Why should children be force-fed jubilee?
THE wailings and gnashings of teeth from the Tories concerning the Welsh Government’s decision to allow schools to opt in or out of the distribution of the Jubilee Book is more predictable than forecasting the winner of a one-horse race. The Welsh Government, for all its faults, should be applauded.
This publication is another
attempt by a desperate, centralising Tory government to impose an English unionist view of the history of these islands on all who live in them, regardless of their own nationality or history. Indeed, the history of the English in relation to the other nations is a pretty grim one. One of invasion, subjugation, the confiscation of land and the replacement of indigenous laws by those of England.
Welsh laws, codified under Hwyel Dda, were both superior and more progressive than those of England imposed by the Acts of Union under Henry VIII. I certainly don’t want this drivel about the English royals rammed down my grandchildren’s throats as it was rammed down mine. Welsh pupils should be taught the history of their own country, not this imperialist English claptrap.
The Queen herself is presented as a gracious person but she is still the matriarch of one of the most dysfunctional families in Europe. The “Windsors” are descended from the Hanoverians brought over from Germany in 1714 by the English protestant elite to prevent a Catholic succession. Possessed of enormous inherited but unearned wealth they are nevertheless handsomely remunerated from the public purse which shells out for their numerous grace and favour houses, among other things.
Laura Anne Jones, Tory shadow education minister at the Senedd, says Labour does not want children to be proud of British institutions and the UK’s past. I can find little in either the history of the English
royals to be “proud” of.
The £12m this book has cost to print would be far better spent helping people who are in increasingly desperate need both in Wales and throughout the UK generally. As would dissolving the English monarchy and using its vast wealth for the benefit of society.
I Seaton Mumbles