Good old BBC, you can always rely on them for a bit of revisionism. According to one of the BBC’s tame gardeners, the 1600s was the best time to be British.
At first I was a little confused on account of there not being a British nation until 1707, then I thought perhaps she was being incredibly clever saying that the best time to be British when when there was no such thing as Britain. But in the end I plumped for it being the usual BBC revisionism.
A comment has been sent to the One Show to ask them to explain.
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[...] England is NOT Britain! Noticed this piece on the CEP blog a while ago, detailing how the BBC’s one show has been revising history, [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 7:27 amI BELIEVE THIS WASNT SHOWN ON BBCUK ONLY IN SCOTLAND
SHOULD HAVE BEEN ..ALEX SALMOND THE FIRST MINISTER ON CHILDREN IN NEED
YOU TUBE…SALMOND IS JOLLY FOR THE WEANS
November 18th, 2008 at 12:05 pmJust like to suggest a correction to the wording of this post: “on account of there not being a British nation until 1707″. Correction: there is no British nation and never has been. Britain is a state, England is the nation. The One Show’s statement ‘best time to be British’ is therefore even more nonsensical than it seems: not only was there no British nationality in the 17th century; but there was not even any political meaning to ‘Britain’ (such as being a ‘British citizen’). Quite literally, people then wouldn’t know what you meant by ‘being British’.
Come to think of it, I still don’t. But call me old-fashioned!
November 20th, 2008 at 8:46 am