I WAS depressed to read your article on the Scottish people's lack of self-confidence. I believe there is much that can be done to change that. Dr Carlo Craig is said to reject the contention that Scots feelings of inferiority are rooted in our political and cultural domination by England.
This is a foolish assertion. My first 22 years were spent in Scotland and during that time the media and general culture of Scotland continually told me I was inferior because I was a Scot. Scotland always voted for a Labour government but our opinion was irrelevant because England wanted Thatcher. I was told Scotland was
too poor and had to get charity from
the south.
The culture in which I lived told me everything Scottish was worthless and everything English was good. This is a lie and always was a lie. After teaching myself Scottish history, political, social, and industrial, I know that Scots are and always were an able people. This is what the Scottish schools should be teaching every child living in Scotland. Why was it that my schooling did not teach me this?
In every field of learning, Scots have excelled. Our impact on the modern world is astonishing. Economy: Adam Smith (free trade); democracy: Thomas Muir (votes for the poor); social improvement: John MacLean, Keir Hardie; technology: McAdam (roads), Bell (telephone), Baird (TV); medicine: Fleming (penicillin). Scotland was the first country to have an Industrial Revolution. More modern successes - the invention of radar by a Scot, the modern floppy drive for PCs, and Dolly the sheep - prove Scots can succeed today just as well as we did in the past.
A man named Carnegie from Dunfermline was the richest man in the world in 1901. I stumbled across this fact by accident in my late teens and was amazed. Why was this fact withheld from me in the classroom? Tell the children there is nothing they cannot achieve with hard work and learning and give them examples to prove Scots can be the best.
All this leads me to believe that the best way for Scotland to succeed and the people to have a healthy self-respect is for political control to return to Scotland. Every penny raised in tax in Scotland must be spent by the Scots Parliament on measures to improve the social and economic conditions here. This is the only solution.
Jim Bryce,
40 Kings Meadow, Edinburgh.
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