BritCits

Happy belated Robert Burns Day.

'As political rhetoric against migrants reaches a new height, it's Robert Burns' birthday. We're re-publishing a letter he wrote in 1786 to the representative of Scottish Highland landlords, as if from Beelzebub. He is defending the right of Highlanders to migrate to Canada and seek a better life, but it is as relevant to the rights and plights of migrants today.'

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/robert-burns/address-of-beelzebub-robert-burns-in-defence-of-migrants

'The tone of this poem is clear. Beelzebub writes to congratulate the lords responsible for their actions against the audacity of the 'rebel generation'. What right have they 'To meat, or sleep, or light o'day/ far less to riches, pow'r, or freedom/ But what your lordships PLEASE TO GIE THEM?''

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/address_of_beelzebub/