Tory MP compares Welsh identity to being a ‘Londoner’
A Tory MP has compared Welsh identity to being from the city of London.
Andrew Bowie, who represents West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, has described the UK as a “hotchpotch of backgrounds and identities”.
He gave being Welsh as an example and added that the British can also be “proud Londoners or Aberdonians”.
The Conservative politician made the comparison in an essay for Strength in Union, in which he makes the case for preventing the breakup of the UK.
He wrote: “I am a Scot. I was born in Scotland and brought up and educated in Scotland. I now have the immense privilege to represent the north-east of Scotland, my home, in the House of Commons. And I happen to believe it is the best part of the best country in
the world.
“But I am also a Brit. And proud to be so. I am as at home in London as I am in Aberdeen. That, for me, is the greatness of our country. We are four peoples in one. The British: a hotchpotch of backgrounds and identities but with shared values.
“We can be proud Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish, English. We can be proud Londoners or Aberdonians. Muslim or Christian. We can be a mixture of all of the above and more and still be British. That is the beauty of our brilliantly confused melting pot of a country. It is what makes us who we are.”
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USSR and Yugoslavia had similar failed perspective!!!
Yugosalvia was a figment of Tito’s imagination made manifest by Soviet money and power, that did not outlive him for long.
Regretfully it will take more than a leaders death to solve our problem.
Yes, this little project has outlasted the silly 20th century ones. Thankfully, the ideas the justify it are terrible and increasingly unfit for the age. The crown is rusting, the unicorn is starving and the lion has no teeth. The sooner your average English James and Janet see that their neighbours are actually neighbours and not tenants living in some distant wings of their crumbling country house the better.
Without being nasty, it truly looks like Elizabeth the Last, with the podgy jester clowning around in yet another hard hat, yellow today, blue tomorrow?
But we must be smart, wounded beasts are dangerous.
How about I just be proud of being Welsh without some gimp adding a fake nationality on top of it?
Seconded. I resent this sixth-former in his first pair of long trousers trying to tell me what nationality I am.
What does he know about Welsh indenity?
He is well know in the gimp circles
Whatever you mean by ‘British’ as part of your identity – cool, fine. But not all of us have that as part of the list, and some of us make a compelling point as to how nefarious such a cultural identity is, given the history (as a geographic identity it is fine, of course). But still, it’s OK for you to be ‘x’ and British. That still isn’t a justification for the maintenance of a Union that has not been serving her people since its inception. So why all the harping about Britishness as an identity in conjunction to maintaining… Read more »
Also known as “cultural chauvinism.” A form of prejudice. These Tories have made their prejudice against Wales demonstrably clear this week. We should certainly hold them to account for it and pull their pathetic arguments to pieces.
The more they try to ram ‘British’ identity down my throat the more I look into history and see what a monstrous empire it was and still is, literally rape, murder and pillage on an industrial scale from enforced famines to the mass enslavement of millions of Africans. They were the best in the world at doing these sorts of things and our complicity should not be ignored but we should realise that we are second class in our own country and put and end to this abuse from Westminster for the sake of our children and grandchildren
Just another kisser of the Westminster backside handing in his homework.
2/10 must try harder.
His next assignment: tasting notes on the various boots he’s been tasked to lick. What would the Scottish Gaelic equivalent of Dic Sion Dafydd be, I wonder?
A Gordon Brown?
“A robust, nutty bouquet with a hint of peerage. Please sir, may I have another?”
So, if I listen to these Tories, this week I am like a Yorkshireman, a north England man, and today I am like a Londoner. Shall I start a game where we all pick an English city, or region, and if a Tory compares us to this place you are the winner. I will start with Geordie.
Shut up and get in line, Scouser!
Now just you behave, no matter how much you claim to be a Londoner you ain’t getting the money or the investment. (London gets over one quarter of all UK public spending on transport)
Who invited this Brummie?
Boy looks like the product of some malfunctioning robotic production line chucking out aspiring Tory clones. As long as the Q.A. guy at the end of the line approves them they’ll keep coming out like this. Cheaper to use cardboard cutouts and those would be less likely to spout rubbish !
It’s important we reject the Tories false equivalences. They are attempting to equate Britishness with Unionism. One does not have to support the UK to feel British. Britishness is a cultural affiliation with the island of Britain. Unionism is the belief that the Nations of Britain should coexist within a single political state constitution. British Nationalism is the belief that Britain is one nation. Listen carefully to the words these Tories speak. They are British Nationalists. They have moved beyond Unionism. If you believe in Wales, if you consider Wales to be a Nation, these Tories will belittle your identity… Read more »
Being a Londoner is comparable to being to an Aberdonian or a Cardiffian. They are cities and not countries. Being Welsh or a Scot is comparable to being English.
The problem is though the English national identity is frowned upon by the English themselves by both the left & the right, therefore we have little distinction between between English and British identities. But this is not the fault of the Welsh or the Scots.
How can the identity of being Welsh be compared to a Londoner, lol? 🤣 The only connection I can find with London, besides all our money being syphoned there and our antiquities being held hostage at the British Museum, is us Welsh founded their city-state and named it so. The origin of the placename London (or Londinium) has a Cymry-Latin root. First two parts are ancient Welsh with the Roman Latin suffix ‘ ium ‘ added on the end. The first word Lon is Welsh and translates as lane or Isle, and Din is also Welsh meaning Fort or Foundry.… Read more »
Trinovantum?
I lived as a Londoner and as honorary Welsh for several decades each. There are indeed similarities. I left London for Wales when the Tories began damaging society in the 80s I’d also partnered with a Welshman who loved London – then. But London no longer seemed like the city we knew and loved for so long. Particularly under the leadership of Ken Livingstone who nurtured many freedoms and equalities. London is so vast and complex and colourful it can be just like a country in its own right. But there are major differences this Tory MP is stupidly, or… Read more »
The UK is finished Wales 🏴 Scotland 🏴 and Ireland 🇮🇪 got to be Free from England we in wales Scotland and Ireland have got to stop being little Englanders and be proud to be independent start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in your own country
Britain is not a country
Correct. Britain is an island; British is a regional identity; the UK is a state, or more accurately a self-contained empire dominated by one nation; Wales is a nation; Aberdeen isn’t; neither is Britain.
Can’t remember when British became Welsh, did the language evolve around AD 600? We should use language as historical argument, though.
Sorry for ignorance.
There it is, above this article: History of Wales in 12 Poems, Wynn Thomas.
Real Londoners scarce now. We must box clever, calmer to prevent same.
Gather at the center and hold.
This young fellow is a poor advert for education north of the border…
Ac ydy’r tebygrwydd rhwng ni a Llundeinwyr yn golygu eu bod nhw hefyd yn siarad eu hiaith eu hunain, tybed ?! ~ And does the similarity between us and Londoners mean that they can also speak a language of their own ?!
What does he know about how Welsh people feel about their idenity? It would be like me commenting on what it is like to be Scottish
I am Welsh and European whatever he might think, it is not for him to tell me what my idenity is. Cymru am byth