can someone explain to me why, for an erstwhile statesman and world leader, he can’t grasp the simple concept of this issue not being a binary choice between being in bed together in this ghastly union which does no favours for anyone in it, and jettisoning all that we share. What about hidden option 3, a Britishness that exists outside of the hegemony of London and the South of England? His logic is of the pub blowhard or other common or garden bigmouth: black and white, up and down, in or out. Bore off, Gordo!
Siaradwch chi drosto chi eich hun Mr Brown
Since I find spectator sport tedious in the extreme, I really don’t care how overpaid sports luvvies identify themselves.
Gordon Brown really is struggling to defend the Union here. These two young sports stars are products of their own vision and determination, their parents and families, their friends, their local communities, their schools and sports teachers, their supporters, the sporting authorities that have recognised and encouraged the development of their talent, but, if I might say so, neither has shown any particular political affiliation and, in the case of Marcus Rashford, the young man has underscored the failings of Central U.K. Government by his personal interventions on behalf of he poorest and alienated of this island. The victims of… Read more »
Clyw, clyw 👏
Yes we must strive for more equality but that will never happen in the UK as Westminster does not see the UK as a collection of equal nations. London is one of the richest areas of Europe but 150miles down the road, in the Welsh Valleys, is one of Europe’s poorest areas – that is not right but as long as we stay in the UK that is how it will remain. Independence will at least give us a chance to change this issue. Mr Brown you must see this, that no amount of pushing for the Union will change… Read more »
Brown is an effing idiot.