Vexing Vexillology

More half-baked journalism, bent perspectives and Politicians (who should know better) diving towards party lines, courtesy of the scandalous sanction on Saltires at the National Library of Scotland.

You would have thought that Tartan was being re-banned and the bagpipes were about to be outlawed once again, if you took some of the headlines at face value in their coverage of a story where an office worker decides to turn his desk into a mini Brigadoon bedecked in 2x Saltires, 1x Royal Standard and a Tartan covering of his chair that would put the Bay City Rollers to shame.

To compound the situation, the Library issues a memo in typically vague 21^st Century “office-speak” that suggests that the problem was the presence of the Saltire itself as potentially “racist” and “intimidating to non-Scottish colleagues.” In fact, the issue was more to do with a desk looking unprofessional due to excessive adornments – the nature of which was irrelevant.

But these are the times we live in, when saying what you mean in the workplace (or should I say the office is avoided. No-one is ever “fired” they “decide to move on”, people aren’t lying they are “inaccurate” and desks aren’t “a messy discgrace” but a potentially racist offence. Cue tiptoe from straight-talking cold water being poured on the issue, to barrel-loads of media-frenzied “Hot water”.

The SNP rush to the defence of the Saltire, which other parties rush to condemning the SNP for politicising Saint Andrew’s Cross and the PC brigade in the general public then wade-in with a barrel-load of moans about Union Flags and their alleged connotation with groups as diverse as Ulster Unionists and the BNP.

The sorry state of affairs reflects our appalling lack of national pride and the disjointed nature of Scotland and/or Britain. We see flags as potentially “offensive” and threatening. If we were only to look elsewhere: France, Italy, Canada, America etc., we see nations that treasure their national identity (regardless of the complexities) and value their national flag. A colleague tells me that he was virtually stared down for daring to photograph an American flag/oath moment at the start of a small-town event. His lack of respect was offensive, and he was showing no decorum, and the locals let him know about it through their dirty looks.

Maybe the USA can be a bit extreme on this, but we could do with a large chunk of their idealism to counter the cynicism and negativity that pervades our society and for a moment stop fighting over our flag, and instead, owe some respect to it.

The Sandwick Verses

I’m not sure which is more galling: the quotes of failed downsizer Max Scratchmann from his now withdrawn book; the fact the guy took from his Orkney tenure only disappointment and resentment; or Chris Green’s naive copy in such an esteemed publication as The Independent: referring to the islands as not only an “archipeligo” but also “The Orkneys”? Scratchmann may accuse the Islands as being in a timewarp, but the same accusation can be thrown at Fleet Street for their shoddy and unresearched coverage of the story. For what it’s worth: it is not “The Orkneys”, it is simply “Orkney”! But hey, this is the novice approach that typifies Fleet Street’s coverage of all things Scottish – or as they would probably say “Scotch”. Hoots mon – och aye the noo, where’s my bagpipes? Job done – let’s lunch in Carnaby (sic) Wharf darling!

To Scratchmann – well I don’t know whether to be annoyed or sorry for you, Max. To spend six years on Orkney, redefining your life is an opportunity too good to be missed, so to put the boot in so definitely into island life suggests that maybe the point has been missed too. There’s an old saying that it takes two to tango, and your accusions of Orkney as being in a “1950’s timewarp” and Orkney as “an alien landscape off Star Trek” stink of sneering. And this from a guy who lived in the city that gave us Moss-side? Surely some mistake. But worry not – Scratchmann is no Salman Rushdie and the Orcadians would be the last people to wish a fatwah on him.

Remote places maintain a culture – just because there’s no identikit town centre with the same soulless shops and restaurants that pepper the cities of the UK, doesn’t make it wrong or outdated. Yes – there may be one or two idiots up there, but fools are plentiful all over the world and Orkney has no monopoly on awkward characters.

Orkney is a stunning, remote island that mixes with the modern and maintains some great aspects of life that it would be poorer without. Should anyone wish to move there, pause and think. Consider how to fit in, be prepared to do all the listening and let others do the talking, and enjoy the amazing place for what it is.

Euro-vote Splits Kingdom

While the appalling results for Labour in the European Elections are being highlighted (rightly) as the electorates verdict on Gordon Brown’s leadership and the Westminster Expenses Scandal, there are many themes that are being drawn out from this.

Obviously, the election of Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons as MEPs for the BNP has created quite a stir, and rightly so. The rise of right-wing parties that play the race/immigration cards is a theme in European Politics, playing on fears of security and welfare, distilling the consequences of Islamic extremism and terrorism into a simplistic race card that rails against the Continental shift towards inclusiveness and multiculturalism.

Most guilty in this is the foolish statement of Gordon Brown: “British Jobs for British Workers”, that has thrown the electorate head first into a frenzy of misplaced British nationalism. Brown’s utterance had damned his Party, and while expenses and leadership failings are more widely reported, his unenforceable and un-European promise, which he had to 180 degree about turn on,  is for me his greatest folly.

The rise of the BNP in Yorkshire and the North West is an extreme case. More stunning is the rise of Euro-Sceptic UKIP across the English and Welsh votes. In England, Europe is something to be feared and resisted. Unlike the other parts of the United Kingdom, the English electorate have a deep seated suspicion of any powers being ceded to other countries, and therefore UKIP have captured the imagination of the English Voter that they can go it alone. Europe is seen as a bad place, where Johnny Foreigner lives, plotting to straighten bananas, ban sausages and replace Real Ale with German Lagers. The positives of Europe are ignored.

In the Principality, the Conservatives have received a resounding vote of confidence. The Labour heartlands have been left to go the way of the coal mines and the Tories have for the first time in history have come out on top.

Northern Ireland is still to declare, but the Province is a world of it’s own. The usual suspects of Unionism, Nationalism, Loyalism and Republicanism fly their flags in a corner of the UK that cannot give any of the main parties any kind of kicking over expenses, as none of the main parties have any major role. Brussels? Forget Brussels, here it is still Dublin, Belfast and London that are loved or loathed. Parochialism in the Province is alive and well.

Finally, Scotland is strangely silent of anti-European agendas. Alex Salmond’s presidential manner has won approval and his pro Independence (but stay in Europe!) Scottish National Party have delivered nearly 30% and close to a 10% lead on Labour. Once upon a time you couldn’t buy a seat in Scotland that wasn’t Labour. Now Labour can’t even put their losses on the expenses.

But tellingly, Scotland’s vote has been utterly free of anti-European agendas, and certainly Scotland has had no time for neither UKIP nor the BNP. Scotland seems more at ease with Europe – a telling behaviour for a nation that traded extensively with European counterparts through its history, in Monarchs, Religion and Goods. Ask any Leither why the Borough is important, and they will tell you of French Claret Vaults. Key Scottish historical figures such as Bonnie Prince Charlie, Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Margaret owe their own nurturing to France, Italy and Norway. Many Scots talk of the Auld-Alliance (that’s with France, not England). Perhaps Europe is a concept more palatable to the Scot?

So in summary, England: Conservatives, UKIP and the BNP all winners; in Wales: Conservatives and UKIP; Northern Ireland: It’s all about British or Irish Identity and in Scotland, no place for anti European feeling and a surge to the (non racist) SNP.

The only thing Uniting the Kingdoms is the failure of Labour.

The Longest Day

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die…”

6:30 am on June 6th 1944 marked the key turning point in the Second World War (1939 – 1945) when the Allied forces landed on five beaches in Normandy, France. This was D-Day, when the Allies gained their first foothold in a Europe, from which they had been absent from, since the Dunkirk evacuations on 1940. In the following twelve months, Europe would be transformed from an almost entirely occupied region into a liberated continent; Nazi Germany would fall, and the War in Europe would come to a close.

But on that day,the Allied forces would see 10,000 losses, suffering more losses of life than the defending Axis forces (approximately 2:1 by some estimates), as the amphibious landing craft opened their doors and soldiers poured out onto five beaches who’s codenames are still remembered: Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and Omaha – otherwise known as Bloody Omaha due to the high losses suffered by the American forces that engaged on that strip of the French Coastline, portrayed graphically and with critical note in the opening 24 minutes of Steven Spielberg’s award winning 1998 film: Saving Private Ryan.

Had 6th June 1944 never happened, approximately 15,000 combatants who woke up on the morning of that day would have lived to have seen 7th June 1944, rather than shed their blood on the beaches of Northern France. But had D-Day never taken place, who knows whether VE-Day would ever have been witnessed? Would the Holocaust have been stopped? Would Hitler’s regime have continued in Europe into 1946, 1947 or even later? Would Europe ever have been liberated?

Therefore, for those who sacrificed there lives on D-Day, we respectfully recognise and remember.

Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah and Omaha.

Normandy.

6th June 1994.

D-Day.

Orkney CE Memories

This Friday (5th June) there will be a reunion event for anyone involved in the many years of Christian Endeavour and CE Camps in Orkney.

Here’s a wee reminder for anybody who has been involved in Orkney’s Christian Endeavour movement over the decades. Look closely and you may see some familiar faces – including a slim, tall, dark and handsome young man who had great hair!!:

Thanks to Stanley McCallum for all of the photographs.

Circumstances have conspired that I’ll be unable to attend, but all the best for the festivities, the old stories, the tall tales and and the blessings.