THE GUARDIAN Dear Scotland: here are lots of things wed like to apologise for, love England Hadrians wall, Culloden, the poll tax, Jacob Rees-Mogg: yes, England has inflicted an awful lot of angst and pain on Scotland down the centuries – Please dont go, we really dont want you to leave Sorry for letting the Americans put their nuclear submarines in Holy Loch thus making Greenock, Dunoon and other blameless Scottish towns primary targets in any nuclear war. Sorry, too, for putting Trident nuclear submarines at the Faslane naval base, thus once more transforming blameless parts of Scotland into a nuclear target. Perhaps in retrospect we should have put them nearer London. So sorry for our role in the Highland clearances that followed the defeat at Culloden and extended well into the 19th century, effectively erasing a whole way of life from the Highlands. True, Scottish aristocrats cleared their estates of crofters and other Highlanders to make more money from their land, but we were classic enablers. Sorry. Sorry for not recognising that the English industrial revolution was unthinkable without Scots engineers – Thomas Telford, James Watt, John Loudon McAdam and more. Sorry for laughing at the prospects for your army in an independent Scotland. Of course you could always use it to invade the Faroe Islands if nothing else. Stuart Jeffries MY TURN Their sorry alright, sorry the partys over for them when it comes to Scotland. Better living apart together - Ian Innes. Stuart Jeffries
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 07:03:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015