Posted: Mon Dec 7, 2020 10:04pm
Nationalistic jingoism is one of the reasons that Brexit it happening! Where we were born is just a accident of nature but where we choose to reside, is our personal choice and doesn't mean that we are "turning our back on the UK". Are people who choose to move out of London to go and live in in Yorkshire, "turning their back on London" or just moving to the country? Or are you only considered as being a traitor, if you dare to move outside the current borders of the entire country? I consider myself a citizen of the world, of the EU, of the UK and of Hampshire but that's where I was born and I owe no allegiance to it as a place. In 1983, I chose Spain as the country that I wanted to live in and the Canary Islands as the place that drew me to it at the time. Since then, I have moved around several times within the island of Tenerife, then moved to Lanzarote and lived there for 15 years and have just moved to Murcia, where my next adventure is about to begin, once Murcia opens up the municipal closures. All the places that I have lived have left me with wonderful memories and I expect there to be more as time goes by. None of those places owned me or demanded my undying love and I definitely do not consider that I have to exercise some sort of flag-waving nonsense to prove my identity. I've been working on my family tree for the past few years and find that I have ancestors from as far back as the 12th century from France, Belgium, Spain, and Denmark and it's only when you discover that your 10th great grandparents were Huguenots fleeing from persecution by the 16th century French Catholic church and their consequent escape to the UK, that you realise that the UK is made up of a mix of peoples from all over Europe and beyond. We don't need to limit ourselves to staying in the same little village for 200 generations or wrapping ourselves up in a flag and singing a national anthem, to prove who we are. For someone who doesn't actually live in Spain, Anthomo certainly likes to make his opinions heard!