Thread by @BingoDemagogue

@AuthorMonika No; we have been British here long before we were Scottish. British comes from 'Pritani' which is what the people here called themselves and the whole island before the Romans invaded.

@AuthorMonika When the Romans were here they Latinised this to Britannia, but also, for example, the Vindolanda tablets found at Hadrian's wall record the locals north of the wall as 'Britunculi' ' the little britons'

@AuthorMonika Looking at the post Roman period the 'scots' were Irish pirates who started to invade and colonize from the west. There has been a tribal split known between the 'British' - which covered the central belt where most of 'Scots' still live now, and the 'picts' to the North.

@AuthorMonika Now the latest research on the Picts suggests from their language that they and the 'British' had an originally common source and both from a same root proto-british language.

@AuthorMonika Then if you move forward to the Declaration of Arbroath - it literally says that the Scots invaded from Ireland and 'expulsis primo Britonibus et Pictis omnio deletis' - 'first routed the British then destroyed every single Pict'

@AuthorMonika Now what I imagine you will find in other answers is a lot of nationalist revisionism of this history. Most Nationalisms call back to an idealised, often fictional and rural, past. It seems there's an effort to do this deliberately in Scotland.

@AuthorMonika Education has become politicised in Scotland. Teaching materials feature the SNP logo and talk about Nicola Sturgeon. The history lessons feature *literal* fake history; things that didn't happen but bolster the Nationalist identity. heraldscotland.com/news/18922509.…

@AuthorMonika Or you might find, for example "Robert the Bruce" being taught ; but only a very small part of his life that is relevant to the current constitutional agenda. You won't find, for example the facts that;

@AuthorMonika Latest research shows he was born in Essex. That he was lord of the manor of Tottenham in London. That before he switched sides he invaded Scotland with an English army! That he married at the English king's court.

@AuthorMonika That after Bannockburn, he married off his son to the sister of the English king he had fought at Bannockburn on order to cement Scotland and England politically; the Queen is a direct descendant!

But you can get attacked just for pointing these out.

@AuthorMonika Part of the issue is the fallacy of 'civic' Nationalism that there *is* some correct Scottish viewpoint or identity. There isn't identity is individual..

@AuthorMonika Like; in chasing remain votes it's been successfully framed as though the SNP are pro-EU, and the Yes / No split is the remain / leave split. This isn't borne out on several levels. Not least of which; how we actually voted.

@AuthorMonika Combine that with the SNPs *actual* track record on the EU; they are PEUINO pro EU in name only.

canva.com/design/DAEUXQt…

@AuthorMonika The truth is, some will consider themselves #JustScottish , and I guess that's up to them even if it seems closed minded. Some will consider themselves just British, or just polish, or polish Scottish, or German-scot-european.

@AuthorMonika Most people in Scotland probably consider themselves overlapping Scottish British depending who is asking and what the context is; if it's a Scot-Eng Rugby match or a Team GB Olympics.

@AuthorMonika I use Ulster-Scot occasionally, I guess that's a fair demographic description anthropologically. But philosophically I think we need to move beyond Nationalist identity politics to Kosmopolitanism.

@AuthorMonika "Of Diogenes it is said: "Asked where he came from, he answered: 'I am a citizen of the world (kosmopolitês)'"

@AuthorMonika Global citizenship is the opposite of Nationalism; and look at the traits associated with it.

Doesn't that sound a better aspiration than a #JustScottish or #ScotlandFirst mentality?