Saturday, October 27, 2007

Scotland - A Nation Divided?

In this morning's Scotsman there's a lead article under the headline 'Ain't No Stopping Us Now - SNP leader taunts Brown'. It's the usual stuff about independence is inevitable, it's the will of the people, we're being squeezed of money, what about the black gold and the SNP, ‘we're the party of enterprise’. The Scotsman allows comments on most of its stories and this morning there are 84 separate posts that range from bigoted rants to some quite thoughtful expressions both for and against the SNP. It certainly isn't all in support but it clearly shows a nation divided or does it? At least thirty of the 84 posts are from people that live outside Scotland, and most of those are not people living in England. Interesting that they have so much to say about the whole independence question.

3 comments:

Huttonian said...

It's interesting that the further you are away from Scotland-as in canada or australia how more nationalist you are. I noticed this phenomenon when in British Embassies in Anglophone countries such as in Africa. The Kuwait Caledonian society had 500 members, mostly never intending to live in Scotland ever again but the pro -Independence rhetoric amidst the vomit....!

Richard Havers said...

Ah the old CSS (Caledonian Society Syndrome), an interesting state that I too encountered frequently in Africa during my time with British Caledonian. We would fly haggis and pipers to just about every country we flew to in order to celebrate Burns night. It's interesting how much more Scots, English and I suspect many other nationalities become the farther they are from home.

Huttonian said...

Indeed as deputy High Commissioner in Dar es Salaam in about 1979 I had a real problem with the British Caledonian Piper at one St Andrews Ball. He was a bit of soak and as a result of being found naked (but with his pipes intact) at 6am next morning asleep on the local war memorial. It required much diplomacy to prevent the society being banned totally by the Tanzanian authorities who had heard a rumour that the supper involved a human sacrifice ritual-the Haggis and its fate was hard to explain in the hard cold light of morning.