Scotland’s shame
Earlier this week I received a serious shock while watching CNN when the word ‘Scotland’ appeared on the tickertape at the bottom of the screen. I was shocked because this was the first time I had seen my homeland mentioned in the news in three years of living in America, and more than that — the context clearly identified Scotland as a separate entity from England. In all my roaming around the globe I have found that it is exceedingly rare that people anywhere are aware of exactly what Scotland is, outside of vague associations with such kitsch as kilts, bagpipes and Braveheart. For many, England serves as a synonym for the UK or Britain and vice versa, and where Scotland fits into the picture is rarely — if ever — properly understood.
Of course, the reason for this sudden flourishing of Scotland’s international profile was due to the release of Abdulbaset al Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. I remember when it happened, back in 1988. I was 14 at the time, and lived in a similar small town and found it terrifying to imagine an aeroplane dropping on my head from out of the sky. It was literally inconceivable: nothing ever happened in Scotland. This was an event as supernatural as discovering a gateway to Hell in your basement, or being devoured by a plague of flesh-eating zombies. The Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill meanwhile claims to have released the terminally ill Megrahi on ‘compassionate’ grounds, declaring:
“In Scotland we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity. It is viewed as a defining characteristic of Scotland and the Scottish people. The perpetration of an atrocity and outrage cannot and should not be a basis for losing sight of who we are, the values we seek to uphold, and the faith and beliefs by which we seek to live.”
I will confess that I felt a little nauseous as I read this. Scottish people are no more or less humane than others: some of us are downright bastards. And Kenny MacAskill is not qualified to define our national character for us. This ‘Scottish’ compassion was also highly curious: entirely lopsided towards the convicted terrorist and not to his 270 victims or their grieving families.
Anyway, after reading MacAskill’s stream of verbal effluent I started to think about the real reasons he had sent Megrahi home to what was obviously going to be a hero’s welcome. First however I should explain for American readers that the Scottish parliament of which MacAskill is a minister is a home for mediocrities, losers, and general no-hopers. Any Scot with political ambition still heads to London, where the real power is held. MacAskill himself tried and failed to win a seat in the UK parliament four times before finding a cosy seat in the Scottish parliament- and this is a typical career path for the ass-hats who occupy space in that less than august body.
MacAskill is a member of the SNP, the Scottish Nationalist Party — hence all his metaphysical waffling about Scottish ‘character’ and ‘values’. The SNP’s platform is also at root metaphysical: essentially members of the party believe that all of Scotland’s problems are a result of our union with England, and that if the bond was severed we would mystically be transformed from the country with the lowest male life expectancy in Western Europe into a wealthy, Scandinavian- style social democracy such as Norway. For many nationalists, Scottish identity is constructed negatively as a reaction against England and Englishness, and this often feeds into policy decisions. This led me to wonder whether MacAskill’s decision was a manifestation of the insecure collective psyche of his party. There is a widespread perception in the UK that the government in London is America’s lapdog, eagerly obeying orders received from Washington. In recent weeks for example there have been howls of protest over the looming extradition to the US of Gary McKinnon, a computer hacker who infiltrated dozens of military computers in the states. A lot of the public and media outrage has focused on the disparity between the English and American justice systems: whereas in England he would be tickled with a feather duster for a few hours and then given a playful slap on the wrist, in America he will most likely be locked in a deep dark dungeon for about 10, 000 years before his bones are ritually incinerated and the ashes mixed with pigshit. David Gilmour, a pensioner who used to be in Pink Floyd has even contributed to a protest song. In spite of public opposition however, the extradition looks likely to go ahead — America always gets what it asks for. Was the nationalist MacAskill then seizing the opportunity to assert Scotland’s Scottishness by doing the most un-English thing possible: rejecting the US government’s stated wishes regarding Megrahi — namely that he die in prison?
I conducted an un-scientific study by calling home. Regardless of MacAskill’s dribbling, it seems that most Scots would have been quite happy for Megrahi to die in jail, except for one or two self-consciously groovy types of course. Soon I discovered other theories: although the decision to release Megrahi fell to a Scottish minister, it turns out that Gordon Brown’s right hand man Peter Mandelson met Gaddafi’s son a few weeks ago. The Labour administration in London is acting very circumspect about the whole affair. And in spite of protests out of Washington, it does seem highly unusual that America could not exert sufficient diplomatic pressure to keep Megrahi in jail, when they usually get what they want from us. Stare too closely, and it looks as though cynical games are being played, horses are being traded, political interests ruthlessly pursued. Only a few things are certain: Megrahi has been welcomed home as a hero, Gaddafi has scored a major propaganda coup while the families of the Lockerbie victims have suffered a trauma akin to a second bereavement.
Meanwhile I continue to enjoy Scotland’s suddenly high profile. Last night I visited www.boycottscotland.com, and read the passionate demands that patriotic Americans reject all things Scottish. I must say I was a little disappointed. It was just a page with some text, when there were so many opportunities for France-style ridicule of men in skirts, highlanders shagging sheep etc, etc. Sill, if we have lost the love of the US, at least many more Americans than before now know that Scotland is not England. We can also bask in the affection of our new friends in North Africa. Apparently the Libyans were waving our national flag when Megrahi stepped off the plane, so it’s a good time for Scots to visit that particular corner of paradise. Who knows, maybe if we’re really lucky we’ll get a chance to help out Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Saltire will soon be proudly flying in the streets of Tehran.
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The real shame is that America and England gave up pursuing the real bombers – Iran and Syria – in order to gain Syrian participation in and Iranian acquiesence to the First Gulf War.
This stunt, regardless of “why”, marked the end of a lifelong affection I personally always had for all things Scottish, which pre-dated Braveheart by a lot.
From my travels around Scotland, for the most part the people never struck me as the
I’m a little shocked at the Scottish people for letting their pols stick pull this stunt – sticking it to the one country in the world that no doubt would’ve done more to help Scotland than any other if & when she decides to stand up and take her place amount the nations of the world again, and taking the opportunity to do so over a mass murderer that killed a plane full of American kids and several young American familes with their babies…? Talk about sticking it to your friends and your own ‘cousins’ no less (a lot of us over here are of Scottish descent… we may not wrap ourselves in the Saltire and march through the streets cryin for attention like our Irish friends, but Scotland *was* no less important to us than Ireland is for the “Irish” here).
Think Scotland’s pols underestimated us… this betrayal wont soon be forgotten. Our own corrupt gov’t may want to sweep this under the table & hope it’s soon forgotten, again for the reasons you alluded to, but this incident will not be forgotten by us.
Have to admit though, I think “Scotland” (the “gov’t” at least) were probably dupes & setup, especially given some of the things that slipped out from politicians south of the border – the kind of things you alluded to. It still doesn’t excuse this tho and nothing can undo the damage.