My wife is keeping an eagle eye on the news from Grindavik. “I visited with my parents when I was young,” she says as she watches the live stream of the smouldering landscape. As you may have heard,a volcanic eruption is expected. Although she only spent her first 12 years on Iceland, it is still her nation – the old country.
It is remarkable, really. A population of 360,000 – no oil, no whisky, no renewables exports, but lots of earthquakes and volcanoes, yet still independent and successful, with a seat at the United Nations.
SNP MPs and their celebrity supporters regularly make trips to Iceland and the Arctic Circle NGO. They come back full of praise and refreshed after breathing the air of freedom. But nothing substantial is achieved. These trips amount to no more than jollies. Fringe benefits of the Westminster or Holyrood lifestyle. The greatest lesson they could, and should learn from Iceland, Norway, Finland or Ireland is that these countries did not ask for their freedom – they reclaimed it. That’s what a people with a cause and a sense of national identity do.
Speaking of national identity, I cycled up to the Danish national team’s training centre the other day. It’s only about 20km from here and I needed a mid-day break. No distance at all with an e-bike on dedicated two-lane cycle paths. The team is staying a few hundred metres from the famous Kronborg Castle and opposite their hotel is the historic Marienlyst Palace, dating back to 1588. In other words, an area steeped in this nation’s history.
Across the Sound, within what seems like touching distance, is Sweden – the Auld Enemy. Neither Swedes nor Danes suffer from a lack of national self-identity. Very close neighbours but entirely assertive of who they are. There’s no split personalities here, no alternative flag allegiances, no local cringe. It’s the red and white Dannebrog only, on official buildings on this side, and Sweden’s blue and yellow on the opposite shore.
I caught sight of Celtic’s Matt O’Riley. He was on his way back to the hotel. Now, here’s a young man born in England, who’s played as an England youth international, and yet here he is with the Danish national team. He could have chosen England, Ireland or Norway, but in his own words: “I played for England youth teams but at the same time, I do feel quite Danish. My mum is Danish and I can speak a decent amount and I can understand a very good amount.” That first voice, his mither tongue, has drawn him back to the old country.
But to be honest, who would not be attracted to a nation that believes it is a nation? That is proud of its flag. Who would not want to belong to a people who understand who they are with every ‘fibre of their being’, as a former First Minister liked to say. You don’t get people from these countries insisting they are Scandinavian, first, and whatever country they come from, second. Scots insisting they are ‘British’ is the tragic triumph of English propaganda. Perfidious Albion’s clever ruse to obliterate our Scottish identity.
My wife still speaks Icelandic with her brothers. This 1000–year–old Nordic leid, is spoken and understood by few, yet is a fully intact and respected international language. For Icelanders, like the rest of us, the first voice they ever hear is their mother’s voice. After birth, however, no one attempts to convince them that they need to shun their native language, or speak differently. There’s something about national identity and the mither tongue.
As a Scottish exile, you never lose your identity, but the longer the absence the greater the alienation. Living among a people who know who they are is a huge contrast to belonging to the diaspora of a colonised nation. After all, what is our Scottish identity? Half the people within our borders choose to vote for political parties based in another country. Some of our councils have even banned the flying of our national flag, preferring instead, the symbol of our occupier.
Every ballot cast by a Scot for a London-based party is a conscious choice to accept colonisation. It is also a box-tick for the gradual but certain eradication of his or her own country.
Every Scottish politician who takes a seat in the English parliament legitimises the MPs of another country in their rule of ours. It’s well paid betrayal. Apparently they’re representing constituents by recognising a foreign monarch and accepting the absurd situation where hundreds of English MPs overrule eveything and anything the Scots (or Welsh) MPs decide. An overwhelming majority of Scottish MPs supported Home Rule more than a century ago, but this majority was ignored. One hundred years later we sent 56 of 59 to Westminster – a virtual declaration of independence – but they, too, achieved nothing. Is it any wonder support for independence parties is stagnating?
Just look at the life and death struggle of Palestinians for their ain wee bit of hill and glen. They’ve continued their national struggle from refugee camps, after 75 years of the most horrible, violent oppression. Yet here at home, many Scots think the idea of an independent Scottish state, with its own foreign policy, control of its enormous wealth, and a seat at the UN is dangerous separatism. Generation after generation of Scots have gladly fed the hand that bites them by voting for unionist politicians in English colonial parties. Michael ‘fresh start’ Shanks is the latest ‘Scottish Labour’ lobby fodder to march south and immediately obey the orders of his English overlord, no questions asked.
Yet, even in the politics of independence, party interests take precedence over the cause itself. They create a loyalty to their own clique – to benefit themselves. With one notable exception, the ISP, the entire party-political circus in Scotland is tailored to suit the colonial regime in London.
People are looking for something different. There was a 20% turnout at the recent by-election in Motherwell. Another huge disappointment for Alba. A mere 66 votes. But perhaps it’s not Alba, maybe it’s the broken system they’ve embraced? Running as a parallel SNP, albeit more decent and focused, may well be a losing strategy.
I remember an early Alba conference where the topic of abstentionism was discussed. If memory serves me correct there were cheers for this suggestion. Salvo’s Sara Salyers spoke at that same conference and also received cheers for her message about the still-extant Scottish constitution. She stole the limelight somewhat.
Personally, I believe the era of returning MPs to Westminster is over – dead, finished. Compared to the Irish, we are the ultimate slow learners. And to be honest, I think Alex Salmond might be better employed as a non- aligned global ambassador for our nation’s cause. But, at the risk of being burned at the stake, it needs to be pointed out that Alex is very much embedded within the structure of the British state. His TV shows are fabulous and his London contacts legion. That said, he is a privy councillor, he sees very much the need to ‘negotiate with London’, and his party believes that getting elected to Westminster will be a game-changer. Yet Alex was among the triumphant 56 in 2015 who sat on the green benches as every promise made to Scotland was broken. A genuine liberation party would have up and left. The world would have sat up and taken note of England’s betrayal. Instead we got Tommy Sheppard telling us they were going to be good parliamentarians. Well, wasn’t that just lovely jubbly.
A non-party political liberation movement may be what’s needed to inspire independence supporters. After all, it’s clear that nothing will ever be achieved in the home of war-crime affirming moral squalor at Westminster. Any Scottish MP sitting on those benches will be forever tainted by the crimes of the government and state they swore allegiance to.
This week I was asked to record a broadcast which will be released in the near future. There was some discussion about national identity. One of the speakers spoke, quite lyrically about, “The things that sing in our bones,” as Scots.
“As Scots, we dream of justice, compassion, equality, prosperity and care for all, without preference or privilege. But what we have is an English system of concentrated power and privilege”.
We will never break the chains of national slavery if we continue to believe the path to freedom runs through the imperial parliament of our neighbour. Maybe the auld Scots word radigal needs to be re-introduced to our language. Perhaps a memory of the first voice we ever heard will awaken our sense of identity. After all, we are – in every sense – a people, as defined by the United Nations. It’s time oor mither tongue was heard on the world stage, not least the word ‘liberatioune’.
peteryoung.dk 