English Celtic revivalism has not always been popular with its neighbours, many of whose own revivals have sought to counteract the majority culture of England within the United Kingdom. It also tends to be apolitical, in strict contrast to that of the «Six», Galicia or even Padania. Early revivalism concentrated on King Arthur, fairy and folklore and also Boudicca, whose statue stands outside the Palace of Westminster. Boudicca, who fought Roman imperialism, was looked up to by one or two Victorian English imperialists, who claimed «her new empire» was bigger than the Roman. Modern revivalism has focused more on music, mythology, rituals such as the Druids and a better understanding of Celtic festivals that have been observed in England since the Celtic period, and dialect or language. [3]

Some recent studies have suggested that, contrary to long-standing beliefs, the Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons) did not wipe out the Romano-British of England but rather, over the course of six centuries, conquered the native Brythonic people of what is now England and south-east Scotland and imposed their culture and language upon them, much as the Irish may have spread over the west of Scotland. Still others maintain that the picture is mixed and that in some places the indigenous population was indeed wiped out while in others it was assimilated. According to this school of thought the populations of Yorkshire, East Anglia, Northumberland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands are those populations with the fewest traces of ancient. [4 p. 26]

1.1.2 The Cornish People

The Cornish people are regarded as an ethnic group of Britain originating in Cornwall. They are often described as a Celtic people. The number of people living in Cornwall who consider themselves to be more Cornish than British or English is unknown. One survey found that 35.1% of respondents identified as Cornish, with 48.4% of respondents identifying as English, a further 11% thought of themselves as British. A Morgan Stanley survey in 2004 indicated that 44% of people in Cornwall identify as Cornish rather than English or British. As with other ethnic groups in the British Isles, the question of identity is not straightforward. Ethnic identity has been based as much on cultural identity than on descent. Many descendants of people who came and settled in Cornwall have adopted this identity.

In the 2001 UK Census, the population of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly was estimated to be 501,267. Cornish community organizations tend to consider half of these people to be ethnic Cornish.

A recent survey by the University of Plymouth found that, when given the opportunity, over a third of pupils in Cornish schools identified themselves as Cornish.

The UK government has agreed recently that English and Welsh will have an ethnicity tick box on the Census 2011 but there will be no Cornish option tick box. Various Cornish organizations are campaigning for the inclusion of the Cornish tick box on the next 2011 Census. Many who perceive themselves to be of the Cornish nation also consider themselves to be descended from the Brythons, or Cornovii (Cornish), of the post-Roman period. For this reason they consider there to be a kinship connection with the Welsh and Breton peoples and more distantly with the Scots, Manx and Irish. After the Anglo-Saxon conquest of southern, eastern and central Great Britain, Brythonic speakers were gradually pushed further into the fringes, eventually cutting them off into three groups - the Southwestern Britons, the West Britons (the Welsh) and the Northern Britons.

This sense of a shared past is given voice in such organizations as the Celtic League and Celtic Congress, both of whom recognize Cornwall and the Cornish as a Celtic nation. Today, many family and given names from Cornwall are clearly rooted in the Cornish language. [1]

1.2 Scotland

The most recent national survey of Scotland's population, the 2001 census, revealed that almost 98% of the country's inhabitants were white. However, it also showed that Scotland's number of foreign-born residents is increasing faster than that of England or Wales.

Out of every 1,000 people, on average: 880 are White Scottish; 74 are White (non-Scottish) British; 25 are from other white groups, including Irish; 11 are Asian; 3 people are of mixed race; 3 people are Chinese; 2 people are Black.

In 2001, 3.3% of people living in Scotland were born abroad, up from 2.5% in 1991. Scotland had a population of just over 5 million people at the time of the 2001 census. It covers an area of 78,772 square kilometers, meaning that, on average, just 64 people live on each square kilometers of Scottish soil (for England the figure is 377, in Wales 140).

The ethnic group classifications used in Scotland's census differ slightly from those in England and Wales, most notably in that white Scottish people and other white British people (mostly people from England and Wales) are counted separately. This latter category forms the largest ethnic minority group in Scotland (7.4% of the population, or roughly one on 14 people), although there is considerable variation from area to area; in Edinburgh, one in nine people (11.4%) are from this Other White British category, while in Glasgow the figure is as low as one in 30 (3.6%). The whole population: 5,062,011. [5]

Table 1.1 Ethnic groups in Scotland

Since the 2001 Census was carried out, the Scottish Executive has actively encouraged migration to Scotland through its Fresh Talent initiative. This was partly born from fears that a shrinking population in Scotland would hinder its economic competitiveness.

Unsurprisingly, given its close proximity to Northern Ireland and Eire, Glasgow has a sizeable Irish population which has left a strong cultural imprint on the city. During the two years from June 2004, an estimated 32,000 people from Eastern Europe came to live and work in Scotland; 20,000 of whom were Poles. For context, in the 2001 census, the White Other group - within which many of these new migrants are likely to belong - accounting for just 78,000 people in the whole of Scotland. Within this total are small numbers of American - and Dutch-born residents; 800 people from the Netherlands alone live in the Aberdeen area, where the Dutch oil company Shell operates a refinery.

Given is close proximity to Ireland, it is not surprising that Scotland has a relatively large Irish population. Nearly 50,000 people indicated this as their ethnic origin in the 2001 census. In Glasgow, which is the city physically closest to the Irish mainland, Irish people make up 2% of the local population. Aside from the Other White British, the next largest ethnic minority group in Scotland is Asian. Although Asian residents make up barely more than 1% of the population as a whole (55,000 people), in some inner-city areas they are highly concentrated. In parts of central Glasgow, such as Pollokshields, as much as 40% of the local population are of Pakistani origin. This city has more than 15,000 Pakistani residents; very nearly half of all people from this group living in Scotland. Unlike in England, where Indians form the largest Asian sub-group, in Scotland it is Pakistanis who predominate, by nearly two-to-one.

Scotland has very few black residents; around 8,000, or 0.2% of the population. Even where people from this group are most strongly concentrated (in Perth), they account for rather less than half of one percent of the local population. Black Africans outnumber Black Caribbean's by almost three-to-one; in England, the latter is slightly more populous than the former. The Chinese population is twice as large as the black population, and proportionally almost the same as in England; only this and the White Irish group are proportionally similarly represented in the population of both countries. [6]

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