Scotland: A Creative Past, An Independent Future

By Paul Henderson Scott

After more than 300 years of union with its larger and wealthier neighbour, Scotland has the opportunity to be independent. It is a chance that well-known Scottish cultural and political commentator Paul Henderson Scott firmly believes should be taken. In Scotland: A Creative Past, An Independent Future, he looks to Scotland's vibrant literary and cultural heritage to envisage an independent nation. Revisiting aspects of Scotland's political and cultural past, from the Union of 1707 to literary figures including Robert Louis Stevenson and Alasdair Gray, this is a passionate and eloquent exploration of Scotland's past, and its potential future - a future where national confidence, culture and identity can flourish. Scott's provocative book persuasively argues the case for Independence, considering a variety of topics, both historic and current, cultural and political. But in every case, the benefits of Independence are clear. Scotland has the opportunity to become more confident, prosperous and contented - an opportunity that even the most sceptical reader will be persuaded that they should take.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luath Press
• Release date: Dec 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781909912687

Paul Henderson Scott

P.H. Scott is a former diplomat who has written extensively on Scottish literature, history and politics, and who has made a special study of the Union question, both in its origins and its consequences.

Book preview

PAUL HENDERSON SCOTT was born in Edinburgh and educated at the Royal High School and Edinburgh University. He was in 52nd (Lowland) and 7th Armed Divisions during the war and then joined the Diplomatic Service. He was in Berlin during the whole of the Soviet blockade and in Cuba during the Missile Crisis. In 1980 he returned to Edinburgh. Since then he has been Rector of Dundee University, President of both the Saltire Society and Scottish PEN, and Vice-President of the SNP and its Spokesman on Culture and International Affairs as well as writing more than a dozen books and editing another dozen or so. His books include: Walter Scott and Scotland, John Galt, Towards Independence, Andrew Fletcher and the Treaty of Union, Still in Bed with an Elephant, Defoe in Edinburgh and Other Papers, The Boasted Advantages, A 20th Century Life (his autobiography), Scotland Resurgent, The Union of 1707: Why and How, The Age of Liberation and The New Scotland.

Scotland: A Creative Past,

An Independent Future

PAUL HENDERSON SCOTT

Luath Press Limited

EDINBURGH

www.luath.co.uk

First published 2014

ISBN (print): 978-1-908373-94-6

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-909912-68-7

The publishers acknowledge the support of Creative Scotland towards the publication of this volume.

The author’s right to be identified as author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

© Paul Henderson Scott

Contents

PREFACE My View of Scotland

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Cultural Issues

Introduction

1.1 Is Scotland a Cultural Force or a Desert?

1.2 The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature

1.3 A History of Scottish Philosophy

1.4 ‘The Greatest Cultural Disaster’

1.5 A New Cultural Policy

1.6 She’s Jinkit Again. The Future of the Scots Language

1.7 The Anti-Scottish Lobby

1.8 Arts of Resistance: Poets, Portraits and Landscapes of Modern Scotland

1.9 The Tortuous History of the National Theatre of Scotland

1.10 National Theatre Event, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

1.11 The Scottish National Portrait Gallery: A National Treasure Nearly Lost, but Now Enhanced

1.12 Can Creative Scotland avoid the mistakes of the past?

1.13 Proposal for a Museum of Scottish Literature

1.14 A Strange Attack on Alasdair Gray

1.15 Life with the Saltire Society

CHAPTER 2 Scottish Literature from Robert Henryson to Alasdair Gray

Introduction

2.1 Robert Henryson Today

2.2 David Hume in his Private Correspondence

2.3 Boswell and Johnson in St Andrews

2.4 James Hogg: A Life

2.5 The Heart of Midlothian

2.6 The Three Robins: Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson

2.7 After Waterloo

2.8 Weir of Hermiston

2.9 Eric Linklater’s Scotland

2.10 The Correspondence between Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley MacLean

2.11 Belief in Ourselves

2.12 The Phenomenal Alasdair Gray

CHAPTER 3 The Union of 1707

Introduction

3.1 The Declaration of Arbroath: ‘For Freedom Alone’

3.2 The Price of Scotland: Darien, Union and the Wealth of Nations by Douglas Watt (Luath Press)

3.3 Caledonia Darien at the Edinburgh Festival

3.4 The 300 Years’ Debate

3.5 A Reply to Christopher Whatley

3.6 The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History

CHAPTER 4 Towards Independence

Introduction

4.1 Stone of Destiny

4.2 Gordon Brown: Bard of Britishness

4.3 England and Scotland: A New Relationship?

4.4 The Age of Liberation

4.5 McLeish Sees the Light

4.6 Why Scotland Needs Independence

4.7 No place for the adversarial politics of Westminster

4.8 Whaur Extremes Meet: Scotland’s Twentieth Century

4.9 The Disunited Kingdom

4.10 Salmond: Against the Odds

4.11 Small is Beautiful

4.12 Why Scottish Independence will be good for Scotland (and for England too)

4.13 Is Independence the Next Step?

4.14 Why do the British Parties oppose Scottish Independence?

4.15 The Strange Death of Labour Scotland

4.16 Arguing for Independence: Evidence, Risk and the Wicked Issues

4.17 Scottish Writers Join the Debate

4.18 Scotland in the Modern World

4.19 Was Scotland ‘extinguished’ in 1707?

4.20 The Referendum and Beyond

4.21 Should we leave Foreign Affairs and Defence to Westminster?

4.22 Road to Referendum

Other Books by Paul Henderson Scott

Preface

My View of Scotland

I HAVE SPENT about 40 years of my life abroad, first as a soldier and then as a diplomat, but Scotland was never far from my mind. Scottish books went everywhere with me and I came back to Edinburgh as often as possible. I was there for part of the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947 and I returned for at least a few days to almost every one since then. I have found a great deal to admire and enjoy in all the countries where I have lived, but I never had any doubt that Scotland was where I was most content and to which I was determined to return permanently as soon as I could.

Why? It is not the scenery, although much of it is very beautiful and there are views in Edinburgh which I enjoy more than in any other city I know. It is not the climate, although it suits me very well because I do not like heat. Perhaps it is partly the associations because you constantly encounter reminders of old friends and of people and events from history and literature. It is natural enough to have a special fondness for your place of origin. But I have no doubt that the main reason why I feel more at home in Scotland than anywhere else is quite simply the character of the people. Of course there are exceptions, but nearly always they are sensible and friendly and free of arrogance or pretension. They say what they think and it is very often well worth hearing.

In his essay Of National Characters, David Hume said that ‘each nation had a peculiar set of manners’, although there were always exceptions, and they were subject to considerable change from one age to another. Now we are living in an age of more rapid and drastic change than anything which could be imagined in the 18th Century. We are living in a shrinking and globalised world of instant communication, rapid travel and vast movements of populations. Even the climate is changing. Does this mean that national characters will change out of all recognition or even that the whole population of the world will eventually become a uniform and indistinguishable mass?

Presumably that is a possibility, but at present the opposite seems to be happening. Certainly in Europe, and perhaps elsewhere in the world, people are reacting against imposed uniformity by asserting their independence and their own character. The empires and the multi-national states all over Europe are resolving into their component parts. It is their independence and distinctiveness which encourage their contentment, prosperity and ambition. We are moving in that direction as well. Montenegro today; Scotland tomorrow.

Also, it is remarkable how the effects of shared historical experience last long after the events. Scottish sturdiness and readiness to help one another is perhaps the consequence of centuries of hard experience in the long war against a larger and wealthier neighbour. The influence of John Knox’s First Book of Discipline is, I think, still visible in our concern for morality, respect for education, egalitarianism, belief in effort and distrust of ostentation and self-indulgence. It is because of these qualities that Scotland has made such a remarkable contribution to the world. There have been many other religions in Scotland for more than a Century and there is now increasing scepticism and indifference to religious influences. Also many people have succumbed to the contemporary pressures for consumerism, the tolerance of debt and indifference to ideas. Even so, my impression is that many Scots, perhaps most of them, are still influenced by the old values.

We have many serious problems to face in Scotland, even if most of them are hidden away in the deprived areas of our towns, poor education, addiction to drugs and alcohol, violence, poverty and hopelessness. They are a denial of our traditional Scottish values and we must confront them.

So far, this is a copy of a paper which I wrote shortly after I retired from the Diplomatic Service and returned to live in Edinburgh. Since then the Scottish Parliament has been restored, but with very restricted powers. We shall have the opportunity to vote in the Referendum in 2014 to recover our Independence and a Parliament with the power to make Scotland a more contented, prosperous and civilised country.

Introduction

IN THE LAST 20 years I have published five collections of my essays, reviews, lectures and miscellaneous papers. This is a similar book, but recent events have given it a distinct theme. The first two chapters are concerned with some of the events and the literature which have contributed over centuries to the evolution of the distinctive character of Scotland. Chapter three deals with the loss of Scottish independence by the Union of 1707, and the next one with the events in the opposite direction of the last few years.

This is has been a period of rapid transformation in the mood and expectation of the Scottish people. The restitution of the Scottish Parliament in May 1999 with very limited powers naturally stimulated a demand that they should be increased. That was not the intention of Blair’s Labour Government. They expected that the Scottish people would now be content and make no further demands. One of their senior ministers, George Robertson, famously said that ‘the new change will kill the SNP stone-dead’. Gordon Wilson of the SNP said the opposite. He predicted that the fact that the new body was called a Parliament, and not an Assembly, would provoke expectations that it would have to acquire all the appropriate powers implied by the name. The election of the SNP as the party of Government in 2007, with Alex Salmond as First Minister, had similar implications. So had the Westminster parliamentary election in 2010. The emergence of the Conservatives as the largest party in England with 306 seats, but with only one in Scotland, was widely interpreted as an indication that the United Kingdom was now disunited. Then the overwhelming victory of the SNP in the Scottish election in May 2011 strongly suggests that a major constitutional change is now inevitable.

The first chapter, Cultural Issues, includes articles on two important events which are examples of the problem which are likely to arise when people with no previous knowledge of the Scottish tradition are appointed to lead Scottish cultural organisations. They were Vicky Featherstone, the first Director of the National Theatre of Scotland, and the Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, Timothy Clifford. I felt obliged to organise campaigns, which were successful against the policies of both. Vicky Featherstone for years refused to include Scottish plays in the repertoire of the National Theatre and Timothy Clifford proposed to close the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and remove the Scottish paintings from the National Gallery.

In the course of these campaigns I got to know both of them quite well and found them intelligent and friendly. I used to encounter Clifford frequently in the New Club, of which we were both members. He congratulated me on the success of my campaign. I had many public discussions with Vicky Featherstone. In the end she came to visit me in Edinburgh to tell me that she now agreed with me about the need to include many Scottish plays in the productions of the National Theatre. When she retired from the National Theatre she gave an interview to the Scottish press in which she said:

In terms of the Scottish scene, I think boards are often not very confident about appointing people whose main experience is in Scotland.

I often ask myself why so many boards in Scotland seem to assume that a person from England knows better?

In that statement, she hits the nail on the head. Many of the problems which have arisen over the administration of the arts in Scotland have been the consequence of the appointment of people to senior positions in official organisations for the support of Scottish arts who have no previous knowledge of the Scottish tradition. They tend to assume that anything which is not English is wrong. It is remarkable that two ancient nations which have shared the same government for more than 300 years are still so distinct in their cultures.

Paul Henderson Scott

Edinburgh, September 2013

Previous volumes in this series:

Towards Independence, Essays on Scotland (Polygon, 1991 and 1996)

Defoe in Edinburgh and Other Papers (Tuckwell press, 1995)

Still in Bed with an Elephant (Saltire Society, 1998)

Scotland Resurgent (Saltire Society, 2003)

The Age of Liberation (Saltire Society, 2008)

CHAPTER 1

Cultural Issues

Introduction

CULTURAL OBJECTIVES FOR which many Scots have campaigned for decades have at last been achieved in recent years. The most contentious of them has been the National Theatre which was finally approved by the Scottish Parliament in 2003. To persuade this National Theatre to produce some Scottish plays has taken longer. The campaign for Gaelic in schools and for a broadcasting service in it has been successful. So far, less has been achieved for the Scots language, although it is still more widely understood and spoken than Gaelic. A new Director of the National Galleries, appointed from England as usual, attempted to close the Portrait Gallery and to remove Scottish paintings from the National Gallery on the Mound but was frustrated by a strong popular campaign.

1.1 Is Scotland a Cultural Force or a Desert?

There is a strange contradiction between different ideas about Scotland. Many historians, and especially Americans, have been eloquent in praising us as an important cultural and intellectual influence. Harold Orel, for instance, in his book, The Scottish World: ‘The record is rich; when seen as an entirety, almost unbelievably so. No nation its size has contributed so much to world culture.’ And Arthur Herman in Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots Invention of the Modern World: ‘As the first modern nation and culture, the Scots have by and large made the world a better place.’ Scottish achievement has usually been attributed to our education. In the middle of the 19th Century Lord Macaulay wrote in his History of England about the effect of the Scottish Education Act of 1695:

It began to be evident that the common people of Scotland were superior in intelligence to the common people of any country in Europe….Scotland made good progress in all that constitutes civilisation, as the Old World had never seen equalled, and even the New World has scarcely seen surpassed. This wonderful change is to be attributed, not indeed solely, but principally, to the national system of education.

Herman agrees with him: ‘In no other European country did education count for so much, or enjoy so broad a base.’

On the other hand, those who deplore the present state of Scotland are themselves Scots. Cairns Craig for instance in his book, Out of History says: ‘the consequence of accepting ourselves as parochial has been a profound self-hatred.’ C.G. Watson in Literature of the North speaks ‘of ‘the absence of hope and the lacerating self-contempt which is a marked component in the psyche of colonised peoples.’ Both of these are references to the state of mind of Scots who have been left by their education in ignorance of our history and culture. As Douglas Gifford says in a recent essay: ‘We have for two centuries turned at least one blind eye to our real cultural achievements. The responsibility for this neglect lies with our much vaunted educational system.’ Most of our schools have not only largely ignored Scottish history and literature, but have done their best to stamp out the Scots language in which much of the best of this literature is written.

In the 1990s the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum carried out an extensive review into this problem in consultation with teachers all over Scotland. They drew up a detailed report precisely to open the blind eye which has done so much damage. This was due for publication in 1998; but one of the first measures of the newly elected Labour Government was to ban the report and replace it with another which proposed no significant change. Labour has always been nervous of anything which might stimulate Scottish self-confidence.

The SNP Government elected in 2007 is now active in promoting the changes which are so badly needed in Scottish education. This will take time to produce results, but in the meantime broadcasting with an adequate Scottish content could do more to correct the past deficiencies of the schools. The Broadcasting Commission was appointed for this purpose. They produced an excellent report, but broadcasting policy is a subject ‘reserved’ to the Westminster Parliament. This is absurd. Many countries in Europe which are smaller than Scotland have control of their own radio and television and so should Scotland. Scottish self-confidence was at its lowest ebb when broadcasting began in 1922 and in no state to resist when London asserted control.

Another urgent need is adequate Government support to stimulate the revival of the Scots language. Scotland has two languages of its own, Gaelic and Scots. Both are an important part of national life and the vehicle of great literatures. Scots is understood by more people than Gaelic and its literature is more extensive; but for years successive governments have given far more support to Gaelic which recently acquired its own TV channel. Is this because the decision makers have taken the ignorant view that Scots is merely bad English? It is true that Scots and English share a common origin, but they developed separately for centuries when the only contact between the two countries was on the battlefield. If we lose Scots, we should not only lose the ability to understand much of our own literature, but a vocabulary which is rich in words to describe our environment and our feelings and ideas. It is one of the pleasures of life in Scotland.

Our schools in the past seem to have assumed that they had to teach English and suppress Scots. They should encourage both, as in the German-speaking part of Switzerland where both Swiss and Hoch Deutsch exist happily together. Bilingualism stimulates the intelligence and encourages the acquisition of other languages. English is a valuable international language. In addition to its other qualities, Scots has the advantage of sharing words, not only with English but with many other languages such as Latin, French, German, Dutch and Norwegian. The dying words of Goethe are said to be ‘mehr licht’. This is good German, but it is also good Scots.

A convincing proof of the surviving power of the Scots tongue was the enthusiastic response of the audiences to the revivals in the Edinburgh Festival of Sir David Lindsay’s play of the mid-16th century, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis. It was produced by Tyrone Guthrie in 1948, by Bill Bryden in 1973 and by Tom Fleming in 1985, when it also won an international award in Warsaw. No other play in the long history of the Edinburgh Festival has had such an enthusiastic response from audiences and critics. As Joyce McMillan said, the reaction was ‘electrifying’. When Brian McMaster was appointed Director of the Festival in 1992 he announced that because of this, and to introduce an element of continuity, he would include the Thrie Estaitis in his programmes every two or three years. In fact, he did not do so even once and there has been no production in the Festival for the last 24 years. I used to remind him about it at the annual press conference to announce the programme and he always gave a rather evasive answer. When the formation of a National Theatre was announced he said, with evident relief, that he could leave it to them ‘because it was bound to be one of their first priorities.’

So, of course, it should be; but since the National Theatre was established in 2004 it has shown no interest in any of the great plays either of the distant or recent past. The only exception is the current tour of Liz Lochhead’s fairly recent Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off; but that is touring only to small towns. This lack of interest in the past is curious because the long campaign for a National Theatre was mainly based on the urgent need for a company to build up a repertoire precisely of important work of that kind. I am very conscious of this because I started the final phase of this campaign by arranging, as Convener of Advisory Council for the Arts in Scotland, the conference which launched it in 1987. In all the many meetings that followed the emphasis was always on that point. As Joyce McMillan said in a report, Charter for the Arts in Scotland, which she wrote for the Scottish Arts Council in 1993: ‘The case for a national theatre rests on the contention that it is absurd for Scotland, which has little indigenous tradition in ballet and