Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[Edwardian]

11 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Isn't it the other way round: Canada is several provinces of Scotland, one of them even named accordingly?

 

I do actually think that Canada and Scotland would get on quite well together. 

 

Well, there are cities in Canada that resemble nothing so much as towns built by Scotsmen populated by Frenchmen, so there may be something in Stephen's and your ideas  ...  

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Edwardian
spelling!

[alastairq]

6 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I think that was always a bit of a one-way relationship - France was only interested in Scotland when it could be used to annoy England.

  For 'France', I now add in, the ''EU?''

 

Indeed, I foresee any overtures towards a de-Unionised Scotland, by the EU, as being for the reasons you describe above...

 

Buffer stops just north of Berwick, looming?

 

My long-deceased senior family always led me to believe, 'our' family had a Scottish heritage. Indeed, my maternal grandad was born in Melrose...which I believe is still in Scotland even today?

More recently [courtesy of an ex-wife] I discovered my paternal side to my 'family' actually stemmed from Ireland!

 

No-one on my mother's side ever mentioned anything about 'Ireland', the snobby getz!

[Edwardian]

Oh for an Irish grandparent!

 

[Cried he in vain]

[alastairq]

2 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Well, there are cities in Canada that resemble nothing so much as towns built by Scotsmen populated by Frenchmen, so there may be something in Stephen's and your ideas  ...  

 

 

 

 I think Canada has to be grateful it was 'just that?'

 

It could have been much worse!

 

There could have been serious numerical links with Wales, for example?

 

Canada already suffers from having to have everything written in both ''english [small 'e'] as well as french!

Imagine the size of the note paper headings [or road signs?] if everything in Canada had to be written in english, french, and welsh??

[alastairq]

2 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Oh for an Irish grandparent!

 

[Cried he in vain]

  Sadly, or otherwise, both for me, and Ireland as a whole [sorry, shouldn't be saying that just yet, should I?], The irish link goes further back in time, to more like,  my great grandparents?

My paternal grandfather has his profession listed on my father's birth certificate, as ''Airship Clerk!''  

Seeing as he resided in Barrow-in-Furness, where England built its version of the Zeppelins, I am not surprised.

 

Oddly, I have never ever visited Barrow-in-Furness.  Got close, but no bananas, sadly.

 

I wonder what an ''Airship Clerk'' actually did with his time?

 

Of note, I have outlived all the known males on my Father's side of the family, by more than a couple of decades.

 

Thanks, no doubt, to my vocational driving licences needing a medical at age 45, and being placed on blood pressure pills for the rest of my natural?

 

[rocor]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

 Oh how I long for the return of he days when French people referred to us brits [English, unless wearing kilts]... as 'Les Rosbifs?'

 

 

In the modern era, maybe 'patte arrière de porc séchée' would be more appropriate.

[alastairq]

5 minutes ago, rocor said:

 

In the modern era, maybe 'patte arrière de porc séchée' would be more appropriate.

 A bit of a mouthful to get off quickly? 

[rocor]

2 minutes ago, alastairq said:

 A bit of a mouthful to get off quickly? 

 

Well it is French, so that when enunciated, at least half of the letters in the words are ignored.

[Edwardian]

19 hours ago, alastairq said:

 

 

There could have been serious numerical links with Wales, for example?

 

 

 

 

Welsh Countdown:

 

"I'll have a consonant please, and a consonant, and another consonant, and another consonant, and a consonant, and another consonant ....",

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by Edwardian

[Adam88]

Don't forget that today, the 20th of May, is Eliza Doolittle Day.

[Caley Jim]

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

But you've reminded me of option three: a pan-Scandinavian union. 

Shetland has always been threatening to seek to go back to Norway, of which they were originally part.

Quote from Wikipedia : -

 In 1469, Shetland was pledged by Christian I, in his capacity as King of Norway, as security against the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III of Scotland. As the money was never paid, the connection with the Crown of Scotland became permanent.[Note 7] In 1470, William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness ceded his title to James III, and the following year the Northern Isles were directly absorbed to the Crown of Scotland,[69] an action confirmed by the Parliament of Scotland in 1472.[70] Nonetheless, Shetland's connection with Norway has proved to be enduring.[Note 8]

 

They always point out that they are nearer to Oslo, 410 miles, than to London, 600 miles.

 

As far as the Auld Alliance is concerned, then yes, the common enemy played a big part.  I always feel that the friendship between Britain and Portugal had a similar basis - a common enemy in between!

 

Jim

[Edwardian]

12 minutes ago, Adam88 said:

Don't forget that today, the 20th of May, is Eliza Doolittle Day.

 

 

[alastairq]

In keeping with the de-unionisation theme....

 

[Regularity]

7 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Blair's most brilliant application of this was "she was the People's Princess".

I always loved the inherent irony in that statement: not sure if he got it, but if he did, he certainly didn't care.

 

7 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

But you've reminded me of option three: a pan-Scandinavian union. 

Which we were getting so close to having, if it hadn't been for those arriviste nouveau-francais "Normans"...

[Regularity]

47 minutes ago, alastairq said:

In keeping with the de-unionisation theme....

 

England's will be similar, but due to outsourcing the means of production to one of the PM's chums with no experience in this field, the crew will be literally heading up a creek without a paddle...

[Compound2632]

I had been going to remark, oh so wittily, that Scotland is, apparently, already a major naval power, posting a photo of a Russian battleship. Unfortunately I discovered, to my chagrin, that the Russians wear their saltaire inside out.

 

[alastairq]

25 minutes ago, Regularity said:

if it hadn't been for those arriviste nouveau-francais "Normans"..

 Vikings in disguise [or, mufti?], as it turns out. The French wanted nothing to do with them!

[Regularity]

They inter-married pretty quickly, and took up the language and culture sufficiently enough to cease being Vikings in any meaningful sense.

[Nearholmer]

24 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Unfortunately I discovered, to my chagrin, that the Russians wear their saltaire inside out.

That warship is flying the flag of Nova Scotia.

 

 

This is the (semi-official) flag of another part of Scotland’s far-flung empire.

 

 

Nouvelle Caledonie.

 

After a bit, they ran out of ways of discreetly naming territories ‘New Scotland’ and gave up on empire-building. That’s what I was told anyway.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

After a bit, they ran out of ways of discreetly naming territories ‘New Scotland’ and gave up on empire-building. That’s what I was told anyway.

That probably happened after the disastrous Darien Project, which bankrupted Scotland and led to them going cap-in-hand to the English Parliament for a union.  A fact which many Nationalists seem to be either unaware of or conveniently ignore.  History has a habit of repeating itself!

 

Jim

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Nouvelle Caledonie.

 

After a bit, they ran out of ways of discreetly naming territories ‘New Scotland’ and gave up on empire-building. That’s what I was told anyway.

 

That was Cook. The principal island reminded him of Scotland, so he didn't land.

[DIW]

11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

If an independent Scotland can't re-accession to the EU (thereby preventing a federation with Ireland, which would be my alternative proposal) becoming a Canadian province might be a way forward.

 

10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Isn't it the other way round: Canada is several provinces of Scotland, one of them even named accordingly?

 

Would it become 'Velha Scotia'?

[Nearholmer]

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

That probably happened after the disastrous Darien Project

Was stout Cortez a Scot then?

 

I only mention him, because I always think of him standing silent upon a peke. Which is a cruel thing to do to any small dog.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

That probably happened after the disastrous Darien Project, which bankrupted Scotland and led to them going cap-in-hand to the English Parliament for a union.  A fact which many Nationalists seem to be either unaware of or conveniently ignore.  History has a habit of repeating itself!

There is also the accusation that England stood by and didn't help. Possibly true, but since the whole enterprise was an attempt to set up a rival trading empire in competition with England, then maybe not really surprising. I mean, if the positions were reversed, would the Scots have been any different? We shall never know, of course.

[Compound2632]

Just now, Regularity said:

There is also the accusation that England stood by and didn't help. Possibly true, but since the whole enterprise was an attempt to set up a rival trading empire in competition with England, then maybe not really surprising. I mean, if the positions were reversed, would the Scots have been any different? We shall never know, of course.

 

The East India Company was active in attempts to frustrate the scheme, taking legal action forcing English, Dutch, and Hamburg investors to back out. The Darien colony was on territory of the Spanish Empire; England was at war with France and could not afford to offend Spain.

 

Also, capitalism, with its assumption of growth, had not yet been invented. The prevailing economic theory, mercantilism, held that there was only so much trade to go around, so any trade coming Scotland's way would probably be at England's expense.

 

(I've been reading the Wikipedia article. But I did read a book about it once - I think Norman Davies' The Isles has a chapter.)