Phillip Hosking:

"English imperialism was the driving force behind the creation of the ‘UK’.

It was not the Scots, Welsh, Cornish and Irish that decided on the British project and who then subjugated the English."

In 1603, was King James VI the driving force behind the british project?

On 12 April 1606, a new flag to represent this regal union between England and Scotland was specified in a royal decree.

What about Seymour vandeleur?

What does Nova Scotia mean?

What about new south wales?

What about Perth in Australia?

Dun Edin - Edinburgh is in New Zealand? How did it get this name?

What about Aberdeen? Places with this name can be found in no less than 34 locations around the world, including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Antigua, Guyana, South Africa, and Sierra Leone. And there are 18 Aberdeens in the USA!

Are you stating that all these names became place names by accident?

Phillip Hosking:

"For many years before devolution Britian was simply greater England to the vast majority of English people."

Stereotyping again Phillip?

Phillip:

"Many Indians and Pakistanis where willing partisans in the empire but you’re not going to try and tell me that it was a British/Indian project are you?"

I dont see what this has to do with the issue.

By the way, what does the advent of the British empire have to do with me or any of my English patriot comtemporaries? We werent alive!

What Philip Hosking completely fails to acknowledge is that - three hundred or so years ago every country that could build an empire was trying to do just that.

The French were at it, the Germans/Austrians/Hungarians were at it, the Dutch were at it, the Scots had a go in Panama, the Ottomans already had a massive empire etc.

It was an age when the strong did what they wanted and the weak did what they were told (times haven't changed enough eh). If Cornwall hadn't been part of an "English empire" it would have been part of the French or Spanish (same for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

"For many years before devolution Britain was simply greater England to the vaste majority of English people."

You can't blame the English people for that. The English have been the most Brit brainwashed of the Island peoples. We've have been told for three hundred years that we're British not English. Don't be surprised that the hard of thinking are finding it difficult to adjust back from British to English.

The best bet for an independent Cornwall remains an independent England.

In response to your second comment, Philip, which I've just seen - it was British, not English imperialism. This conflation of Britain with England (which, as Charlie points out, even the Mail managed to get wrong) is part of the overall problem. Plenty of Scots forged that Empire - and a few Cornishmen too.

Thanks for linking to this Anthony. Readers might like to know that there's another extract/rewrite planned for the Mail this coming Monday - and also that the Guardian will be running an extract in their magazine on 29th March.

As for Philip's point: personally I would agree that what is good for the English is good for the Cornish, provided that's what a majority of Cornish people want. There's a fair bit on the Cornish situation in my book, especially with regard to second homes. Politically, much of this situation stems from a lack of democracy and local accountability.

But as Anthony suggests in his intro, I would also make the case that the marginalisation of Cornwall stems from the same root as the current marginalisation of England - an overweening and increasingly illegitimate British state. I would like to think that English, Cornish, Scottish and others could unite on this point.

Replace England and English with Cornwall and Cornish and you have a pretty good description of the Cornish scene.

Before we suffered the onslaught of globalised Mc Culture we faced English cultural homogenisation and still do.

Surely what is good for the English is good for the Cornish?

Yet another irony is that English imperialism was one of the driving forces behind the globalisation that is being bemoaned.

What would the Cornish scene be without English cultural homogenisation Hosking?

I think it would be still like England.

It is a shame that the Mail printed an excerpt from the book with a headline naming "Britain"... Oh well, can';t win them all.

Paul's message will strike a chord with many but, though I've not yet had the fortune to read the book, I must correct your comment that it contains "an economic argument pitched in class terms against the influence of global corporations". My understanding is that this is not expressed in class terms in the classical sense.

English imperialism was the driving force behind the creation of the 'UK'. It was not the Scots, Welsh, Cornish and Irish that decided on the British project and who then subjugated the English.

This English imperialism within the British/Irish Isles then snowballed into British imperialism, but considering the vast majority of its proponents where English, the capital of the Empire was England's and most of the people involved couldn't tell the difference between England and Britain anyway I don't see much difference. For many years before devolution Britian was simply greater England to the vaste majority of English people.

Many Indians and Pakistanis where willing partisans in the empire but you're not going to try and tell me that it was a British/Indian project are you?

It seems to me that ordinary folk all over the British Isles are suffering at the hands of an overweening British state, which itself plays handmaiden to rapacious commercial interests. and giant corporations.

It seems to me also that ordinary folk all over the British Isles have a common interest in resisting this trend, and in working towards more devolution, local democracy and cultural integrity.

So I do find it frustrating when some of them are distracted from this task by petty prejudice, xenophobia and a knee-jerk dislike of people whom they regard as of a different nationality. Some English nats are certainly guilty of this, as are some Scots. And some Cornish, apparently, for whom the word 'England' brings out a Pavlovian reaction.

Sadly, it's self-defeating. I support the Cornish case for further autonomy and cultural self-determination. If there's one thing that mind change my mind, though, it's Cornish people having a pop at me because of my nationality.

Back in Imperial times, this was called 'divide and rule', Philip. You're turning away potential allies. Wise up.

Conflating England with Britian is what the Daily Mail do, I have complained to them often about this culminating in a very long email conversation with one of thier editorial staff, it became so tiresome it was like watching paint dry so I gave up, I have read the two extracts and will hopefully being seeing you Paul at the CEP conference if you can make it