Much like BLT mentions upthread, my early experiences of English/Welsh difference came with football, and particularly the Chester/Wrexham matches. I have always disliked the toxic nature of the match and this is no doubt down to anti-Welsh and anti-English feeling although I do feel that there is also a fair amount of anti-Chester and anti-Wrexham feeling as both sets of fans are much more alike than they would ever like to admit (there are loads of Welsh Chester fans, as I am sure everyone knows) but I do think this match attracts the type of fan who is very similar to the stereotypical English nationalist - I remember one match at the Racecourse where the Welsh national anthem (I think) was sung by someone - I didn't hear any of it because of the booing. The anti-Welsh element when playing Swansea, Cardiff and Newport is there but is nowhere near as prevalent. I do think by it's very nature, living in a border area does tend to heighten animosity.
What this match has probably done is to give me a life long dislike of nationalism and whenever I have discussed the nature of the UK with Scottish and Welsh friends I have always looked at it from the viewpoint that the cultural imperialism was very much driven by the Elite or Establishment or whatever you want to call them, and these people are very much the same people in all nations of the UK, often with their roots from the Normans whose family still own the majority of the land. I always tried to highlight this with examples from my own family history (experiences of Irish/Welsh immigrants to England) but have also tried to look at it as a class thing too - the working class of England were also very much exploited and oppressed by the ruling class of the UK, and I believe the ruling class here were just as happy to do this as they were with the working class in Wales and Scotland.
Hopefully Wales will eventually escape the sinking ship we live on and it's interesting to see how the movement has moved away from how it was often seen in the 70s - more a rural Welsh speaking thing. When I was studying Welsh nationalism at college in the 80s the course leader (who was Welsh and was something to do with Plaid I think) emphasised that for independence to succeed it had to become attractive to non-Welsh speakers in the big cities which is something I think is now being done. How this would look in somewhere like Saltney where the border runs down the middle of the street would be interesting - it may be that some of the border would have to be adjusted.
I would much rather live in a world with less borders, as others have said, and very much would rather see myself as European if pushed to declare what I am - I have never wanted to describe myself as English as English nationalism is so repellent and loaded with the knowledge of just how many people in the world we have oppressed.
What this match has probably done is to give me a life long dislike of nationalism and whenever I have discussed the nature of the UK with Scottish and Welsh friends I have always looked at it from the viewpoint that the cultural imperialism was very much driven by the Elite or Establishment or whatever you want to call them, and these people are very much the same people in all nations of the UK, often with their roots from the Normans whose family still own the majority of the land. I always tried to highlight this with examples from my own family history (experiences of Irish/Welsh immigrants to England) but have also tried to look at it as a class thing too - the working class of England were also very much exploited and oppressed by the ruling class of the UK, and I believe the ruling class here were just as happy to do this as they were with the working class in Wales and Scotland.
Hopefully Wales will eventually escape the sinking ship we live on and it's interesting to see how the movement has moved away from how it was often seen in the 70s - more a rural Welsh speaking thing. When I was studying Welsh nationalism at college in the 80s the course leader (who was Welsh and was something to do with Plaid I think) emphasised that for independence to succeed it had to become attractive to non-Welsh speakers in the big cities which is something I think is now being done. How this would look in somewhere like Saltney where the border runs down the middle of the street would be interesting - it may be that some of the border would have to be adjusted.
I would much rather live in a world with less borders, as others have said, and very much would rather see myself as European if pushed to declare what I am - I have never wanted to describe myself as English as English nationalism is so repellent and loaded with the knowledge of just how many people in the world we have oppressed.
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