by Paul Kavanagh
WE’VE COME a long way in challenging the Cringe, but Scotland still has its newspaper columnists who confidently pontificate from a position of ignorance about Scotland’s languages, and how they are apparently not really languages at all.
Scotland’s got a lovely new bridge across the Forth, but it’s still got a British establishment whose instinctive reaction is to sneer, mock and belittle anything that’s Scottish.
It’s been twenty years since Scotland voted to restore its own parliament, but we still have a full quota of politicians and commentators whose reaction to overt displays of Scottishness is one of embarrassment combined with a deep rooted belief in the inferiority of anything Scottish.
If you’re proud of the new bridge, it seems that you’re guilty of excessive nationalism. The flag waving extravaganza of Last Night of the Proms on the other hand, that’s just a bit of red white and blue British fun. Every day and in every way, that which is British is better. That’s the motor of the Scottish Cringe, and it’s a vital tool in the armoury of the British establishment.