The Accent

Luskintyre Beach, Isle Of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

SCOTLAND! Sometimes you make me so happy. Sometimes you are the beacon of light in a dark world. 
And I think as a result, attract other little light beings. We know fairness and equality, we know invention and progression. We are a diverse and brilliant country with incredible potential to both nurture and attract talent of all kinds to live and work here and collaborate with us.

And Scotland you are so breath taking. So much so that even acclaimed travel presenter Michael Palin deemed you the most beautiful of the whole world. Your Hebridean beaches are arguably the closest to paradise a human can come and I have never known peace like Uist and Benbecula.

S.Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Geese flying over croft in low autumn light.

Sometimes it takes seeing ourselves from further away to truly appreciate the view.
We grow up believing our voices, accents to be inferior to ‘the other’. And I don’t particularly refer to the age old Scots English divide. 'The other'  is quite literally, any other accent, so long as it isn’t ours.

If Scottish children were growing up believing they were worthy, talented, creative and of fine quality, then perhaps this issue will change, over time with a new generation. There can be hope.

In my experience (20 years, working at grass roots level) most Scottish school children have no idea of their worth in the world. They grow up feeling inferior to the voices coming from London, inferior even in their own country. Their dialects are secondary to the received pronunciation of the BBC. A whole nation feels inferior because of it’s own language. You could easily trace it back to the punishment of Gaelic and Scots speaking children in schools and the widespread enforcement of the Queens English.

But when we look from the outside we see a very different picture. Our voices and languages are celebrated the world over, but I guess part of Scotland's charm is in it's abject refusal to believe it's own hype.

Sassenach

It appears to me there are some within my own country who would like Scotland and Scottishness to be no more. To deny a nation is nationality. (They are the type that Outlander fans might call Sassenachs) And yet within the established elite, it's perfectly fine to put the word Scottish in the title of your company, but anything establishment is very unlikely to come with a Scottish accent never mind our language.

Sassenach, derived from the latin term, Saxon, means an English speaker. Not to be confused with the more common held belief that Sasanach means to be English. It doesn't necessarily. It refers more specifically to the language spoken, and evolved from Gaelic speaking Scotland as a term to describe mostly lowlanders influenced by the advancing Saxon culture. In modern terms I would be a Sassenach as I hail from a big city in the central belt of Scotland and mostly speak English or Scots English, although I also speak a dialect of Scots which is a shared language across the whole of the country. 

And the language battle rages on to this day. There is even a small movement who protest against things like the inclusion of Gaelic on our road and train signage. Bizarre when you consider there are thousands who travel to our small country to experience just that! Our language and culture. There seems at present, a global Gaelic movement emerging from the new Outlander series, which incidentally if networked in Scotland, may have more than a small influence on claiming our sovereignty! The series follows a nurse just after WW2 who visits standing stones in the Scottish Highlands and is transported into the middle of the Jacobite uprising in 1743. The following tales of her involvement with rebel Scottish Highlanders and the Red coats is enough to make Alisdair Darling vote for Scottish Independence.

Scotland is a colonised country. So much so that with an incredible display of almost Stockholm syndrome, it voted against it's own independence in 2014, giving rise to the satirical term 'Jockholm syndrome' Even so, there is an incredible sense of Scottish culture and tradition.. Our country is divided between those who feel sovereign and those who have become British. But even those who feel British when asked, will usually also say they are equally Scottish. There is a powerful sense of nationhood despite the ongoing political union with the UK.

There is a bit of getting used to the idea of breaking the political union. It would be extremely rare for an entire nation to jump in to what they consider the deep end, especially against the force of the British State and Project Fear. The fact that almost half our country were prepared to do so is a major feat and a huge step forward on the road to self determination. 

And indeed, post referendum, SNP membership sky rocketed and the party took 56 out of 59 seats in the UK general election in 2015.
The fight for Scotland continues with added verve.

Aye, Whits fur ye wulnae go by ye.