Way back when I was in school I used to carry a notebook everywhere I went to record daily thoughts and observations. So you see, ive been blogging since before it was popular and where better to carry it onward than to give it a digital page of its own? Welcome to the pages of bar fly Hollywood Francis...
Tuesday 16 September 2014
Auld Hamish Went Away
Prime Minister makes heartfelt speech
Its all been said before. Politicians, singers, actors, bloggers, even the shy walking-the-dog types who do little more than gaze out at the seas, minds content in a happier place. So Dai Jakes will cast his shilling into the cap as well. This week Scotland votes yes/no to Independence which will herald a new 'dawn' for Great Britain. We will all be affected: Wales, England, Northern Ireland, not just the Scots (and by the way, it is Scots and not "Scotch" as some (usually foreigner) have written. Scotch is a drink).
Now as a proud Welshman, and 100% Celt, one would think I'd be up for this Independence lark. Who knows? If it worked out for Scotland, then us Welsh could try it too and in my heart it all sounds grand. Its perfect in fact, I can feel my Welsh soul dance with the music it was born with.
But alas my head thinks opposite. My mind is filled with doubts and what ifs? and is weighed down by the simple fact that should Scotland choose to break from the union, hundreds of years of history will be shattered. Not forgotten, or cast away like some moth eaten rug but definitely shattered.
We have defended this great island for over a thousand years as one, and during two world wars our fathers and grandfathers fought not as Scos or Welsh but as British. We were, we are Great Britain, stronger and better together. There is too much risk in splitting such a wonderful nation who lets not forget has given the world so much.
As Stephen Glover writes today in the Mail Online:
"I know I will grieve on Friday morning if my country, Britain, has been voted out of existence. Millions of people will feel likewise. The end of the nation that has done more than any other to shape the modern age, and saved the free world as recently as 1940, is really too big an idea to get one’s mind around."
I 100% agree with Mr Glover in this. Our tabloids speak of a 'Broken Britain'? Come the end of this week, and should Scotland go its own way, then we shall know of a broken Britain. And I for one will mourn for it.
