Scotland's contested identity

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For over three hundred years the union of England and Scotland has held firm through war and poverty but in recent years some people north of the border have asked for a divorce. Elections in May to Scotland’s devolved parliament could return a majority for the ruling Scottish National Party which is seeking a mandate for a second referendum on seceding from the UK. Only seven years ago those wanting independence failed to win a poll on the issue but since then Brexit and the handling of the Covid pandemic have radicalised some voters, especially the young. For Assignment, Lucy Ash visits several communities in Scotland to hear their new arguments for and against the union, and to learn about the differing interpretations of Scottish history, identity and political culture that underpin them. From the east coast city of Dundee which voted so decisively for independence in the last referendum that it was dubbed the “Yes City” she travels to Stirling, the so-called Gateway to the Highlands. Finally, she flies to the isles of Orkney, which have vowed to become independent themselves if the rest of the country does secede from the UK – a sign that the centrifugal forces at work all over Europe could well apply to Scotland itself.

Producer: Mike Gallagher Editor: Bridget Harney

(Demonstrator, with a Saltire bodysuit and flag, at a Pro-Scottish Independence rally in Glasgow, 05 February 2021. The Scottish National Party has adopted the Saltire as its symbol but Unionists say they have just as much ownership of the country’s blue and white flag, also known as the St Andrew’s Cross. Credit: Reuters)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:03.7	We're now standing in front of a brothe Abbey, Scotland's East Coast, which is a ruin.
0:14.8	Founded back in the 12th century.
0:17.2	And what this place is most famous for is the declaration of Arbroth in 1320.
0:22.4	This week's assignment here on the BBC World Service
0:25.7	begins with a Scottish history lesson. The lines from the Declaration of
0:30.1	actually it inspired people during the centuries as long as about a hundred of us remain alive,
0:34.9	never will we on any condition be brought under English rule. The declaration of Arbroth
0:40.8	was a letter from a group of Scottish barons to the Pope. They wanted him to
0:45.3	recognize Robert the Bruce as king of an independent Scottish nation, free from attack by England,
0:52.1	centuries before the two countries joined to lay the foundations of the United Kingdom.
0:57.5	It is in truth, not for glory, our riches, our honour that we are fighting back for freedom for that alone which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
1:09.0	A ruddy-faced white-haired local songwriter Eddie Cairney is telling me this time-honored story,
1:16.2	and he says the words of the declaration written on sheepskin parchment 701 years ago resonate to this very day.
1:25.0	It's basically saying our backs are against the wall.
1:28.0	Quite nice if England just went away.
1:31.0	We could be friendly, but if they choose to fight, we'll fight and
1:35.6	we'll fight to the last man. But Scotland and England are not at war with each other.
1:39.7	Scotland and England are not at war with each other, thank goodness.
1:43.0	But there are two quite distinct cultures.
1:45.0	It's much healthier for Scotland to be doing things the way Scotland wants to do it,
1:50.0	because we're a small country.
	...

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