Tag Archives: Alex Salmond

Scottish Politics, Independence and Energy

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You might know that the Scottish Independence campaign seems to have been kicked off in Edinburgh yesterday with both Alex Salmond and Gordon Brown giving speeches on the subject. It isn’t all that often that I dip a toe into politics, usually it’s just when I feel the need to have a wee bit of a rant but James Stafford of Oil Price sent me a copy of an interview with Alex Salmond, and I suppose we should all be gathering as much information as we can, prior to voting for or against Scottish independence in the 2014 referendum. It’s quite a long interview but if you’re interested you can have a look at it here.

I had been intending to do a post on Scottish politics anyway, because Cardinal Wotsisname, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland is having what in my family I call a huff-huff in a huff-tree – in other words he isn’t speaking to the Scottish Government at the moment because it’s likely that gay marriage will become law in Scotland at some point in the future.

Actually, despite my having no interest in any religion I do have some sympathy with them, although I understand that under no circumstances would priests, ministers, rabbis and the like be forced to perform marriage ceremonies for gay couples, I can’t really understand why gay people would WANT to be married in a religious ceremony. It sort of smacks of them poking a big stick at an already sore spot.

Homosexual couples can already become civil partners at a registry office, just as many heterosexual couples have done for years. It’s exactly the same for them all and heterosexual couples don’t go about saying that they had a civil partnership nowadays, it’s just called a wedding or marriage, no matter what it might be officially. I can’t see that what it’s called matters at all, it comes to the same thing, and if they want to break up then they’ll have to get a divorce like anyone else, in fact it seems to me that it’s all just more money for lawyers – as usual! Will getting hitched in a church make any difference? Well it hasn’t done for heterosexual couples.

But, to get back to the cardinal. I know how the next verse of his ‘I’m Not Speaking To You’ song goes, I’m sure everyone else knows too. It’s something like this:

If you don’t do what I want you to do Mr Salmond – then I will tell all of my flock that they must vote against Scottish Independence and the SNP in general. (The tune is Gleeful.)

Given that the turnout for any sort of election is woefully low now, that sort of manipulation could make a big difference. To make matters even more worrying, it’s a well known fact that until very recently the Catholic Church, in common with others was ‘fizzling’ out. They have even closed the seminary because they had no trainee priests. However in recent years they have had a big boost to congregations, due entirely to the eastern European economical migrants who have settled temporarily in Scotland.

The upshot of that is that the whole future of Scotland might be held in the hands of people who have no real interest in the future of the country, because they know that they’ll only be here for a few years, then they’ll go back home again.

It’s those evil twin subjects which should always be avoided in polite company – politics and religion. I know I’m being terribly impolite but it’s a bit of a worry when religious people with power over a lot of voters insist in flexing their muscles.

The Scots Language.

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I heard that Alex Salmond had been talking about the teaching of the Scots language in schools. I think that it is about time that something was done to stop the rot where Scots is concerned. Too many words are being lost to us, and once they are gone – they’re gone.

I know that there is no spare money around at the moment, but I really don’t see why such an initiative should cost much – if anything at all. We don’t need teachers to be sent off on courses or anything expensive. Ten minutes towards the end of each primary school day would be all that was needed to teach children a couple of Scots words or phrases each lesson.

It could be a very informal winding down of each day and the only tools necessary would be an English-Scots dictionary and a black/whiteboard. There’s no need to make a big production number of it as there are so many other things vying for space and time within the school day.

When I was at school, in the west, a good few moons ago, we were all bi-lingual. At school we spoke the Queen’s English to the teachers and then when it was playtime we reverted to Scots.

Some adults used to complain about us speaking slang, but it wasn’t – it was just Scots. Likewise – when we grew up it was natural to speak plain English to people in authority as a matter of courtesy, after all the person that you are speaking to may not speak Scots, and I suppose to show that you could speak good English. However, at home and with friends the less formal Scots was used.

I’m not sure if that practice is carried out in the whole of Scotland as a matter of course though. I well remember being in a bank in Fife and when I asked the bank teller a question – his answer to me was -: Ah dinnae ken, but Ah’ll fund oot fur yee.

I have to say that I was dumfoonert. There is no way that you would get a job in a bank in the west of Scotland if you spoke to customers like that. And although I’m all for the promotion of the Scots language, I still think that there is a time and a place for it.

Even Rab C Nesbit was bi-lingual. There was always a time in each programme when his best English came out – usually when he was incensed about something and just had to let off steam.
As he got angrier, so he became ‘posher’.

I know quite a lot of people that that happens to and it’s always funny to observe, whether it’s Rab C. or yer mammy.