Letters / Welcome tae my hameland
The upcoming visit tae Shetland by Scotland’s First Minister Alec Salmond gives wis a chance as Shetlanders tae ask important questions (Chance to buttonhole the government; SN 17/7/13)
I was in the audience during the debate at the Clickimin Centre during the Gulf War, and I admired Alec Salmond’s opposition to Scotland invading Iraq. Shetlanders under the banner No In Wir Name marched through the streets o Lerwick in their hundreds (750 o wis) against da war.
Next year, on the 700th anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, Scotland will hold a historic referendum on its independence. Shetlanders should take part, and I would vote “yes”. I am a Shetlander first, but I am proud of my Scottish Pictish heritage also.
The Act of Union (1707), when the term “Great Britain” was introduced, was the beginning of the many deceitful acts that the Westminster Parliament and the British crown forced on Scotland and Shetland.
In Australia, Terra Nullius, (the discovery of Australia as an uninhabited land in 1788) was further evidence of the deceit of the British crown and the British parliament. The Union Jack is seen by Aboriginal Australians as the butcher’s apron. The continuing destruction of Aboriginal people in one of the richest countries on earth is evidence of that. The British Queen is still the titular head of Australia.
The clearances in the nineteenth century to aa wir families in Shetland and the Gaels in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland was a further sign of the lies, deceit and brutality of the union.
The second Gulf War, where the now Scottish First Minister took a principled and correct stand against the war on behalf of Scotland, is how I imagine an independent Scotland would look at the world. We wouldn’t have gone to Iraq and we wouldn’t have followed into the carnage of Afghanistan.
The further deceit to the folk of Shetland was Alistair Carmichael and his Tory mates becoming a coalition government, and being as mean to Shetland and Scotland as Thatcher was.
The majority of the folk of Shetland don’t want to see their islands’ environment destroyed by the Scottish and Southern Energy’s Viking wind factory at the Lang Kames.
So the question that I want to ask is, why is the Scottish government promoting a project that is clearly destructive, not only to the environment but the social structure and emotional wellbeing o wir community? Where is da democracy in this decision?
This looks more like the deceit o da past, not the inclusive democracy that I expect from an independent Scotland that includes a democratic Shetland:
O would, ere I had seen the day
That treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay,
Wi’ BRUCE and loyal WALLACE!
But pith and power, till my last hour,
I’ll mak’ this declaration,
We’re bought and sold for English gold:
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
Robert Burns, 1792, taken from Magnus Magnusson’s book ‘Scotland. The Story of a Nation.’
Yours in solidarity,
Davie Thomason
Belmont
Victoria
Australia
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