Scotland the Brave?

November 30 is St Andrew’s Day. My office calendar, rather than a Scot, told me; St. Andrew being the patron saint of Scotland, like St. George watches over England and St. Patrick is claimed by the Irish. The three crosses combined make a pretty nifty British flag … but did the Scots and Irish actually want to be part of the United Kingdom? I don’t think so …

Ter and I have been watching Neil Oliver’s History of Scotland, a ten-part series that traces the land of my ancestors from its beginnings under the Picts to the twenty-first century. From the first episode, a particular theme is prevalent: Scots are a difficult people to conquer. The Vikings tried. The Romans tried. The English tried from the day the Romans quit, employing everything from trickery to brute force and failing on all counts. The countries were united by an irony when Elizabeth Tudor died without issue and her Scottish cousin’s son inherited the English throne. The country England wanted to rule now ruled England, so the tables turned and they got cranky over how many Scots had influence in the English court. I can’t blame James VI/I, either. The Scottish nobles hadn’t been that generous with him, but neither had the English. According to Oliver, he had a greater vision for the kingdom, but the only folk who want change are the ones who have something to gain from it so he didn’t have a lot of support from his English lords. They did, however, succeed in Anglicizing the royal Stuarts to the point where Charles I was neither fish nor macfowl and my sweetheart, Charles II, was so thoroughly scunnered by the overzealous Covenanters during his exile that he visited Edinburgh but once—and reluctantly—after his Restoration.

Something else has occurred to me as the series progresses: historically, England has needed Scotland more than Scotland needed England and I suspect the same holds true today. Witness the frantic pandering committed by the British PM ahead of the recent referendum on should Scotland reclaim her independence. The fearmongering worked, but only by a small margin. The doomsday downers were prophesying economic disaster if she broke from the UK. Really? For which side? Economic disaster happens every day; it’s been a given since economics took over the world. Instability inevitably accompanies change, but eventually, all settles down and we move on. Seems to me that Scotland has always been a republic by nature—the crowning of kings served to (sort of) unite the clans under one banner against the English pig dogs, but none save the kings themselves believed they were divine. The country is rich with natural resources; it’s stunningly beautiful in the wildest ways, the people are clever and inventive; heck, the Scottish royal court was more cultured than the English in the time of Henry VIII. His sister’s marriage to James IV was sought to strengthen the Tudors, not the other way round. So somewhere along the line, Scotland began to believe that she couldn’t survive without the English.

I think she can. So do 44.7% of her resident population—and, surprisingly, my father, who has never given me much indication that he favoured one route over the other. The ex-pat was so disappointed by the outcome of the referendum that he dared to put it in writing and has permitted me to post it here. If you ever wondered where I got my gift, here’s your first hint. Enjoy.

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So, now it is over and Scotland is no more.

Unwilling to take a chance on its own prowess and skills but willing to cling to England’s apronstrings and risk that the pre-vote promises will be kept by what the French once called, “Perfidious Albion.”

 It is, I think worth quoting from a well-known source of information the derivation of that phrase as follows:

“Diplomatic sleights, duplicity, treachery and infidelity with respect to promises made or alliances formed with other nations, by the government of England in their pursuit of self-interest.”

It is now, unfortunately too late to say, “Scotland beware.” You believed the crocodile tears, shameful hypocrisies and fearful prophesies of mass unemployment and rising prices made by past masters of duplicity and now must remain with bowed head and bent knee, begging for scraps which may or may not be cast disdainfully from the Westminster table.

In 1305, William Wallace died in agony … and it now appears in vain, at the hands of the English. Perhaps the first verse of a Scottish rallying cry should be re-written, thus:

“Scots wa’ hey wi’ Wallace bled,

Scots wham Bruce has often led,

Ye hiv made yer gory bed,

Noo, lie in it....an’ dee.”

I will now remove the Scottish emblem from my car.  It might leave a dirty scar, but that is only fitting, considering the circumstances.

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I love you, Daddy.