Iain Macwhirter quite forgets himself when he says that, if I had my way, I would ban Rob Roy and Braveheart (of course) and frown upon nations celebrating their identity and history; I hope he won’t mind if I refuse to play the role of a reborn Duke of Cumberland (“SNP believes we are the people … wherever we’re from”, The Herald, October 26).
He builds a straw man by insisting Alex Salmond is not a racist (I and most of the universe say Amen to that). He is on less secure ground in claiming that the SNP is free from Anglophobia. This is a condition which is rife in parts of Scotland and which Kenny MacAskill, in a thoughtful book published some years ago, went to some lengths to condemn.
Devoting a year of events to celebrate Bannockburn would, I fear, make such sentiments mainstream, but it looks as if there are liberal opinion-makers who would prefer to look the other way. It is proof of Alex Salmond’s sheer talent that he manages to embody the progressive and reactionary sides of ethnic identity politics in his own person. Like much of the multicultural left, he is preoccupied with the wellbeing of ethnic minorities.
He is also keen to see a rapid increase in immigration, without removing doubts that political calculation lies behind this goal. After all, there may be a case for believing that New Labour pursued such a policy in England to create a dependent voting base. And in Quebec, the home of Alex Salmond’s favourite nationalist movement, the Parti Quebecois (PQ), French-speakers were given preference as immigrants only for voters to rebel and eject the PQ from office because of discomfort with the cultural mores of many of the newcomers who came from North Africa, not France.
Alas, too much evidence remains that it is removing English influence over Scottish life, rather than transforming the inner face of Scotland, that spurs on many at the top of the SNP. As long as the fixation with constitutional symbols and rebranding culture in a nationalist direction persists, I fear Scotland could end up, in Samuel Johnson’s words, as a “worse England”.
The SNP may be second
to none in its anti-racism and friendliness towards minorities of all hues, but as long as its English obsession plunges it into unworthy stunts such as celebrating Bannockburn all year long, its nationalism will have a pronounced ethnic streak.
The SNP thinks it can appeal to Catholics and Muslims as fellow underdogs who have suffered at the hands of powerful entities. Until it works out a way of having a normal place for England and the English in its narrative of Scottishness, then its civic nationalism will always be half-baked. We may be reaching one of those moments in Scottish history when a new consensus is being created by the Scottish establishment: progressive nationalism is what the SNP is all about and those who insist otherwise have no place in polite society.
Iain Macwhirter writes the SNP a large blank cheque, even when its leader indulges in risque forms of identity politics. The lesser figures who will probably succeed Alex Salmond at the top of the SNP are unlikely to be as good as riding this particular tiger.
Intellectuals should be on their guard when a nationalist leader manipulates ethnic emotions and it is a form of abdication to insist that all they can see is civic nationalism in action.
I would humbly suggest to Iain Macwhirter that he should use his credibility to urge the SNP to turn away from evocations of the past which just infantilise a lot of Scots and, instead, urge it to focus its energies on building a sustainable future for the nation, irrespective of its constitutional destiny.
Professor Tom Gallagher, Department of Peace Studies,University of Bradford.
May I compliment Iain Macwhirter on his excellent appraisal of the qualities and the basic decency of the SNP.
Eddie Kitson,Dunoon.
There is a tangible need for a project to secure our intangible heritage
The announcement of the Intangible Heritage Project (IHP) sounds, at first, like a story for April Fools’ Day but it has serious undertones (“From banter to Blitz: the Scottish heritage that’s a global treasure”, The Herald, October 27).
Unfortunately, the subject matter initially proposed is far from intangible. In fact, it is so familiar that it ranks as what could be termed the “jeelie piece” brand of Scottish history. This includes Barrhead Industry, Paisley Mills and Greenock sugar, all mentioned in your coverage.
Beyond such iconic and well-known heritage, these places have a great deal of important history and heritage which is, as yet, intangible. The cotton for Paisley Mills and sugar for Greenock’s refineries have a heritage steeped in Glasgow’s early but forgotten involvement in Caribbean plantations.
This is much less tangible than the Tobacco Lords of Glasgow’s “jeelie piece” history, which is rolled out for the tourists. The workforce on the plantations was responsible for the early development of Glasgow and the west of Scotland, but remain intangible. It is perhaps fitting that the IHP announcement coincides with the publication of Stephen Mullen’s book It Wisnae Us about Glasgow’s involvement in African slavery.
Let’s hope that the IHP project focuses on what is genuinely intangible, not the familiar jeelie piece stories which, though always valid, have been done to death in west of Scotland literature.
Dr Stuart Nisbet, Glasgow.
We all play a part in what has become an addictive modern society
Colette Douglas Home writes: “There are more than a million parents with alcohol problems and 300,000 children with drug addict parents” (“It’s a grand idea to give rights to an unsung army of carers”, The Herald, October 27). I make that 1,300,000 people with addictive behaviour problems. We have to stop calling them by different names. In all my years working within and without the field of addiction, I have never met anyone who specialised in one thing or another.
Most people with addiction problems are quite willing to substitute. But there are many ways to top up while waiting for the favourite. How many people are using medication that is virtually useless for the problems they have? Drugs can’t heal emotional or spiritual problems. They just appear to help at first, and then very quickly they do not.
There is a book called When Society Becomes An Addict by Anne Wilson Schaef, which I would strongly recommend. It is a brilliant description of the addictive society in which we all play a part.
I suppose it suits a lot of people, though, not to call a spade a spade. After all, some drugs are legal. Did the law-makers decide that alcohol and tobacco would be OK for human consumption? After much research? No problems there, then. Just mass production, big profits and a very sick society. From top to bottom and all points in between. Thank God for the carers. They have their hands full.
Danny Marley, Glasgow.
Poetic patter
In Lesley Duncan’s Poem of the Day, she gives four translations of “sheuch” (October 27). However, she omits the usage of the word, in Glasgow, which describes the gap between the buttocks; hence: “The sweat’s rinnin’ doon the sheuch o’ ma …”
Tony Sykes, Glasgow.
The economic design qualities of overhead high-voltage power lines have never been surpassed
As an engineer and scientist, I find all properly designed apparatus, including pylons, attractive (“Protesters dig in as £350m power line project is backed”, The Herald, October 26). I studied the economic design of electricity transmission systems and the high-voltage overhead line has never been surpassed, which is why it is found in all countries that need serving by a grid. In Europe, they are mainly steel towers, but in the north-east US wooden towers are used for voltages up to 220kV. I have seen these in New England, a state that prides itself on the quality of its scenery.
Iain A D Mann (Letters, October 27) says he can think of no other nation that would wantonly destroy one of its national assets, Let him take a trip to Canuse, the Canadian and US North Eastern Interconnection, that supplies power to New York, New England, Quebec and Ontario, and he will see numerous high-voltage towers. The electricity has to be transmitted from Niagara and other generators. Niagara is a major asset, not only for its scenic beauty but for its unique electricity supply.
Mr Mann says he does not understand why the supply has to be overhead and cites submarine communication cables. Communication cables are low voltage, low power, and power losses are not very significant. In the open country, underground cables cost about 10 times that of an equivalent overhead supply.
To put high-voltage cables under the sea is more expensive still. It is not just the money cost but subsea cables use a great deal more of our material resources such as oil-based insulation and armouring against sea-floor abrasion. They are much bulkier and heavier to handle and install.
Equally important is that they are far more difficult to service. Overhead lines can be quickly and cheaply inspected by helicopter but we do not yet have inspecting submarines. If an atmospheric storm breaks an overhead line, it is promptly repaired. Subsea repairs are much more difficult and almost impossible in bad weather. When there is no other option, subsea cables are used, but they are not a prime option in a world that needs to conserve scarce resources.
Chris Parton, Uddingston.
Your welcome coverage of the issues surrounding the power line application omitted one very important issue: the health of people living close to a 400,000 volt line. This is particularly relevant in the Stirling area. Not only will the line impinge on the iconic view from the Wallace Monument, it will pass very close to areas of high population density.
More significantly, it will pass closer than would be permitted in many other European countries. That is why there has been a strong campaign for an undergrounding concession in the Stirling area. There is, after all, a precedent for this. A section of high-voltage line was put underground in the north of England, on purely scenic grounds.
This presents the Scottish Government with an opportunity to take the initiative on the more important issue of public health.
Dr Brian Jamieson, Stirling.
The environmental impact of the Beauly to Denny transmission line illustrates one of the paradoxes of renewable power. While advocates argue that large-scale renewable power is essential for environmental protection, by displacing carbon from energy production, the reality is that the necessary infrastructure has its own environmental impact.
Over the coming years it is likely the UK will build several 1650MW European Pressurised Reactor (EPR). These nuclear reactors will be sited next to decommissioned nuclear plant which is already integrated with the grid. Given a typical load factor of 30% for wind and 80% for nuclear, a single reactor is equivalent to some 4400 megawatts (MW) of wind capacity. For comparison, the vast Whitelees wind farm has a capacity of 332MW. An EPR can, therefore, provide the equivalent supply to some 13 Whitelees on a single compact site without the need for back-up. Moreover, nuclear plant requires significantly less concrete and steel than wind for the same installed capacity.
Since the industrial revolution, energy density has increased while carbon intensity has decreased, with a transition from wood to coal, oil, gas and nuclear. This improvement in energy density has allowed energy production to be continuously decoupled from the environment. In Scotland, we seem set to reverse this 200-year trend.
Colin R McInnes, Glasgow.
How to improve safety for cyclists and walkers
Bill Dale writes that cycling on footways is not illegal in Scotland (Letters, October 26). It is simply that it is not covered by the Highways Act 1835 which prohibits riding or the driving of beasts or carriages on footways and areas of the road designated to the use of pedestrian traffic. This applies to England and Wales and the biggest offenders for riding or driving on a footway are … motor vehicle drivers.
Unfortunately, for the Scottish legal equivalent we have a ludicrous position that a police officer has to witness the driver driving the vehicle on the footway and, once parked, cannot issue a fixed penalty notice or otherwise charge the driver, leaving only the offence of obstruction, something which seems to be ignored by all enforcing agencies when the traffic being obstructed is on foot or a cycle.
Riding any cycle on a footway is a hazardous practice. According to research, you are between four and eight times as likely to crash as you would be riding on a properly laid-out carriageway. All wheeled transport makes swept turns and takes a distance to stop, unlike the pedestrian who can stop instantly and turn through 360 degrees on the spot.
Pedestrians also have the fastest acceleration of any traffic on the road, between 0 and 3mph, which can be a lifesaving feature in leaping clear of other traffic, as well as a potential causal factor in crashes. I despair at “safety conscious” cyclists who ride at inappropriate speeds in pedestrian populated areas. To all these people my contribution is that, now that they are grown up, they must surely have their parents’ permission to ride on the carriageway.
There is a solution and the time to do something is now. My proposal is that the UK needs clear signage and legislation to define priority of movement for pedestrian traffic, both on the footway and when pedestrians have committed to moving across or along a carriageway, and the onus is on the user of the wheeled vehicle to permit the pedestrian to complete their intended movement. This is already the law at junctions. Negotiate your right of way to set off and cross with the drivers or riders required to yield.
A similar principle should apply to cyclists and those riding on or leading animals, and where drivers of large or cumbersome vehicles struggle to manoeuvre in narrow streets. Make your intended action clear and you should be able to invoke the Mastermind rule – “I’ve started so I’ll finish” – rather than have a dangerous uncertainty on the part of all parties.
Dave Holladay, Glasgow.
Birth of the burger
What the world knows as a hamburger began life on the Hamburg America Line that brought emigrants, mainly Jewish, from Germany to New York (“Hamburger facts to chew on”, The Herald, October 27). An easy-to-prepare meal evolved on board that became known as a hamburger, named after the shipping line, not the city.
Adrien von Fersht, Glasgow.
