Not content with having flogged off Britain’s gold reserves at rock bottom prices, and signed up Britain to what is a European constitution in all but name – something his predecessor vowed would not happen without a referendum, it now turns out that Gordon Brown personally authorised abolishing the image of Britannia on the country’s coinage.
Having appeared continuously on the country's coins since Stuart times when placed there to commemorate a naval victory over the Dutch, her presence there as a symbol of the country goes back much earlier to Roman times. Then she was thought a goddess who presided over the fortunes of the isles the Romans named 'Britanni’ after its indigenous populace, and from which she derived hers.
The Daily Mail is right to complain:
“[A] Government that claims it wants to promote Britishness, introduce a Britain Day and even get us to fly the Union Flag more often, has deliberately chosen to kill off a feminine, gentle, attractive symbol of our united country, that genuinely connects us with centuries of our past.
“Symbols have meaning and Britannia represents far more than just a woman sitting on a rock with a laurel leaf in her hand…. Britannia reminds us of the best of Britain: she is gentle, generous, yet also strong.
“Custom, habit, tradition, the past, pride and, if necessary, military strength: Britannia stands for much in our world that should be as important today as they were in Stuart times.”
Sadly, our present prime minister sees nothing of this.
No wonder so many of its former denizens are packing up their bags in record numbers and taking off for another pair of isles on the other side of the world.
New Labour… New Britain … Neutered Britain... Pissed-as-a- newt Britain...Superannuated Britain. But no more Great Britain, it seems.
Comments (4)
Simon:
i would agree with much that you have said.
what is interesting is the destruction of our national identity and the future consequences.
if there is no loyalty to the country because the country no longer exists as an identity, then i can foresee that society in this land will fracture along the lines of race, religion, and colour. I say this because humans have to have a sense of belonging it is the human condition, we are experiencing this with the growth of gang culture.
Posted by mike | February 2, 2008 6:00 PM
Posted on February 2, 2008 18:00
Brown's talk of Britishness is balls. He has a socialist notion of togetherness - class solidarity - which has never materialised and never will. People are loyal to their families, their forefathers and therefore to the natural fathers of whichever nation they belong to. Yes, all very "patriarchal" and "parochial" but it is the way things are. Out of hatred for these facts, Brown and his left wing acolytes have attempted to undermine nationalism from within, neutering it, depriving it of all spontaneity and stripping away everything which really defines it: the local, the unusual and the historic. That is another thing that the left hates about identity - it is so often accidental and offers living proof that history often is just that - accident. This new national identity is almost deliberately dead. It is a series of cant expressions and pious gestures which get nowhere near the rough, prejudiced, passionate human heart. It is the very opposite of instinctual. Leavis, thou shouldst be living at this hour. The "technologico-Benthamites" are well and truly in the saddle and all the sacred music of old England - of old France and old Italy and old anywhere for that matter - is silenced. Pounds, shillings, pence, miles, pints, boroughs, guilds, corporations, aldermen, "infants", fox hunting, wigs and gowns, academic excellence, cigars after dinner, grammar schools, regiments, Gilbert and Sullivan ALL have been enfeebled or defeated by the vile, home destroying left to the huge impoverishment of life. We shall see, however, whether this reign of dullness will last for ever.
Posted by Simon Denis | January 31, 2008 10:39 PM
Posted on January 31, 2008 22:39
Gordon Brown's dislike of Britannia could be based on the idea that the famous line from "Rule Britannia": "Britons never never shall be slaves", might be intended as a direct attack on his policy towards the European Union.
Posted by Peter Davey | January 29, 2008 5:24 PM
Posted on January 29, 2008 17:24
What is the problem with these people? Do they despise the UK, its history, its culture, its symbols,even the indigenous peoples of this island?
Strange, is it not, that they will gladly take the taxpayers' money from the very people they seem to hate?
Posted by Mike | January 29, 2008 12:28 PM
Posted on January 29, 2008 12:28