Being Scottish: Personal Reflections on Scottish Identity Today PDF
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BEING SCOTTISH: Personal Reflections on Scottish Identity Today Edited by Tom Devine and Paddy Logue POLYGON Contents i B E I N G S C O T T I S H ii 7KLVSDJHLQWHQWLRQDOO\OHIW blank iii B E I N G S C O T T I S H Personal Reflections on Scottish Identity Today Edited by Tom Devine and Paddy Logue AT EDINBURGH POLYGON iv © Individual contributors and Polygon at Edinburgh, 2002 Polygon at Edinburgh An imprint of Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Minion by Koinonia, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford, Surrey A CIP Record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 1 902930 36 3 (paperback) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. v Contents Introduction by Tom Devine and Paddy Logue................................................... ix Leila Aboulela.......................................................................................................... 1 Ginnie Atkinson ...................................................................................................... 4 Alan L. Bain ............................................................................................................. 7 Euan Baird............................................................................................................. 10 Anne Bardsley ....................................................................................................... 13 Mary Beith ............................................................................................................ 15 Margaret Bennett .................................................................................................. 18 Alan Bissett ............................................................................................................ 21 Ronald Black ......................................................................................................... 23 Sheena Blackhall ................................................................................................... 26 Vivian Bone ........................................................................................................... 29 Alison Bowden ...................................................................................................... 32 Sheila Brock .......................................................................................................... 33 Craig Brown .......................................................................................................... 36 Steve Bruce ............................................................................................................ 40 Duke of Buccleuch ................................................................................................ 43 Angus Calder ......................................................................................................... 46 Owen Campbell .................................................................................................... 50 Eddie Clark ........................................................................................................... 53 vi Contents Robert Crawford ................................................................................................... 55 Tam Dalyell ........................................................................................................... 57 Fauzia Davidson ................................................................................................... 59 Isla Dewar.............................................................................................................. 62 Owen Dudley Edwards ......................................................................................... 65 Kevin Dunion ....................................................................................................... 68 Donald Findlay ..................................................................................................... 71 John H. Fitzsimmons ............................................................................................ 74 Douglas Fraser ...................................................................................................... 77 Simon Frith ........................................................................................................... 80 Sandy Grant Gordon ............................................................................................ 83 David Greig ........................................................................................................... 85 Robin Harper ........................................................................................................ 87 Christopher Harvie ............................................................................................... 90 Gerry Hassan ........................................................................................................ 94 Joy Hendry ............................................................................................................ 97 Richard Holloway ............................................................................................... 100 Hamish Horsburgh ............................................................................................. 103 Tom Hunter ........................................................................................................ 106 Craig Hutchison .................................................................................................. 108 Billy Kay .............................................................................................................. 111 Charles Kennedy ................................................................................................. 114 Mark Kennedy .................................................................................................... 117 John Laird ........................................................................................................... 121 Phyllida Law ........................................................................................................ 124 Helen Liddell ....................................................................................................... 127 Baroness Linklater .............................................................................................. 130 Jacqui Low ........................................................................................................... 133 Contents vii Bashir Maan ........................................................................................................ 136 E. Mairi MacArthur ............................................................................................ 139 Bridget McConnell ............................................................................................. 142 Jack McConnell ................................................................................................... 146 John McCormick ................................................................................................ 149 Neil MacCormick ............................................................................................... 152 Mukami McCrum ............................................................................................... 155 Finlay Macdonald ............................................................................................... 159 Margo MacDonald ............................................................................................. 162 John McGurk ...................................................................................................... 165 Ian Mackenzie ..................................................................................................... 168 Sheila McLean ..................................................................................................... 171 David McLetchie ................................................................................................. 174 Duncan Macmillan ............................................................................................. 177 Douglas McNaughton ........................................................................................ 180 Kevin MacNeil .................................................................................................... 183 Susie Maguire ...................................................................................................... 187 Martin Mansergh ................................................................................................ 191 Alex Massie.......................................................................................................... 194 Donald E. Meek .................................................................................................. 197 Steven Osborne ................................................................................................... 200 Anna Paterson ..................................................................................................... 202 Don Paterson ...................................................................................................... 205 Lindsay Paterson ................................................................................................. 208 Norman Pender .................................................................................................. 211 Hugh Pennington ............................................................................................... 214 Robina Qureshi ................................................................................................... 217 Selma Rahman .................................................................................................... 220 viii Contents Harry Reid ........................................................................................................... 222 Susan Rice ........................................................................................................... 225 Kat Roberts.......................................................................................................... 228 Kenneth Roy........................................................................................................ 230 Trevor Royle ........................................................................................................ 233 Michael Russell ................................................................................................... 236 Suhayl Saadi ........................................................................................................ 239 Alex Salmond ...................................................................................................... 242 T. C. Smout.......................................................................................................... 245 Bill Speirs ............................................................................................................ 248 David Steel .......................................................................................................... 251 Stewart Sutherland ............................................................................................. 254 John Swinney ...................................................................................................... 257 Alan Taylor .......................................................................................................... 259 Brian Taylor ......................................................................................................... 261 Gregor Townsend................................................................................................ 264 Kirsty Walker ....................................................................................................... 268 Jim Wallace .......................................................................................................... 271 Charles Warren ................................................................................................... 274 Mike Watson ....................................................................................................... 277 Irvine Welsh ........................................................................................................ 282 Kevin Williamson ............................................................................................... 284 Ruth Wishart ....................................................................................................... 287 Kenyon Wright .................................................................................................... 290 Mel Young ........................................................................................................... 293 Postscript: Being Irish and Being Scottish by Tom Devine ................................ 296 Contents ix Introduction A shared interest in identity nurtured this collection into book form. For one of the co-editors it was part of an on-going search for the core constituents of Scottish identity and their standing in the modern world. His The Scottish Nation, 1700–2000 (Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1999) has helped to prepare the ground for this examination. Two key themes emerged in that volume that are of relevance to this book. The first was the robust survival after the Union of the strong sense of Scottish identity within the overall context of Britishness despite the close economic, political and cultural partnership with England and the fears of some Scottish intellectuals that Scotland would simply become another region within the United Kingdom as assimilation intensified. After 1707 Scotland was a stateless nation but a nation nonetheless with an enduring emotional appeal. Second, Scottishness itself meant different things at different periods. Identity was subject to change and reinvention and the process undoubtedly continues apace in the early years of a new millennium. Being Scottish therefore offers an opportunity to penetrate behind the statistical surveys and explore the rich complexity of changing identity from a varied range of opinion. The question, ‘Who are we?’ continues to perplex many Scots today. The essays in this book help to expand the debate and provide at least some of the answers. For the other co-editor it was a continuation of a reflection on the nature of identity, on the ways that identity can be commonly shared, made individually manifest, put on like a costume, enforced, transformed and/or reconstructed, on the way that identity not only changes for a whole people in different times and circumstances but also how the understanding and expression of identity changes in the lives of individuals.
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