Skidmore's Island: England, Please Can I Come In?
...The girl said, “Don't forget to bring proof of your nationality.”...
Columnist Ian Skidmore is dumbfounded by a request for proof of his nationality.
To hospital to book a date to have yet another skin cancer removed. It is the Acne of the Aged.
The girl said, “Don't forget to bring proof of your nationality.” I was shocked. I said, “Young lady, the badge on my blazer denotes membership of the finest regiment in the British Army, the Veterans' badge was given me by a grateful country for the blood I spilt in the service of the king in NAAFIs all over Europe.
“My ancestors were invited to this benighted country by Edward the Confessor in 1033 AD to build castles to keep the Welsh at bay. Had they known that a thousand years later you were to insult us, we would have stayed in Normandy and you would be scraping cancers off hordes of chapel goers in suits made from old prayer book covers.”
She said, “Oh, wouldn't it be fun if you brought evidence of that!” “Your wish is my command, I told her.” I am taking my two-volume family tree. I am not a fan of the Fenland countryside but it is still England, which is more than can be said for the rest of the country. We have a large immigrant population but they are working on the land, doing jobs that our own people scorn. Having said that and speaking as an unashamed tribalist, I am delighted that the Government has decided there are too many immigrants. I object to the way a large Muslim population do not assimilate and in many places have stolen my country. They bring their home country with them.
That would not have been permitted in Ancient Rome. I am reading Bettany Hughes's delightful book on Socrates and I suspect there was a movement in Athens as well to control outsiders. In both cases, this was achieved by limiting the right to citizenship. Citizenship was much prized. Pericles introduced a law that said a person could only become a citizen if both his parents were.
Citizenship should be a qualification for the benefits of the Welfare State. By the same token (lovely phrase,)I cannot see why women cannot decide for themselves whether to hide their faces or adorn themselves with a crucifix. The idea of using relics of instruments of torture as expressions of faith puzzles me but it is no affair of mine. Are heavy veils to be banned as signs of mourning?
In the Late Middle Ages sumptuary laws governing dress were instituted as a way for the nobility to cap the conspicuous consumption of the prosperous bourgeoisie of medieval cities, and they continued to be used for these purposes well into the 17th century. But I see no reason for them now. The only necessary law would be against wearing full veils through customs. Simple to say that if you cannot show your face you cannot come into or get out of the country. Robbers wear masks to hold up cashiers. Are we to ban their use at parties? And what of the Venice carnival?
