The English a Violently Suppressed Minority?

Those who support the Campaign for an English Parliament are always complaining that they are a “violently suppressed minority” (see here); well I would like to make a few points here to educate them as to what a “violently suppressed minority” really is.

So where shall we start, I know let’s start with the persecution of the Jews by the English, I know it was in medieval times but it happened, and at that time the Jews were a “minority” who were violently suppressed! For further facts see here:-

Expulsion
However, the days of the Jews in England were numbered. In 1275, Edward 1 (1272 - 1307) issued the Statute of Jewry. Jews were prohibited from charging interest on loans and had to collect all existing debts by the following Easter or forfeit them. In order to survive economically Jews were to be encouraged to become labourers and therefore granted licence to lease land for 15 years (until 1290). The Statute also stipulated all Jews from the age of seven had to wear a yellow felt badge 6” long and 3” wide. A poll tax of 3d a year was also imposed from the age of twelve. Finally, Jews were given notice to quit England forever on 18 July 1290. It is estimated about 16,000 Jews left the country and it was not the late 17th century that Jews openly dared to return.

Next it was the turn of the Catholics whose only real offence was to have a different viewpoint of Christianity; although what so many of the English failed to realise is that the Protestant Church is no more or less than a reformed Catholic Church. For further facts see here:-

Elizabeth I, coming to the throne in November 1558, was queen of a country at risk of division on religious lines between Protestant and Catholic. In 1559, an Act of Uniformity imposed fines on all men who refused to attend Church of England services at their parish church; in 1563, the death penalty was imposed on priests who said mass. Later laws imposed numerous penalties and fines for non-attendance at Anglican services, and Catholics were effectively barred from inheriting land, entering the professions or taking up civil or military office: because they could not accept the monarch as Head of the Church, they could not be loyal subjects. In the eighteenth century, active discrimination was largely allowed to lapse, although formal Catholic emancipation was not to come until 1829.

Then there were the Scots, could the English never leave anyone in peace? The worst offender here was the Duke of Cumberland, son of George II who must have had a real down on the Scots:-

George II gave the Duke of Cumberland instructions that the Scots had to be punished for supporting Charles. Many of those who had joined his army were executed and their land was given to those who had remained loyal to the king.

See here for more evidence of Cumberland’s excesses:-

In 1746, the Episcopal chapels at Muchalls and Portlethan were destroyed on the orders of the Duke of Cumberland.

And what about the Irish, the English persecuted them as well, seems to me that no one was sacred as far as the English were concerned; a little local difficulty with the Irish, ah, well, we’ll send in the Black and Tans:-

The attitude of the Black and Tans is best summed up by one of their divisional commanders:

"If a police barracks is burned or if the barracks already occupied is not suitable, then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown into the gutter. Let them die there – the more the merrier.
Should the order ("Hands Up") not be immediately obeyed, shoot and shoot with effect. If the persons approaching (a patrol) carry their hands in their pockets, or are in any way suspicious-looking, shoot them down. You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped, and you are bound to get the right parties some time. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man."

Lt. Col. Smyth, June 1920

So, those “nice” people at the CoSG see themselves as a “violently suppressed minority”, they can’t even begin to know what it is to be a “violently suppressed minority”; I have only scratched the surface of history here and even now it seems that it has always been the English (who by the way are not a minority as they make up over 80% of the population of mainland Britain) who have been doing the violent suppressing. So my message to those “nice” CoSG people is, go away and read some history before talking about suppression, and the maybe we can have a sensible discussion about the issue.