TORONTO – Before I begin, I promise not to be too condescending or belittling towards those who take their ‘ideologies’ so seriously that they evoke laughter among those the y hope to impress – for whatever reason. If you offend easily, or are an Anglophile, please read no further.

I am constantly amazed at the unquestioning veneration the reading public extends to those who hold a PhD. In my days at university, a PHD used be known as ‘piled higher and deeper’. No wonder, I thought on reading, in the UK Daily Mail, that one of Britain’s most renowned universities “has removed the term Anglo-Saxon from module titles in a bid to ‘decolonise the curriculum’, according to the writer, Ed Holt.

The University of Nottingham, which touts its elevated rankings in several organizations measuring ‘quality’ among British and International institutions of higher learning, is removing the expression from a number of course, including History and English Literature…

Holt explains: “Academics have been campaigning to replace Anglo-Saxon with ‘Early Medieval English’ due to concern the former suggests a distinct native Englishness.” Geez, the great unwashed thought it was – the alternative would have been to consider it a corruption of Germanic dialects mixed with emerging Italian dialects derived from the Latin used for official, administrative purposes. Chaucer and Shakespeare would have been scandalized.

He goes on…” it follows concerns that Anglo-Saxon has become too associated in recent years with racists – particularly those in the USA – who use it to describe white people”. Oh my gosh. One of my Chinese friends used to say, “I do not care if you are a descendent of Marco Polo, your white people [Gweilo] all look the same to me.”

Gweilo is not an endearing term. Holt reminds us that another venerable institution, The Russell Group University, is “looking to ‘problematize the term ‘Viking’; apparently the connection to Norse mythology and ‘race, empire and Nazism’ is concerning. Must be ‘especially after the election results in Germany last week produced undeniable victories for extreme right-wing zealotry.

He goes on to point out that, in 2023, no less a venerable place than Cambridge University started teaching students that Anglo-Saxons did not exist as a distinct ethnic group. Those teachings “aimed to explain that Anglo-Saxon, Scottish, Welsh and Irish identities were not coherent”. Probably right, I always thought they were distinct, often pursuing disparate goals. Even 859 AD (Christian era), upon hosting Alfred – later the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon kings in Britain – the Pope thought it wise to coin a new identity for them, “non Angli, sed Angeli”. The French colonials of Quebec, in the 18^th and 19^th centuries (showing their lack of conviction), referred to them as les maudits anglais well into the twentieth century.

To close the circle, this trend to expurgate evil from its roots is the new obsession of academics of “Anglo-Saxon origin” – such is their “sense of guilt”. Holt points to the National Education Union which claims that ‘decolonising education involves a full examination of British imperialism and racism’.

Where to stop? Nowhere. According to the Quality Assurance Agency, which checks course standards, this should include Maths, including Computing, because such courses also provide for the replication of colonial divisions and hierarchies. Whew. I thought that Maths were essential to understanding physics and the concepts of engineering infrastructure.

Glad I did not get a PhD. I might have been asked to recant the history of my ancestors.

In the pics above: on the right, King Arthur, general of the post-Roman transition period, who tried to maintain civilization against the Anglo-Saxons and the Jutes who, in the image alongside, defend themselves against the Vikings half a millennium later (images from: www.thecollector.com and www.britannica.com)