The fall guys
When I speak at independence events I introduce myself as the ‘token English guy’. It’s invariably received in the spirit it’s intended. Throughout my 18 years in Scotland, there’s always been plenty of banter, but pals from England have often asked if things sometimes go beyond the joking stage. Does it ever turn ugly?
I’ve always found this quite amusing, but it should always be remembered that there are many south of the border still convinced that Glasgow is three notches down from 1980s Beirut. Years of apocalyptic films and hard-man dramas have filled their souls with terror at the idea of getting off the train at Glasgow Central and walking fifty yards into the deadly streets outside.
We’ve always had a fondness for banter on this rainy island of ours. Sometimes it’s just a laugh, good-natured give and take. And other times it can have a darker edge. After 18 years up here, I’m more than happy to report that I have never been involved in a single piece of knockabout English/Scottish banter that has ever strayed into the darker areas where violence can spring from nowhere.
As someone who’s held a season ticket at Anfield for forty years, I’m wary of engaging in a spot of badinage with any Man Utd fan. It might start as fun, but it can descend into snarling nastiness in the blink of an eye. Once upon a time I did quite a lot of business in North Wales and I soon gave up on even thinking about engaging in banter with the locals. If you want to find a place where the locals really don’t like the English, then North Wales offers the perfect venue for a case study.
I should point out that we’re not just any English family who has trekked north and set down roots. We are a mixed race family. My partner is of Afro-Caribbean descent which of course means that both of my boys are of mixed race. Almost all of the time at school, they were not only the only English lads in their class, but also the only coloured lads as well.
Hassle? Barely any at all. Finding a place where tolerance is the norm was one of the big reasons why we upped sticks and moved out of Blackburn, which has become a festering racial tinderbox of a place.
I spoke at a meeting in Dumfries last Friday night and took along a surprise guest, Teni. Teni’s family fled Nigeria nine years ago when he was eight and his twin sisters were three. They lived in London for five years and then moved north to Dumfries. To say they’ve had a tough time would be a every major understatement.
For four years, Teni’s mum Yemesi has been battling to be granted leave for the family to stay from the Home Office. During this period they haven’t received so much as a penny in benefits. To make things worse, Yemesi has not been allowed to work. Imagine trying to survive in a small town thousands of miles from home as a single mum with three kids and no money.
The good news is that the family has survived. But the fact that they’ve kept going owes nothing to the UK government. Instead it’s been the local community which has rallied around and supported them. We’ve done our part by providing food parcels and in return Yemesi bakes 50 cakes a week for us to give out. The local high school has been amazing, as parents and teachers have joined forces to make sure the kids have uniforms and the family can put some money in the power meter every now and then.
Thankfully the story has a happy ending – a few weeks ago a judge in Glasgow gave the family leave to remain. The Home Office lawyer given two weeks to appeal the decision has thankfully remained silent. Yemesi’s twin daughters told the judge about the nightmares they’ve been having, where the family is deported back to Nigeria and the monsters of Boko Haram come to take them away in the night.
Last week Teni called in and I suggested that he now has a pretty big decision to make. He’s about to be granted a passport and he’s 17 years old. As one of Scotland’s newest citizens, he’ll get to have his say on September 18. Which way did he think he would vote? There wasn’t so much as a beat of hesitation. Scotland!
Why? Because of the people. Because of the way the community of Dumfries has made his family so welcome, and rallied round to keep the family on its feet. He told me it has been so very different from London. So much better. So on Friday night at the end of my speech I invited Teni up onto the podium. The poor lad was as nervous as hell, but he spoke really well and he got a heck of a cheer.
So where’s all this leading? It’s leading to last weekend’s Sunday Times poll.
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that they had the headline firmly fixed in their minds before they asked a single question of anyone. The idea of course is as old as the hills. It comes from the playbook that once upon a time enabled this tiny island of ours to rule two-thirds of the planet. It’s called divide and rule and the British Establishment are the best there’s ever been when it comes to this particular dark art.
Check out all the places where we used to rule the roost and look at the legacy we left. Arab versus Jew in Palestine. White versus black in South Africa. Nuclear-armed Muslim against nuclear-armed Hindu on the India/Pakistan border. Catholic versus Protestant in West Belfast. Sunni versus Shia in Iraq. Kikuyu versus everyone else in Kenya. Ibo versus everyone else in Nigeria. Buganda versus everyone else in Uganda.
It’s a seemingly-endless list of some of the world’s bloodiest hotspots. where people continue to pay a horrific price for the callous machinations of the British Empire. And now they’re playing the same nasty games at home.
I heard a guy from Business Scotland the other week talking about the massive media coverage which will focus in on Scotland during the week of the Referendum. They had done a few calculations to work out what it would cost Visit Scotland to buy in such a monumental amount of global air time, and the answer came out an £800 million.
That £800m can tell one of two stories – cheering crowds in the streets celebrating the birth of the world’s newest country, or the sense of brooding emptiness as Scotland becomes the first country in history to shrink back from the chance of independence.
If there’s a No vote on September 18 a lot of people are going to be absolutely gutted. Seriously gutted. They’re going to ask how on earth such a thing could have happened. And then they might remember that nasty little headline.
How will things be for us English immigrants then? Will the banter continue to be friendly? I doubt it. The callous, shadowy figures who are calling the shots for “Better Together” are cynically setting us up to be the fall guys.
The picture paints itself. Upset that your country’s been scared off the chance of a new future? Blame the English in your midst. The immigrants. The foreigners. The ones whose accent marks them out. It could get pretty ugly for nearly half a million of us. So long as Westminster can keep their nukes in Coulport and continue to skim the oil revenues, they couldn’t care less.
But who are we, the immigrant English? Most of the ones I have met tend to be retired people who’ve sold up and moved north for fresh air and less crime. I wonder what the voting stats are for retired people born in Scotland? I’m not sure that the voting intentions of the immigrant English are all that very different from the retired indigenous Scots. My gut feeling is that the statistic is much more down to age than nationality.
Because when you think about it, the statistic doesn’t make much sense. There are different kinds of immigrants. There are immigrants like Yemesi and her family who left home to escape danger. And then there are immigrants like me and my family, who left home because we wanted to live somewhere better.
We didn’t have to leave England. We chose to leave England. And we didn’t have to emigrate to Scotland. We chose to emigrate to Scotland. Why? Because we like Scotland better than England. When you look at it that way, it seems a little odd that we should vote against our chosen home becoming independent.
I have a feeling this scheme will backfire, and have a galvanising effect on many English immigrants. I think many will get off the fence and make their feelings known. I look forward to the day when I’ll have to stop being the token English guy.
Great piece Mark, you show this is not about anti English, you personify the great spirit of the Scotland we ALL want to see, thank you.
btw is that the Riechstag on fire?
Oh, well said that man. 🙂
Marvelous piece!
Very very well said Mark.
I was very entertained by the video of you speaking in Lockerbie – you spoke the same thing I’d say myself.
Indeed, if you’d like to join our fledgling group, we’d love to have you (we were founded last week in direct response to the filthy article in the Mail)…
We plan to hold meetings and attending hustings/YES meetings etc. where possible with a member speaking on our behalf…because the people of Scotland need to know that there are those of us from more southern climbs who are very much in favour of independence, and are working hard to achieve it.
I myself am a founding member of the group, but also an English SNP Councillor…we cannot allow the media to turn this referendum into a nasty one all about ethnicity, for it is NOT. We are ALL Scots, be it ones that can trace their ancestry back to 1314 and beyond, or ones that got off the boat last week, fleeing tyranny and oppression in other lands. We are ALL Scots. And this is about us taking control of our own destiny.
That got me thinking more than any article I’ve read so far.
Emotion at the start….Real emotion. Backround stuff that explains what we in this nation of ours offer people in general and a conclusion that really lifts the soul.
Thankyou for this. It’s this that defines us.
I’m really proud to be part of this.
Thanks again.
And thanks to your contributor.
Token North Welsh Yesser agrees entirely 🙂
Scotland IS a dump!
http://www.eezypeezylemonsqeezy.com
My small contribution.
Every English person I know here is voting YES and a few I know in the West Midlands wish they could come up and vote YES too.
They’re as sick of Westminster as us and envy our ‘get out’ card.
Great article Mark and an uplifting story about Teni.
I think you hit on something with “My gut feeling is that the statistic is much more down to age than nationality”.
You and your family live here. You are part of the Scottish community.
What nationality you give yourself is your own businnes.
Inspiring! Now we just need to make sure the world hears a loud confident YES in September.
Thank you for this. My husband is English and went to public school. His father was AC in Aden, but oddly enough he was a Socialist.
The point is that although he was brought up in an “Establishment” household he is a rabid Yes voter. For years he tried to convince me that Scotland had been done down, his words, and I didn’t believe him. I was a NO voter until I started to investigate the situation. So, my very English husband is the one who is out trying to convert all in his path. Funnily enough we find the most resistant people are the retired “proud Scots” who live here in Argyll.
Good piece. In our household, “anti-English” – or indeed anti-anything similarly does not hold. At all. My partner is a Yorkshire businessman, born and bred – firmly in the Yes camp because he believes it will be good for Scotland in the long run even if there might be a few wobbles initially. He says its not about how much oil Scotland has or how many banks, its about bringing control over Scottish affairs closer to the people of Scotland for him.
memaw – don’t you mean ‘proud Scotbuts’?
Last week, I phoned a company in Inverness to order some stuff for my boat. Spoke to a very helpful English lad. He told me he loved it up there, and could see why Scots wanted to keep it to themselves. “We don’t”, I said. “We just want Scotland to be governed from Scotland and for Scotland. You’re more than welcome to visit, or to live and work here, and bring up your family”. Response from him: “I’m voting Yes, and so are the English people I know who live up here”. “Great”, said I, “and I bet you haven’t come across the anti-English hostility that the English press are always raving about.” “No, people are really friendly.”
Cheered me up, that did. I don’t know how typical he is, but he’ll be an asset as we build our independent future.
memaw….tou might want to have a peek at my blog with regards to Argyll!
Scotland IS a dump!
http://www.eezypeezylemonsqeezy.com
I don’t think we will blame the English Mark, we all know who will hold Scotland back the unimaginative and fearties among us, let’s pray that we are celebrating on the 19th
Really well written. Thanks Mark. Delighted to see you and the family are happy here- whichever way you vote!
“There wasn’t so much as a beat of hesitation. Scotland!
Why? Because of the people. Because of the way the community of Dumfries has made his family so welcome, and rallied round to keep the family on its feet.”
I’m sorry, but this story must have been made up, because I read that in the Herald that 70% of Scots are racists. Aren’t they?
I’ll put my cards firmly on the table. I will be absolutely raging with anger if there is a No vote. Beside myself even… but it will certainly not be anger at England, English, English Scots or indeed, any Scots from anywhere.
It will be against the establishment, Westminster, the BBC, the Newspaper media and all those Journalists (Scots or not), that lied, schemed and stole the referendum.
Interestingly, it would be the depression combined with those very feelings running deep through the psyche in Scotland after a NO vote, which would ensure that the result could never be the final line in the sand.
My biggest argument has been for years, that Scottish self determination is an inevitability… the only question remaining, is how long and painful that the transformation is going to be… I’m voting YES, because I’m not keen on pulling plasters off slowly… do it quick, then sit back smiling at what all the fuss was about.
An excellent post, many thanks to the author. We all have to do our utmost to counter this spin tactic. Can anyone (the Rev?) obtain information on the demographics of the English-born prospective referendum voters? The point the author makes is extremely important – if the demographics of this group fall into categories which are less inclined to vote Yes anyway (regardless of birth country) then this seriously alters the picture. Secondly, and fortunately, social media is showing that these voters have a voice and are refusing to be painted as the fall guys, see @EnglishScot4YES and @EngYesScotland, please Follow on Twitter and support them!
Thanks for this. It gladdens the heart that we can as people demonstrate kindness and community cohesion. We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a Braveheart type mentality and blame the English in the (awful) event of a No vote. We must keep this community feeling going and demonstrate to the world – because they will be watching – dignity and determination not to give up. The people who vote No will have plenty time to blame themselves when promises turn out to be empty and our society becomes even more unequal and London becomes ever more powerful. They will be to blame…not the English.
@tjenny you spelled that incorrectly it should be proud Scotbutts. That extra t is important.
Enjoyed reading that account. Just in …been quiet?
I’ll read the other threads now, heard on radio Mr Neil survived his vote of no confidence.
PS:
Hibs v Hamilton link footie on off-topic.
Patrician – I was being subtle. 🙂
Thankyou Mark – Just confirms everything that I know is right about the quality of folk in Scotland. From the complexities of genuine asylum seekers to the hungry and needy, IMO, there is no other country that has the backbone to stand up to racism and at the same time take a pie to a hungry family.
Its sort of amusing but back in the 70’s on a visit to a tweed outlet in Stornoway, the seller was of Pakistan origin with a lovely West Coast lilt. Perhaps one day Teni will stand with confidence and speak about his family’s acceptance in Scotland. Oh how I wish for that.
Were all Jock Tamsons bairns.
An excellent well written job Mark. Very happy for you but particularly Yemesi and her family.
Well said, Englishman. I care not in the slightest where you come from, what your skin, or that of your family is. In my book your sheer common sense says you are welcome here.
And whilst the English might be getting painted in the role of patsy in the referendum I would sincerely hope the vast, vast majority of people in Scotland will know you as English people are not the problem.
The problem is those little Brits. And they can open their mouths and be completely and utterly Scottish with every vowel, or more importantly, glottal stop. Most English folk I’ve met over the years have either been ambivalent about independence (I suspect some of them are amongst the undecided) or all for it.
It is a great thing to hear that the people of Dumfries rallied around the family of Yemesi and Temi and helped them when they most needed help. And her actions in baking for everyone goes a long way to cement their place in the community. May they find their future to be as Scots; they sound like the kind of people worth keeping around.
The divisive nature of the former imperial lands is well known; the Romans used it and the British Empire, with somewhat less skill about it, managed the same trick for a couple of hundred years. It is the standard practice of divide and rule, and to hell with any problems that might cause when you are not in charge there any more. Northern Ireland went a bit wrong in that regard; I’m sure keeping the divided land was not quite in the game plan. I have little doubt that if they’d been able to clear all the Catholics out of those six counties they would have done so. And then peace, well, might have happened a lot sooner over there.
Slightly O/T but slightly on; my visual prediction for the coming week.
http://whitefeatherclub.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/european-elections-i-predict-a/
O/T Just got an Email from Gordon brown…
Dear Donald,
I am writing to invite you to the first event following the official launch of our “No” campaign under United with Labour. Please click here to register to attend.
On Thursday 18th September we all have a vote in the referendum to decide whether we stay as part of the UK or separate from our 300 year old partnership. I believe in a strong Scottish Parliament making decisions on hospitals, schools and policing but enjoying the strength and security that comes from being part of the United Kingdom.
On the evening of June 3rd we will press ahead with our campaign to show we have a vision of Scotland’s future that is wholly different from the SNP and totally different from the Conservatives.
Register your details by clicking here.
We have taken over a venue in the centre of Glasgow for the event that starts at 7pm. This will be the first of many opportunities over the next few months to show Labour not nationalism represents the best hope for Scotland.
Our leader in Scotland Johann Lamont MSP will address the rally, and I count it a privilege to be asked to take part.
While I know there are many demands on your time, I hope you will be able to respond positively to this invitation and support Labour’s campaign to keep Scotland as part of the UK.
Best wishes
Gordon Brown MP
I’m English, support Yes, and have never seen or heard anti-English sentiment. Except once online, a few years ago, very mildly, after posting something similar to this.
Excellent piece, I am doubly weird in that I am a member of Yes as an English woman. I have postulated that maybe we need a English people for Yes group but I shy away from that in the sense it defeats the fact that as a member of my local Yes group no one ever makes comment on my place of birth. Would really like to stuff the hate filled divide and rule cobblers perpetrated by the MSM and Westminster.
In 19 years up here no one has ever commented on my place of birth and my plummy accent/loud voice…that one of the many reasons why I love it up here. People are great, friendly and funny….
I love radio Scotland call in shows up here, still after all this time the universal humanity in the opinions expressed moves me, no reactionary cobblers (unlike Any Questions/Jeremy Vine show) I am hoping that view of the world finds expression in the policies that govern us up here.
Your article was very heartening to read, Mark.
A superb article Mark.
Burns said “oh wad some power the gift tae gie us, tae see ourselves as ithers see us”
I don’t know that a people can ever get any more than a glimpse of themselves through other’s eyes, but you show us that the Scotland that we think we are does exist, in spite of what our ‘press’ might have us believe.
To my mind Scottish is as Scottish does, and that would make both you and Yemesi and her family as Scottish as any of us here.
Thank you.
@Flooplepoop
Me too…I’ve no idea why,I’m not nor ever been a member of the lablour party
Mark
First …brilliant article. Loved it.
But just one thing. It’s not much, but it’s not a mistake; just a perception.
How will things be for us English immigrants then?
Mark, whether it be Independence or not, there is no such thing as English immigrants on these islands. Same with the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, the Manx, the Cornish, the Channel Islanders. These islands might contain a fair number of countries for such a small set of islands, but no-one is a foreigner here, nor an immigrant, if they were born or live on these islands.
If Scotland gains independence, and a million Englishmen, Welshmen or Irishmen want to live here, then they are most welcome. We may be of different nationalities, but at the same time, we are British also. I know that plays into Better Togethers hands and they would happily point out my wee admittance as a ‘faus pas’, but there is still a difference.
Better Together want to put British Culture before the actual nationalities of the people of these Islands. I prefer to put the richness and diversity of all our nationalities of these islands before British Culture.
Why?
Because we can either have many rich heritages of all the home nations and thus rejoice in such a wide range of unique cultures on such a small set of islands, or we can just have the one dominant culture that is adored and hated in equal measure all over the world.
What do you prefer?
What a great article. That is the Scotland I want to see born from this referendum.
Well said Mark. I have enjoyed your writing in your novels and I enjoyed this too. I have also enjoyed the comments which are about as different to those on the No sites I brave each to see what is going on in the other camp. Great stuff people!
https://arewebettertogetherscotland.wordpress.com/
Whether or not you might think some of my previous posts were an exageration, but I have previously warned that the fight for our independence will get even dirtier as we approach the 18th, September. The Westminster establishment have finally woken up to the fact that the Scottish people are very likely to vote Yes, and so end their three hundred years of exploiting us, and our resources. Now in a blue funk, they, and their allies, which pretty much comprises all of the media led by their cheerleader, the B.B.C, and not to forget the Westminster ministries putting out disinformation at our expense. So the Sunday Times article comes as no surprise as it’s only one of many that will appear over the coming months. As someone who has lived, and voted through 79′, and 97′, I don’t bother about it, but it seems that despite all the evidence being to the contrary, some still believe what they read, or watch, or hear in the M.S.M. This won’t change, so we had better get used to the continued lies and smears, because they won’t cease, even although we win, not that that will bother us in that eventually.
Great powerful piece, written from the heart.
Big thank you! I was getting a little depressed by the media but you have tossed a warm blanket and a heartening cuppa over my dark mood!
Vote No Press and Journal gave this the full page treatment on Monday but who knows what they’re up to now as there’s a lot of English people who call Aberdeen home, or commute to London or maybe go back to England when they retire.
Its just such a shit way to try and cause trouble but look at how awful ukok media is anyway. They’ve really disgraced themselves with all of their project fear grot.
Hi. Sorry for elbowing in here. I’m doing a fundraiser for the local yes campaigns. I’m on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=525116860
Excellent piece Mark, thank you. Even though I live in London now I recall during the 90s and early noughties, all my English friends in my part of Scotland all voted YES YES in 1997 and continued to support the SNP since then. They came to Scotland because the quality of life is better, the schools, the hospitals, the housing, and as you say Mark the people and the banter too. They enjoy the inherent honesty of the Scottish people and that’s coming from their own mouths.
Most English I’ve known in Scotland have come from Lancashire and Yorkshire and they’ve lamented at what has happened in their old communities they’ve long left behind. Part of it is reality some of it is rose tinted, but the grinding destructive ideologies of the Westminster parties they know are to blame for the gutting of those northern communities and the division thereafter. The English people I know want to protect Scotland and see it grow stronger, they want their local communities to stay inclusive where everybody mucks in and division is an unwanted stranger whether it’s based on colour, creed or religion.
I have no doubt that those English people are going to vote YES because they want to protect and keep the normal that they themselves and their kids have enjoyed going to local schools and then onto colleges and universities. They know Scotland is trying to do right with the NHS, education, social security and elderly care and provsion, so why would they vote against that?
The London-based media are calling up fear and darkness, newspapers that are run by fascists with close Westminster links that only see Scotland as a possession inconveniently inahbited by second-rate subjects, like Daily Mail Chief Paul Dacre and his 19,000 acre estate where he likes to fantasise being the Victorian Laird. It’s self interest of course, nothing more, we are there to be divided, ruled and ‘no matter if they fall’. They will champion UKIP and Nigel Farage not because they want UKIP in Westminster, it’s to put pressure on the Conservative Party (and Labour) to move further Right. For Scots though they have two words … collateral damage. Keep them drunk, keep them stoned, keep them poor, keep them booing, keep them hating …
Vote YES on the 18th September and wake up on 19th September to welcome a new country, your new country, one that will be shaped by all Scots, new, young and old. Now that is worth waking up for.
Great piece. Thought there was something fishy about the stat and the age related thing probably explains alot. Divide and rule by westminster is nothing new. I will not be buying the sunday times for a few decades….
Showed this article to my No voting English nieghbour. A very decent reasonable sort of guy who was I felt always open to persuasion.
We now have another Yesser, well done Mark.
Really great piece of writing!I am English and have lived here for 24 years now,and I moved here out of choice mainly to escape right wing hatred down in sunny Margate(oh,and I married a Scot)
Have never looked back and now my parents are here too and my Brothers family,guess what they are all voting!
As to that Times article,substitute pakistani,polish,chinese,etc.and that may cause racial tensions.
However the Scots are who are voting YES are not stupid,and I dont see them falling for that crap.
Piemonteis, not all Scots are racists, sadly some are; there are racists, homophobes, sexists and idiots a plenty in every nation state on the planet. There are also people with a narrow minded agenda, who wish to piss on other’s parades. I do so hope, you are not one of those.
The article above, gladdened and saddened me in unequal measure. Saddened with the way, this family were mistreated by the establishment, in its heartlessness, for political reasons.
Gladdened, by the welcome the family and the author have received.
Vote YES, for a better future, not just for ourselves; but for all who wish to make a better life in Scotland: regardless of place of birth, gender, colour or any other defining attributes that make up the human race.
If there is a question about how many of the English residents are retirees, is there not also a question about how many are students or former students who never left after graduation? A lot of those who moved up from Northumberland and County Durham maybe need a differnet approached. The scare tactics might be aimed slightly more in their direction than we often assume. Telling them that they will be made foreigners to their own country. Even if it is ridiculous the first sting of fear takes time for the brain to catch up. It becomes a kind of Pavlov’s dog affair. Independence = fright.
Lovely article Mark. Just wanted to post a quote relevant to this and which I remember Dick Gaughan saying at a concert maybe 20-odd years ago: ‘Let’s remember the first colony of England… is England.’
And let’s remember there’s only one side trying to make ethnicity an issue.
(Clue: It isn’t Yes).
JLT says
“We may be of different nationalities, but at the same time, we are British also. I know that plays into Better Togethers hands ”
I dont see it that way JLT they don’t get to claim Britishness as the sole possession of the unionist cause,
Britishness belongs to us all.
Pass this well written article around.
I’ve said this for months, I tweeted hUmza, Nicola et al about this demographic (me) this group IS the margin the YES vote needs, they could be the deal-breaker. Engage – there is a Twitter address now but move now. If this stubborn English twat (me) could change – all of us can.
Thank you, Mark, for this article.
I really despise this “let’s make the Scots blame the English” sentiment the MSM are trying to whip up. I had a look at the tables of that poll, and if there’s a NO vote, it’ll be due to Scotland-born young women (if they bother to vote) and older people. They’re far bigger electorates than the England-born.
It was also strange how the reporting of the poll singled out England-born voters, ignoring those born in Wales or NI, or those born in EU or other countries.
Also, England-born were overrepresented in the sample (13.6% as opposed to the 10.3% according to census data).
Maybe it was a poll produced to “validate” a message someone wanted to peddle?
I felt moved by your story of Yemesi’s family and the welcome they’ve received in Scotland, and I can easily believe it.
On my first foray to the British Isles I’d spent some time in England, and people were nice and friendly enough, maybe a bit aloof, but nothing to complain about.
When I got to Scotland, I was blown away by the friendly, almost enthusiastic welcome I got everywhere! Even the English people I met in Scotland were nicer and friendlier than the ones I’d met down south! 😀
I think there was much good-natured banter about bigger neighbours (I’m a Finn) so there was an instant affinity – something I also noticed in Ireland later that year nearly 25 years ago.
A well written piece, Mark.
I’m about to share it with my ex, who is the “one” that Margo suggested we should all try to make a Yesser. She’s still switherin’ towards YES but if this doesn’t make her carry out the leap of faith, I don’t know what will!
The wifes granddad is from Yorkshire & the 2 most prominent yes supporters at work are English.
I don’t think you have anything to worry about Mark – we’re no daft!
TJ
subuttle?
I hope that eezy doesn’t mind me saying that his blog
Scotland IS a dump!
http://www.eezypeezylemonsqeezy.com
is a great one that I hadn’t seen before. So much interesting info there after such a short time!
It truly belongs on a list that was being compiled on a financial site here:-
http://boards.fool.co.uk/sites-related-to-the-referendum-13002199.aspx?sort=whole#13028259 but I am now temporarily suspended and might not be able to add to it. If anyone decides to post there, please be warned, they now seem to be less sympathetic to “Yes” posts and they have a very distorted perception of reality. The site is moderated but some posters have difficulty in controlling their emotions and the moderators might be under a lot of pressure from the large numbers of pro-establishment types who use the site.
Tom
Australian voting Yes. 200 odd years ago a relative of mine left Scotland in search of a better life, never to return. I came back to Scotland, in search of a better life, and found it.
All countries should be independent.
Mark,
An uplifting piece, thank you.
And to our other brothers & sisters from England who are voting YES – I salute you. Please keep spreading the good message of a new democracy, a new politics, a better & more prosperous society.
Great article!!!
But sadly, it doesn’t always work that way. I recently spoke to an English student at the University of Edinburgh who spoke of her resentment at having to pay tuition fees. So far, so good. I wholeheartedly agreed with her that it’s a terribly bad situation. I believe passionately in the importance of free, universal education and am very sorry indeed that this has been undermined by successive UK governments.
However, as I was about to learn, that wasn’t the source of her resentment. Instead of reserving her anger for the politicians who introduced this outrageous mercantilisation of education in the first place, this young woman was absolutely adamant that the tuition fees she was paying were simply proof of “anti-English” sentiment and deliberate “anti-English” discrimination in Scotland.
Pointing out that, though unfortunate, it is actually the situation in England, not in Scotland, that is the anomaly here (university tuition being free or easily affordable in almost every other European country) did nothing to appease her. Indeed, she claimed with a glee verging on vindictiveness that if there was a Yes vote in September, it would finally put an end to all the freebies – education, prescriptions etc. – that the Scots enjoy at the cost of the English.
This young English woman, living and studying in Scotland of her own volition, will most certainly be voting NO. That is, of course, her democratic right. But she is voting NO for all the wrong reasons. The very best I can hope for is that she is not at all representative of her generation and that students such as herself will do a little more research before casting their vote in September.
I’ve been away from modern communications and trying to catch up with WoS…
And now Rev Stu is going to register WoS as a “permitted parcipant” with the Electoral Commission!
Ouch, that gives me some personal scruples 😀 As a principle, I don’t feel right to fund political campaigns in countries where I don’t have a vote. That’s why I haven’t donated a penny to YES Scotland (though I’ve bought some YES and SNP merchandise).
I’d thought funding WoS was safe for my conscience because it was like subscribing to a newspaper. And now it becomes a campaign! 😀
Well, this year I didn’t donate as much as last year because the crowdfunding seemed to be doing pretty OK when I got to it (around the £80,000 mark by then) so maybe I can reconcile my conscience, and the Electoral Commission will overlook my foreign tenner.
Thanks, Rev Stu and other WoS contributors, and all the BTL community, for all your sterling work! Let’s win this thing!
I should have said EXCELLENT article Mark.
Thank you & all the other posters.
@MolliBlum
Molli, a dispiriting encounter. But I suspect that if the young lady has bought the myth that the Scots enjoy all the “freebies” at the “cost of the English”, there’s little anyone could say that would disabuse her. Hope she’s getting a sound education at Edinburgh Uni though!
A couple of weeks back my wife introduced me to a couple of new friends by inviting them over for dinner. At the dinner table the conversation turned to the Scottish economy. Without any prompting from me the man leaned across the table and said he hoped I’d be votong Yes in the referendum. I of course replied “yes”. Nothing remarkable there you might think, except that he has a doctorate in Economics AND he and his wife (who is also an economist) are both CHINESE. So here I was sitting with people who had travelled 6000 miles from the other side of the world, had chosen to settle, invest their time and labour in this country, have children, pay taxes and have the vision to see the opportunity that has been presented to Scots this year. I can’t tell you how humbling it is to meet such people and how much I admire them and you Mark for you’re commitment to your new coumtry. I might add I now have many Chinese friends with similar vision.
Great piece. I jotted my thoughts down on being an exile (of the opposite type) and how people treat and react to those that just happen to be born on the other side of the border.
http://www.juux.com/blog/on-scottish-independence/
@MolliBlum
What you need to point out to that girl is that English students doing a four year honours degree in Scotland get their 4th year paid by the Scottish taxpayer. This is because they are regarded as resident in Scotland after three years.
If she wanted a “free” education at Scottish taxpayers expense, then she was free to come and live here for three years prior to starting her course. She could then be regarded as resident here and had her fees paid.
My nephew, a Scot, has lived in England for years. If he decides to come to study in Scotland he too will pay fees, even although he is Scottish.
It is a policy based on residence, not ethnicity/nationality. Anti-English? Not a chance. I’d say she was purely ignorant.
Another English Yes voter here. I have no Scottish roots as far as I can discover, but as my children were born and are being raised here in Edinburgh I like to think I have Scottish branches.
I’m disappointed, but not surprised, to see how readily and frequently the msm miss the point of civic nationalism. As far as I’m concerned, Rakim put it best: ‘It ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at.
Great article Mark! 😀
It’s stories like yours that keep restoring some of my flagging faith in humanity. So thanks for sharing 🙂
I’ve never been one to believe in the concept of “foreigners” as used by certain people.
*cough*UKIP*cough*
I mean we all live on the same planet, we’re all members of the same species, how the heck is the fact that some of us live on different bits of land supposed to somehow make us completely different from each other.
I mean there are different cultures, but what sort of big deal is that? Everyone should be free to do their own thing, as long as no-one gets hurt. Seems simple enough. But certain people… *cough*UKIP*cough* just won’t let it be that simple.
Anyways, thanks again for the uplifting article there 🙂
I’m off to get something for this cough! hehe.
@ Democracy Reborn
That’s a heartening thought – but I’m not so sure. As chance would have it, I had just spoken the previous day to one of her lecturers, who was of similar persuasion. Plus, she pointed out to me the superiority of the English education system which, she insisted, teaches “proper British history”. It was indeed, as you say, dispiriting. But perhaps she is merely the exception that proves the rule. Either that, or she also enjoyed an education in “proper British geography” at school and therefore wasn’t aware that her university of choice was actually in Scotland. Fortunately, I do know several English people who are voting Yes. And they are doing so in full confidence that a Yes vote will help to rekindle a more passionate leftwing political aspiration (slumbering but by no means dead) south of the border too.
Well said Mark.
Thomas Valentine @ 7.45pm
Just last week I was chatting to a lovely couple of middle aged ladies from Newcastle. We got talking politics and I can tell you they wish us the best with the referendum. I said,delighted, that we must greatly improve our transport links to their city – a new motorway and,who knows, maybe a high speed rail link. They really like the idea of us being a counterweight to the death-pull of London and SE England. We have many friends in NE England.
@Truth — I wasn’t aware of that 3-year rule. Thanks for pointing it out! As you say, it is not a question of “ethnicity” at all, just one of domicile, but sadly this young student was convinced that this is exactly what it is all about.
Truly what Scotland is all about. I get a glowing feeling when I read of our kindness to those in trouble. Far better to do that than to stick the boot in.
On another note I lived in Africa for 28 years and have seen and felt the resentment to the “British” for the atrocities committed by them in the name of “The Empire” and of “Queen/King” and “Country”. However the real reason was of course to turn a fast buck/dollar/pound what ever you want to call it. The establishment (Westminster and lackeys) will do any dirty deed necessary to keep the status quo it is not new to them and they are well versed in the subterfuge.
Sorry O/T but worth it.
If you have watched any of the Live Independence broadcasts from our own Thistle then please give them a donation to help them out. £695 raised out of £3k. http://tinyurl.com/olt48ue
C’mon Wings, where’s that legendary generosity? If you don’t donate they might not let you watch the Counting House get together on the 30th (veiled threat a la BT stylee!).
You can watch any of the archived debates here: http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive
@ Oneironaut
It’s stories like yours that keep restoring some of my flagging faith in humanity. So thanks for sharing
Agreed. Pleasant to read something positive in an ocean of disinformation and negative reasoning.
A really moving and uplifting article Mark.
Thank you so much for opening your heart and expressing yourself in such a positive way.
One Love!
The only division I have ever felt in Scotland.Is presented by the North Britons.Why if people like Darling are proud Scots are they so afraid of the Saltire.Why do so many pubs hotels etc fly the Union flag at all!But when they do its in the middle and the saltire on the left as the subservient flag.If we all live in Scotland and are a proud nation why be afraid to be Scottish.Or are better together British during the campaign then back to Scottish after a no vote as a mickey mouse nationality doesn’t threaten the Uber North British identity.So are the North Brits just in a roundabout way saying they don’t recognise the Scottish nation or flag.The technical point is that there is no British nationality.So they are actually incorrect in defining their nationality.To me its a Swede calling his nationality Scandinavian.
Fantastic piece of journalism Mark.
I have met both sides of the argument from our cousins from both south of the border and Northern Ireland. It ranges From ” GO for it you can do it and better your country”, too the outrageous, ” you will be bankrupt in a year”. The second part ALL to do with MSM scaremongering. They will have so much to answer for, innocent people could be singled out. I hope not.
MSM=Despicable.
Inspiring Mark. Brilliant article.
My ‘Oakes’ line came en masse to Hutchesontown, Glasgow in 1862 from Aston, Birmingham. Just 2 years later in 1864 a boy was born and given the name William Wallace Oakes!
Great piece Mark. Well said.
Scots will have only themselves to blame if there is a NO vote which leaves us at the mercy of Cameron, Clegg, Milliband, et al.
The divide and rule agenda of the British establishment is rising like a bad stink.
A resounding YES vote will blow it back to the sty on the Thames it wafts from.
It’s magic the way Yemesi and her family have been welcomed; imagine the horror if UKIP gets into coallition with the Tories (scream in silence). Glad they have a home, just a blddy shame they had such horrid treatment from the authorities.
Great article. Nothing warms my heart more than an Englishman declaring his support for independence: it’s a sign of considerable thought, knowledge, understanding, appreciation and enthusiastic membership of the national community.
Good speech. I chose to live in Scotland way back in 1991, in part because I loathed Maggie Thatcher and all her works, and also I respected the decent fight the Scots put up against the Poll Tax and also the Miners strike – Thatcherism is back in the shape of Cameron and UKIP, and I want to rebuild a virtual Hadrians Wall and stay this side of it, with my ane decent folk.
Thanks.
Mark a great article, thanks for that.
We English and Scottish in my view have never had a problem over race. Sure there are exceptions but for the majority it was only friendly rivalry.
The Government through the medium of the MSM want to make it something darker though as has been seen in the recent newspaper articles. Their genius though has totally underestimated the political savvy of the average Scot and I believe most see this as just another tactic of the propaganda campaign.
In my view, eventually relationships between ordinary Scots and English will improve one we rid ourselves of Westmisters poison.
We all have friends in both countries, the passing of time will show that Scottish Independence proved to be a good thing for the whole UK. It’s the rotten establishment we want to change not our neighbours.
Ah! Meant to mention, fully in agreement with X-Sticks re the Independence Live fund raiser. Try to contribute what you can.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scottish-independence-live-events
When my Mother first came to Scotland, after spending a couple of years alone in England as an au pair after the war, she found herself at Glasgow Central, sitting on her case, having a wee greet to herself. Some woman came up to her and asked what was up, then persuaded her to come for a cuppa…just what she needed to set her up. (She still loves the idea that at a bus stop or in a lift, you will get someone’s entire life story within seconds…) She still remembers that, some sixty odd years later, and loves the place she has come to call home. In part, this is because she feels she has been made welcome. She feels it reminds her very much of home, and the people back in Austria. Yes, there are all sorts of diddies here too, but in all, she is content, and happy here, and feels like she is part of something, even though she spends most of her time alone now. She knows what way to vote in September, and TBH is perfectly proud to say so, and why.
I engraved a storage jar for her with the “Yes” title, and the thistle from the front of the Herald on Sunday from a few weeks ago, and she loves it..she actually wants more. She has her saltire, albeit a small one, and is more than happy to bang the drum for Alex Salmond, who she would love to meet, whenever she has a chance to catch her breath.
She has family in four or five countries at least, and I have the same in another handful on my father’s side. EVERYONE is a foreigner to me, even the English rellies. So what??? We are all still family.
It is lovely to see the excited look on her face when she thinks of the prospect of an independent Scotland where we get a proper say in oor ain wee bit o’ grun’. (The green grun’, no’ the grey grun’, ‘cos that’s the road…)
She is eighty two years young, coming up for eighty three, and is looking forward to a very bright future for us all…
For the undecided vote tomorrow.
http://uk.votematch.eu
Seems I am Green.
For the undecided vote tomorrow.
http://uk.votematch.eu
Seems I am Green.
Well said, that man. Hopefully tomorrow every Scot new or old will get out and vote and show the divide and rulers that we abhor intolerance and pave the way for a Yes in September.
A few quotes from this would be very effective. On tube station wall ads, for example.
I’ve got English friends who still think it might be them, as a people who we want to ‘blame’, for a long list of grievances. Encompassing ethnic cleansing, almost within living memory, it’s small wonder they might think this way.
Tell them we know who the real culprits are.
How shameful would it be, if when every non-Scots born person i’ve spoken to responds that Yes is a no brainer, that a majority of oor aine chose to vote for subservience to the London Establishment. The Firm.
I’ve witnessed anti-English sentiment. It was horrible. For what felt like an eternity, the relentless abuse continued.
But after eighty minutes, Scotland lifted the Calcutta Cup. The raging Scots fans turned and shook the hands of as many English fans as were around them and we all walked out of the stadium united in our view that Matt Dawson was well past his prime. (That’s going back a bit!)
In all honesty I have never encountered any anti-English nastiness in fourteen years living this side of the border. I get more stick from my soft southern acquaintances!
The only folk to blame for a NO vote will be the YES supporters who don’t vote, regardless of which side of the border they hail from.
Meanwhile, I haven’t managed to score tickets to another Calcutta Cup match in too long a while…
Well said, Mark Frankland: The only certain thing is that there will be a vote 18 September. Many of the English in Scotland are there because they prefer it to England. There may be some that are of a mixed mind and some that are afraid of the future or afraid their UK passport will be taken away. I have often heard people say that they don’t want to lose their UK passport. I see no reason why that would happen. Dual nationality is common nowadays. My daughter lives in Leeds. She has an American passport by birth and an Irish passport through her mother. She’s never been to Ireland and only comes to America on holiday. I see no reason to suppose that a Scots UK passport will be rescinded or that Scots would have to make a choice. Scotland is a good place and an Independent Scotland will be an even better place.
Scotland IS a dump!
http://www.eezypeezylemonsqeezy.com
My small contribution.
Great article Mark.
I have to thank Stu. as well. Just as things get a little overwhelming, and that’s been quite a lot lately, up pops a post with an uplifting message.
Reinforces why this is one hell of a brilliant site!
English Scots for YES are also fundraising http://tinyurl.com/pfvsv7p Appropriate to post this on this article especially I think – please give generously Wings!
Mark,
you are the best advocate of an independent Scotland I have come across.
You are a real inspiration and a true Scot.
If Westminster do manage to fluke a No vote with their ‘fling enough mud and hope some sticks’ strategy; I, for one, will in no way blame any English or other nationalities that have done Scotland the honour of making this country their home.
No voters – immigrants or not – are not to be blamed. Many of them will have been convinced by the main-stream media’s biased promotion of the No campaign case; and some may be duped by the empty Jam Tomorrow promises of the Unionist parties.
That won’t wash in the long run. Those duped No voters will end up at Yes when they realise that Devo Max was never really planned.
In my opinion, barring a Black Swan event, there will be no fluke and Scotland will vote for independence.
Yes, predictably, Westminster are trying their old divide and rule technique – that built the Empire – on Scotland. Not only that but they blame the Yes campaign and particularly the SNP for that created division.
As shown on Stu’s last mini-poll, the Yes to No percentage movement is tiny and within the margin of error to be considered virtually non-existent.
This implies Yes have the much stronger and persuasive argument than any argument No has.
It also is an illustration of why the Westminster policy of Divide and Rule will not succeed in this case. No matter what scare stories they have made up Better Together cannot, however hard they try, divide the growing Yes vote.
The problem with their ‘flinging mud’ strategy is obvious to everyone outside Better Together. People easily see that their hands are dirty.
It does not build trust. My guess is many Nos are soft Nos having arrived at that position through fear.
The plight of Teni and Yemesi is a story of immigrants who have known fear and have now embraced hope. And are now voting Yes.
I am confident that other immigrants in Scotland will choose hope over fear too. All they need is the message. And they will vote Yes.
Excellent piece as always Mark and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say, as the Americans tend phrase these things, you’re an English-Scot not the token Englishman. We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns and all the stronger for it.
Just a pity UKIP and the wider British Establishment has forgotten that.
Eezy
We have actually motored through Glen Douglas, very eery and unsettling. But even more scary, have you read John Jappy’ s blog about the nuclear weapons store at Machrihanish? We live 40miles from there.
T Jenny
You are quite correct, I should have said “proud Scots but”, one T or Two I leave for you to decide.
BBC Scotland are going their dinger again, all day leading with British Labour’s ranting at Health Minister Alex Neil.
Its a non story.
How did British Labour get his emails, must be GCHQ/NSA secret police surveillance.
BBC Scotland behave like part of the British Labour party, are they allowed to favour a political party. Strange BBC Scotland never ever mention British Labour’s past!
Surely in a democracy, our democracy and thus our freedoms must be defended against all interlopers. Surely they must be and seen to be totally impartial. They’re not.
I’ve been listening to BBC/BBC Scotland all my life, and recently daily for last 20years. I noticed change in BBC Scotland about 8years ago, soon after Blair appointed Mark Thompson as Director General. BBC management cannot be political appointments, that way we get BBC corruption, as we’re getting now.
Who in the BBC/BBC Scotland is selecting the daily lead stories, is it the British Labour Party.
I suspect its to damage SNP on the day before tomorrow’s European Elections.
British Labour Party are not a democratic organisation, they are a corrupt organisation, and probably a criminal organisation.
ps. British Labour will definitely be up to the same tricks, on the days immediately before our great Independence Referendum. Be On Guard. Stay Alert.
Relax Mark on two grounds – first, there is zero traction here for that vicious piece of coat-trailing in the Sunset Times. To follow the discussion on The Herald website was to watch the tactic being spotted and rubbished straight away. Secondly – the circumstances won’t arise, for there will be a YES vote in September. The experiences on the street and doorsteps, even here in the Borders (not all of it the easiest of territory for us), is steadily and markedly moving our way. And we have a long time still to go with each panic attack scare story and dirty tactic from ‘No’ being met by the pounding of many, many feet on the pavements and the buzz of many conversations. (I was also very moved by your story of your asylum seeker friends having had some experience myself fighting to get people through a thoroughly nasty and punitive system – and that was with good community help in south west England, despite what will probably be a big UKIP vote there this week. A lot of that is, as Jon Snow has come to recognise, actually a despair about Westminster which, without having any time at all for that unpleasant party, we, here, probably understand. Folk in many parts of England just haven’t got the political vehicle we have for opting for something better.) So – no worries, we’re all going to win this together.
@ Mark Frankland. Is it English you call yourself Mark, ah would have You down as north british, your from Blackburn thats a kick in the erse from being a Scotsman anyhow, the same as a lot of people of Nth England have more in common with Scotland than Sth England.
Good piece should be spread far an wide more power to You pal.
What a brilliant piece.
I too am England-born but moved here some years ago. Maybe it’s because I had a Scottish grandfather, or maybe it’s because Scotland resonates with everything I believe makes for a good and decent society, but I feel in my bones that I have come home.
Of course I shall be voting Yes. Even as a child I wondered why Scotland wasn’t a separate country and my grandfather would growl into his tea and I gathered from his growls that he thought so too. So a small part of my Yes is for him, but the rest is for Scotland as it could be, and should be, for all Scotland’s people and all their grandchildren and all their grandchildren’s grandchildren.
I do know some English people who will vote no. Almost all Tory supporters though. One is a definite hard no, but the others may be swayed in time if the media keeps crapping on them and stoking ethnic tensions.
As others have said though, there really isn’t much that divides Scots and English, but then again, there really isn’t much that divides most peoples in this world. The worst agents for division have always been governments and Westminster has always had the absolute worst record for that. They’ve been responsible for so much ethnic hatred across this fair planet of ours. Its a bit of a paradox, but the only way to be truly free from that corrosive ethnic division is independence.
Better Together are doing something very clever indeed.
They have changed the question from ‘should Scotland be an independent country’
to their version –
‘should Scotland stay as part of the Union
or separate from the rest of the UK’.
In this change, the No Campaign are attempting to control the way the voters are thinking – and feeling.
Their goal is to get people to think about separation, which is usually painful and regrettable,
and to take their minds off the word independence which is a valuable attribute and something well worth aspiring to.
These are the bare bones of what I’m driving at, but I think it is very important to keep the word independence to the forefront at all times,
and to debunk the BT campaign to change what it is we are being asked to vote on.
Will the banter continue to be friendly? Absolutely!
Warmed my heart, and makes me proud of my people.
If you reside in Scotland, you are Scottish,for being Scottish is just that, a state of being identified not by place of origin or blood,but the understanding of the human condition and utilising all it’s better parts for the betterment and nurturing of the society as a whole.
Outstanding article Mark.
Had a lump in my throat over Yemesi’s tale. This is what gives you faith in your fellow man and puts a spring in your step when you’re out talking to people about what we’re capable of.
As for that insidious headline? Only the truly hard of thinking are unaware that some of YES Scotland’s most active support comes from people of all points of origin including England.
I too am a product of a mixed marriage: my mother was from County Durham (hence Scottish) and my father a man of Kent. I live in Scotland and will be voting resoundingly ‘Aye’ on September 18th. I also expect to be launching a pro indy project before I am very much older.
This was a fine article, well written and well spoken.
Eloquent, and hopefully it has the desired far-reaching effect. Well said.
European Elections.
Vote EARLY.
Vote SNP (other brands of independence parties are available but this one has the best chance of the third seat)
Well said and anyone not sure to vote yes should read this.come on Scotland and rise snd be a natition again
In Australia white vs Aboriginals.
Back at the europeon champianships in 1996 I was lucky enough to get a ticket with my three mates for the England Scotland game at wembly, and their was a little incident at the end of the game that has never been reported.
A short time after the game ended most of the fans were still in the ground with the Scots 16,000 corraled at one of the end sections, then all the english fans pushed their way down towards us on either side, their was a few seconds of hush, then all the england fans on our right stood on the seats and started applauding and cheering us and we responed right back.
This went on for a number of minutes then the england fans on our left did the same and we answered back the same again, it was fun it was honest, and then we went for a drink, which is another story.
We had spent 90 minutes miscalling each other but after the game we left as friends. Westminster and the media can try their best to have us miscall and distrust each other but at the end of this game we will still be friends.
This was a fabulous article and the comments make a man’s soul soar, perhaps being a Scot is not where you are born perhaps its as simple as saying “sod the money, this is not right, this is not my way” we can and will do better for our country and for our people old Scots, new Scots and those who dont know yet.
We are the YES generation and we are friends.
Please keep telling me that, Nigel.
I’m doing a chunk of the Borders too. I’ve been round over 500 households with the paper deliveries, some more than once. Of these I’ve had four (4) refuse the paper, and one more who took it pleasantly enough but made a negative remark as she took it. All of these people have been women, come to think of it.
Three of the four who refused the paper were in-your-face aggressive. These are the ones I remember. These are the ones that make me tiptoe up to houses, walking on the grass so as not to scrunch on gravel, hoping a barking dog doesn’t alert the householder to my presence. Just hoping to get the paper in the letterbox and out of there without being confronted.
It’s bonkers. Far far more people have smiled pleasantly and thanked me for the paper. Far too many to count. It’s just that it’s the negative ones you remember, and have to consciously put aside in order to get up and get out there and do some more.
So keep telling me how well we’re doing in the Borders. My experience doesn’t actually contradict yours, it just seems like it some days.
Just a small point Mark but this is wrong:
Niue a couple of years ago voted under the aegis of the UN Decolonisation Program to remain a part of New Zealand (we ‘inherited’ them from Britain). NZ offered lots of sweeteners to try and clinch the deal but Nieuans were not convinced.
I expect Quebec may also take exception to your remark. You and much of the rest of Canada may not regard Quebec as a country but the PDQ will disagree.
Fantastic article! Really moved me deeply. Being a token Danish immigrant with a funny accent I embrace fully the idea of my adopted home nation of 30 years becoming independent, free and prosperous. As Davy says – being a Scot is not about where you were born! 🙂 And as my 17 year old son recently said: “life is what you make it – and mine will be awesome!”
When we moved up here to Dundee from London and found a place to rent the local retired women adopted my English born wife (she didn’t have a job initially) and wouldn’t take no for an answer. She was not allowed to sit at home alone while hubby was at work and the kids at school.
This attitude was translated to New Zealand. When we emigrated there from Scotland when I was 6 my Dad’s work had booked a motel unit for us initially. Privately the office and their wives had filled the cupboards and the fridge with food.
‘Niue a couple of years ago voted under the aegis of the UN Decolonisation Program to remain a part of New Zealand (we ‘inherited’ them from Britain). NZ offered lots of sweeteners to try and clinch the deal but Nieuans were not convinced.
I expect Quebec may also take exception to your remark. You and much of the rest of Canada may not regard Quebec as a country but the PDQ will disagree.”
They can disagree if they like, but by definition neither of those places are countries. I don’t believe either has ever been so.
An excellent article stating the truth. As another English settler I too will be voting for independence. Why would I want to vote any other way. I have chosen Scotland as my home and intend to stay her for the duration of my life. Originally from near Manchester I now consider Scotland to be my home – as such I want it to be governed by people who live in Scotland. Living in the Highlands we tend to have different needs than city dwellers so to be governed by city dwellers hundreds of miles away seems ludicrous to me. Thanks for the article.
If I read nothing else in this campaign, this will article will suffice.
Thank you for an inspirational story.
Very good article.
Being part of the Scottish family is a matter of the heart, not some ghastly DNA analysis. It is an idea, an idea that anyone that finds themselves in accord with can embrace and be part of. It should be no other way.
We are voting for the future not the past.
Inspirational story and such inspirational comments!
Got a feeling the MSM will not touch on this story.
J
Very moving piece Mark. Most English folk I know are inclined towards Yes and it would be saddening were the British establishment to get its way and create such divisions.
I dont think it will succeed though. Our country is really where our children are. Where they live and are growing up. Where they will spend their lives.
It’s much more important than where we were born.
The Sunday Times piece was disgraceful and disgusting.
Great piece, Mark. You’re quickly emerging as one of the most interesting voices in this debate, measured and sensible.
It’s a long time since I joined the SNP but when I did I discovered that a local branch has five office bearers. In my branch, all five were English. Canvassing around doors way back then I always found that English people, or indeed non-aboriginals from anywhere, were on the whole more likely to support us than native Scots. It was almost a relief to hear a different accent when the door opened- you knew the traditional sepsis, the Cringe, wouldn’t be there. I regarded our numerous English supporters as the real ‘hearts of oak’.
“The experiences on the street and doorsteps, even here in the Borders (not all of it the easiest of territory for us), is steadily and markedly moving our way.”
Having lived in the Borders all my life it is not the easiest of territories for one main reason. There is a huge anti-English sentiment that gets called “banter”. My wife moved here over 10 years ago and could not believe how open people were with racism having not experienced anything of this nature down south. It’s not confined to one side of the Border, I work in England and experience it myself but folks, take off the tinted glasses for a minute. Acts of kindness and generosity happen in every corner of the UK. Acts of racism and hatred happen in every corner of the UK.
As for the Borders, in my experience, there is more support for NO. That actually surprises me but then I don’t really talk much to the ignorant racists.
That was a really interesting piece. I think, though, that we’re all bright enough to realise that the media are just stirring here and trying to get a reaction to back up all the lies they’ve been spouting for years about the Scottish independence movement being racist. Frankly, we’re not anti anyone, just pro-democracy. I do worry that they’ll simply use a false flag though and that they’re trying to set one up.
I find it strange that some people claim there’s “huge” anti-English racism. My mum’s Scots and my dad’s English. He’s lived here, in Glasgow and then in the Highlands, for over 40 years. He’s never experienced any racism – ever. Banter; yes (and he fair likes to give it out, I can tell you), racism; no. Not even once. So I wonder about people’s different experiences with that.
Having said that, I’m glad so many people say every English person they know is a Yesser. I’m the opposite; every one I know is a no (including my dad, sadly). There are a lot of young-ish English people where I live who have families. So I’m not so sure that it’s an age thing although that’s an interesting point.
Absolutely brilliant article. Well done that community. I’m thinking of writing a piece from my standpoint in the military, both inspired by articles of this standard and shamefully self aware of my short comings. As long as this stream of birlliance continues. My very boring veiwpoint wont be needed.