Anti-Scottish sentiment
Encyclopedia
Anti-Scottish sentiment is disdain, envy, fear or hatred for Scotland
, the Scots
or Scottish culture. It may be referred to as Scotophobia. In the modern-era however "Scotophobia" is considered rather uncommon and rare in foreign countries; aside from England
.
and Roman antiquity. The writings of Ptolemy
in particular dominated concepts of Scotland till the late Medieval period and drew on stereotypes perpetuating fictitious as well as satirical accounts of the Kingdom of the Scots. The English Church and the propaganda of royal writs from 1337-1453 encouraged a barbarous
image of the kingdom as it allied with England
's enemy France
, during the Hundred Years' War
. Medieval authors seldom visited Scotland but called on such accounts as "common knowledge", influencing the works of Boece's
"Scotorum Historiae" (Paris 1527) and Camden's
"Brittania" (London 1586) plagiarising and perpetuating negative attitudes. In the 16th century Scotland and particularly the Gaelic speaking Highlands
were characterised as lawless, savage and filled with wild Scots. As seen in Camden's account to promote an image of the nation as a wild and barbarous people:
Camden's accounts were modified to compare the Highland Scots to the inhabitants of Ireland
. Negative stereotypes flourished and by 1634, Austria
n Martin Zeiller linked the origins of the Scots to the Scythians and in particular the Highlander to the Goths
based on their wild and Gothic-like appearance. Quoting the 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus
, he describes the Scots as descendants of the tribes of the British Isles who were unruly trouble makers. With a limited amount of information, the Medieval geographer embellished such tales, including, less favourable assertions that the ancestors of Scottish people were cannibals. A spurious accusation proposed by Saint Jerome
's tales of Scythian atrocities was adapted to lay claims as evidence of cannibalism in Scotland. Despite the fact that there is no evidence of the ancestors of the Scots in ancient Gaul
, moreover St. Jerome's text was a mistranslation of Attacotti
, another tribe in Roman Britain
, the myth of cannibalism was attributed to the people of Scotland:
Accepted as fact with no evidence, such ideas were encouraged and printed as seen in De Situ Britanniae
a fictitious account of the peoples and places of Roman Britain
. It was published in 1757, after having been made available in London
in 1749. Accepted as genuine for more than one hundred years, it was virtually the only source of information for northern Britain (i.e., modern Scotland
) for the time period, and historians eagerly incorporated its spurious information into their own accounts of history. The Attacotti were mentioned in De Situ Britanniae, and their homeland was specified as just north of the Firth of Clyde
, near southern Loch Lomond
, in the region of Dunbartonshire
. This information was combined with legitimate historical mentions of the Attacotti to produce inaccurate histories and to make baseless conjectures. For example, Edward Gibbon
combined De Situ Britanniae with St. Jerome's description of the Attacotti by musing on the possibility that a ‘race of cannibals’ had once dwelt in the neighbourhood of Glasgow
.
These views were echoed in the works of Dutch, French and German authors. Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling
proposed that the exotic appearance and cannibalism of the Scottish people made them akin to the savages of Madagascar
. Even as late as the mid-18th century, German authors likened Scotland and its ancient population to the exotic tribes of the South Seas. With the close political ties of the Franco-Scottish alliance in the late Medieval period, before William Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
, English Elizabethan theatre dramatised the Scots and Scottish culture as comical, alien, dangerous and an uncivilised. In comparison to the manner of Frenchmen who spoke a form of English, Scots were used in material for comedies; including Robert Greene’s James IV in a fictitious English invasion of Scotland satirizing the long Medieval wars with Scotland. English fears and prejudices were deeply rooted, drawing on stereotypes as seen in Raphael Holinshed’s
Chronicles
and politically edged material such as George Chapman’s
Eastward Hoe
in 1605, offended King James
with its anti-Scottish satire, resulting in the imprisonment of the playwright. Despite this, the play was never banned or suppressed. Authors such as Claude Jordan de Colombier in 1697 plagiarised earlier works, Counter-reformation
propaganda associated the Scots and particularly Highland Gaelic-speakers as barbarians from the north who wore nothing but animal skins. Confirming old stereotypes relating back to Roman and Greek philosophers in the idea that "dark forces" from northern Europe (soldiers from Denmark
, Sweden
, Netherlands
, France and Scotland) acquired a reputation as fierce warriors. With Lowland
soldiers along the North Sea
and Baltic Sea
, as well as Highland
mercenaries wearing the distinctive Scottish kilt
, became synonymous with that of wild, rough and fierce fighting men.
Stereotypes of Scottish cannibalism lasted till the mid-18th century and were embraced by English political and anti-Jacobite
propaganda
, in reaction to a series of Jacobite uprisings, rebellions, in the British Isles
between 1688 and 1746. The Jacobean uprisings themselves in reaction to the Glorious Revolution
of 1688, were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart
. Anti-Jacobite
prodominantly anti-Scottish propaganda of the period includes publications include the 1720s the London NewGate Calander a popular monthly bulletin of executions, produced by the keeper of Newgate Prison
in London
. One Newgate publication created the legend of Sawney Bean, the head of a forty-eight strong clan of incest
ual, lawless and cannibalistic family in Galloway
. Although based on fiction, the family were reported by the Calendar to have murdered and cannibalised over one thousand victims. Along with the Bible
and John Bunyan
's The Pilgrim's Progress
, the Calendar was famously in the top three works most likely to be found in the average home and the Calendar's title was appropriated by other publications, who put out biographical
chapbook
s. With the intent to create a work of fiction to demonstrate the superiority of the British establishment in contrast to the savage pro-Jacobean, uncivilised Scots.
From 1701−1720 a sustained Whig campaign of anti-Jacobean pamphleteering across Britain and Ireland sought to halt Jacobitism as a political force and undermine the claim of James II and VII
to the British throne. In 1705 Whig politicians in the Scottish parliament voted to sustain a status quo and to award financial incentives of £4,800 to each writer having served the interests of the nation. Such measures had the opposite effect and furthered the Scots towards the cause, enabling Jacobitism flourish as a sustaining political presence in Scotland. Pro-Jacobite writings and pamphleteers e.g. Walter Harries and William Setton were liable to imprisonment of for producing in the eyes of the government seditious or scurrilous
tracts and all copies or works were seized or destroyed. Anti-Jacobite Pamphleteering, as an example An Address to All True Englishmen routed a sustained propaganda war with Scotland’s pro-Stuart supporters ensued and British Whig campaigners pushed a pro-British and the anti-Celtic nature of Williamite satire resulting in a backlash by pro-Jacobean Scottish pamphleteers.
As Scots both Lowland and Highland with supporters elsewhere in the British Isles
sided in the last major Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, the British government increased the xenophobic or anti-Scottish sentiment shifting the stereotypical image of a Jacobite from English
, Welsh
or Irish
to that of being a Scot. From 1720 anti-Jacobite and anti-Catholic literature sought to remove the Jacobite, the Scot, the Highlander being beyond the pale, or an enemy of John Bull
or a unified Britain and Ireland as seen in Thomas Page's The Use of the Highland Broadsword published in 1746. Propaganda of the time included the minting of anti-Jacobite or Scottish medals, and political cartoons to promote the Scots as a barbaric and backward people, similar in style to the 19th century depiction of the Irish as being backward or barbaric. English supporters of the government were likely to view all Scots as disloyal Highlanders, especially in the political cartoons depicting the jacobite’s as an unprepared rabble or in the modification of the anti-Irish song Lillibulero claiming although without proof, during the rising of 1745 the Scots marched unprepared without shoes. Plays like William Shakespeare
’s Scottish play Macbeth,was popularised and considered a pro-English (British), pro-Hanoverian
, anti-rebel and anti-Stuart play. Printings included Sawney in The Boghouse itself a reference to the tale of Sawney Bean depicted the Scots dressed as a Highlander, too stupid to use a lavatory and gave a particularly 18th century edge to traditional depictions of cannibalism and such ideas were modified to smear Africans as cannibals in the following century in the colonial age. The Highlander and Scottish people were promoted as brutish thugs, figures of ridicule and no match for the English modern army. They were feminised as a parody of the female disguise used by Bonny Prince Charlie in his escape, and as savage warriors that needed the guiding hand of the Anglo-British to render them civilised.
Depictions included the Highland clad Scots as ill-dressed and ill-fed, loutish and verminous usually in league with the French
as can be seen in William Hogarth
’s 1748 painting The Gate of Calais
with a Highlander exile sits slumped against the wall, his strength sapped by the poor French fare – a raw onion and a crust of bread. Political cartoons in 1762 depicts the Earl of Bute (a vocal pro-Jacobean) as a poor John Bull
depicted with a bulls head with crooked horns ridden by Scotland taking bribes from a French monkey Anti-Jacobite
or Scottish sentiment was captured in a verse appended to various songs, including in its original form as an anti-Jacobite song Ye Jacobites By Name, God save the King
with a prayer for the success of Field Marshal George Wade
's army which attained some short-term use debatably in the late 18th century. This song was widely adopted and was to become the national anthem of Britain now known as God Save the Queen
(but never since sung with that verse).
The 1837 article and other sources make it clear that this verse was not used soon after 1745, and certainly before the song became accepted as the British national anthem in the 1780s and 1790s. On the opposing side, Jacobite beliefs were demonstrated in an alternative verse used during the same period:
as a cause.
There have been a number of attacks on Scots in England in recent years. In 2004 a Scottish former soldier was beaten up by a gang with bricks for having a Scottish accent. In Aspatria
, Cumbria
, a group of Scottish schoolgirls say they received anti-Scottish taunts and foul language from a group of teenage girls during a carnival parade. An English football supporter was banned for life for shouting "Kill all the Jocks" before attacking Scottish football fans. One Scottish woman says she was forced to move from her home in England because of anti-Scottish feeling, while another had a haggis thrown through her front window. In 2008 a Student nurse from London was fined for assault and hurling anti-Scottish abuse at police while drunk during the T in the Park
festival in Kinross
.
, Scrooge McDuck
, Private Frazer, Mr Mackay
, Scotty
, and WWE hall of famer Rowdy Roddy Piper. When such a character wears a kilt
there is often ribald speculation or innuendo about what is underneath. The accompanying sporran
is often thought to be amusing too.
The term Scottish mafia
is a pejorative term used by English nationalists
for a group of Scottish Labour Party
politicians and broadcasters who have been seen as having undue influence over the government of the United Kingdom
and in particular of England
. The term is widely used in the UK press and in parliamentary debates. Members of this group include: Tony Blair
, Gordon Brown
, Alistair Darling
, Charles Falconer, Derry Irvine, Michael Martin
and John Reid
.
, Kelvin MacKenzie
has courted controversy recently by making a series of attacks on the people of Scotland
.
In July 2006, MacKenzie wrote a column for the Sun newspaper referring to Scots as 'Tartan
Tosspots' and apparently rejoicing in the fact that Scotland has a lower life expectancy than the rest of the United Kingdom
. MacKenzie's column provoked a storm of protest, and was heavily condemned by numerous commentators including Scottish MPs and MSPs.
On 11 October 2007, MacKenzie appeared on the BBC's Question Time
TV programme and launched another attack on Scotland. During a debate about tax
, MacKenzie claimed that: The comments came as part of an attack on Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
whom MacKenzie said could not be trusted to manage the British economy because he was "a Scot" and a "socialist", and insisting that this was relevant to the debate. Fellow panellist Chuka Umunna
, from the think tank Compass
and a Labour Party member, called his comments "absolutely disgraceful", and booing and jeering were heard from the Cheltenham
studio audience. The BBC received 350 complaints and MacKenzie's comments drew widespread criticism.
In a number of further interviews, MacKenzie went on to say that without England's financial support Scotland would most probably be a third world
country.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, the Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
or Scottish culture. It may be referred to as Scotophobia. In the modern-era however "Scotophobia" is considered rather uncommon and rare in foreign countries; aside from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Middle Ages
Much of the negative literature of the Middle Ages drew heavily on the writings from GreekAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and Roman antiquity. The writings of Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
in particular dominated concepts of Scotland till the late Medieval period and drew on stereotypes perpetuating fictitious as well as satirical accounts of the Kingdom of the Scots. The English Church and the propaganda of royal writs from 1337-1453 encouraged a barbarous
Barbarian
Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
image of the kingdom as it allied with England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
's enemy France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, during the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
. Medieval authors seldom visited Scotland but called on such accounts as "common knowledge", influencing the works of Boece's
Hector Boece
Hector Boece , known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Aberdeen.-Biography:He was born in Dundee where he attended school...
"Scotorum Historiae" (Paris 1527) and Camden's
William Camden
William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...
"Brittania" (London 1586) plagiarising and perpetuating negative attitudes. In the 16th century Scotland and particularly the Gaelic speaking Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
were characterised as lawless, savage and filled with wild Scots. As seen in Camden's account to promote an image of the nation as a wild and barbarous people:
"They drank the bloud [blood] out of wounds of the slain: they establish themselves, by drinking one anothers bloud [blood] and suppose the great number of slaughters they commit, the more honour they winne [win] and so did the Scythians in old time. To this we adde [add] that these wild Scots, like as the Scythians, had for their principall weapons, bowes and arrows."Camden (1586)
Camden's accounts were modified to compare the Highland Scots to the inhabitants of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Negative stereotypes flourished and by 1634, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n Martin Zeiller linked the origins of the Scots to the Scythians and in particular the Highlander to the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
based on their wild and Gothic-like appearance. Quoting the 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
, he describes the Scots as descendants of the tribes of the British Isles who were unruly trouble makers. With a limited amount of information, the Medieval geographer embellished such tales, including, less favourable assertions that the ancestors of Scottish people were cannibals. A spurious accusation proposed by Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...
's tales of Scythian atrocities was adapted to lay claims as evidence of cannibalism in Scotland. Despite the fact that there is no evidence of the ancestors of the Scots in ancient Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
, moreover St. Jerome's text was a mistranslation of Attacotti
Attacotti
Attacotti refers to a people who despoiled Roman Britain between 364 and 368, along with Scotti, Picts, Saxons, Roman military deserters, and the indigenous Britons themselves. The marauders were defeated by Count Theodosius in 368...
, another tribe in Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
, the myth of cannibalism was attributed to the people of Scotland:
"What shall I [St. Jerome] say of other nations - how when I was in Gaul as a youth I saw the ScotsScottish peopleThe Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
, a British race, eating human flesh, and how, when these men came upon the forests upon heards of swine and sheep, and cattle, they would cut off the buttocks of the shepards and paps [breasts] of the woman and hold these for their greatest delicasy."
De Situ Britanniae
De Situ Britanniae is a fictional description of the peoples and places of ancient Britain. Purported to contain the account of a Roman general preserved in the manuscript of a fourteenth century English monk, it was considered the premier source of information on Roman Britain for more than a...
a fictitious account of the peoples and places of Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. It was published in 1757, after having been made available in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1749. Accepted as genuine for more than one hundred years, it was virtually the only source of information for northern Britain (i.e., modern Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
) for the time period, and historians eagerly incorporated its spurious information into their own accounts of history. The Attacotti were mentioned in De Situ Britanniae, and their homeland was specified as just north of the Firth of Clyde
Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...
, near southern Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch, lying on the Highland Boundary Fault. It is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area. The lake contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles, although the lake itself is smaller than many Irish...
, in the region of Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire or the County of Dumbarton is a lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Until 1975 it was a county used as a primary unit of local government with its county town and administrative centre at the town...
. This information was combined with legitimate historical mentions of the Attacotti to produce inaccurate histories and to make baseless conjectures. For example, Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
combined De Situ Britanniae with St. Jerome's description of the Attacotti by musing on the possibility that a ‘race of cannibals’ had once dwelt in the neighbourhood of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
.
These views were echoed in the works of Dutch, French and German authors. Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling
Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling
Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling , was a German jurist and eclectic philosopher.Son of a pastor, Gundling studied in Altdorf, Jena, Leipzig and Halle. In 1702 he entered into controversy with Gotthard Heidegger, who had raised fears about the effect on German life of the French fashion for the novel...
proposed that the exotic appearance and cannibalism of the Scottish people made them akin to the savages of Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. Even as late as the mid-18th century, German authors likened Scotland and its ancient population to the exotic tribes of the South Seas. With the close political ties of the Franco-Scottish alliance in the late Medieval period, before William Shakespeare’s
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, English Elizabethan theatre dramatised the Scots and Scottish culture as comical, alien, dangerous and an uncivilised. In comparison to the manner of Frenchmen who spoke a form of English, Scots were used in material for comedies; including Robert Greene’s James IV in a fictitious English invasion of Scotland satirizing the long Medieval wars with Scotland. English fears and prejudices were deeply rooted, drawing on stereotypes as seen in Raphael Holinshed’s
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays....
Chronicles
Holinshed's Chronicles
Holinshed's Chronicles, also known as Holinsheds Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, is a collaborative work published in several volumes and two editions, the first in 1577, and the second in 1587....
and politically edged material such as George Chapman’s
George Chapman
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
Eastward Hoe
Eastward Hoe
Eastward Hoe or Eastward Ho, is an early Jacobean era stage play, a satire and city comedy written by George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston, printed in 1605. The play was written in response to Westward Ho, an earlier satire by Thomas Dekker and John Webster...
in 1605, offended King James
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
with its anti-Scottish satire, resulting in the imprisonment of the playwright. Despite this, the play was never banned or suppressed. Authors such as Claude Jordan de Colombier in 1697 plagiarised earlier works, Counter-reformation
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...
propaganda associated the Scots and particularly Highland Gaelic-speakers as barbarians from the north who wore nothing but animal skins. Confirming old stereotypes relating back to Roman and Greek philosophers in the idea that "dark forces" from northern Europe (soldiers from Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, France and Scotland) acquired a reputation as fierce warriors. With Lowland
Scottish Lowlands
The Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....
soldiers along the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
and Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, as well as Highland
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
mercenaries wearing the distinctive Scottish kilt
Kilt
The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...
, became synonymous with that of wild, rough and fierce fighting men.
Anti-Scottish propaganda in the 18th century
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, in reaction to a series of Jacobite uprisings, rebellions, in the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
between 1688 and 1746. The Jacobean uprisings themselves in reaction to the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
of 1688, were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
. Anti-Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
prodominantly anti-Scottish propaganda of the period includes publications include the 1720s the London NewGate Calander a popular monthly bulletin of executions, produced by the keeper of Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. One Newgate publication created the legend of Sawney Bean, the head of a forty-eight strong clan of incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
ual, lawless and cannibalistic family in Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
. Although based on fiction, the family were reported by the Calendar to have murdered and cannibalised over one thousand victims. Along with the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
's The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...
, the Calendar was famously in the top three works most likely to be found in the average home and the Calendar's title was appropriated by other publications, who put out biographical
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
s. With the intent to create a work of fiction to demonstrate the superiority of the British establishment in contrast to the savage pro-Jacobean, uncivilised Scots.
From 1701−1720 a sustained Whig campaign of anti-Jacobean pamphleteering across Britain and Ireland sought to halt Jacobitism as a political force and undermine the claim of James II and VII
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
to the British throne. In 1705 Whig politicians in the Scottish parliament voted to sustain a status quo and to award financial incentives of £4,800 to each writer having served the interests of the nation. Such measures had the opposite effect and furthered the Scots towards the cause, enabling Jacobitism flourish as a sustaining political presence in Scotland. Pro-Jacobite writings and pamphleteers e.g. Walter Harries and William Setton were liable to imprisonment of for producing in the eyes of the government seditious or scurrilous
Scurrilous
Scurrilous is the third studio album by Canadian progressive metal band Protest the Hero. It was released on March 22, 2011 on Vagrant Records in the US and Underground Operations in Canada. The word scurrilous is defined as "vulgar verbal abuse; foul-mouthed; coarse, vulgar, abusive, or...
tracts and all copies or works were seized or destroyed. Anti-Jacobite Pamphleteering, as an example An Address to All True Englishmen routed a sustained propaganda war with Scotland’s pro-Stuart supporters ensued and British Whig campaigners pushed a pro-British and the anti-Celtic nature of Williamite satire resulting in a backlash by pro-Jacobean Scottish pamphleteers.
As Scots both Lowland and Highland with supporters elsewhere in the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
sided in the last major Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, the British government increased the xenophobic or anti-Scottish sentiment shifting the stereotypical image of a Jacobite from English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
or Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
to that of being a Scot. From 1720 anti-Jacobite and anti-Catholic literature sought to remove the Jacobite, the Scot, the Highlander being beyond the pale, or an enemy of John Bull
John Bull
John Bull is a national personification of Britain in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged man, often wearing a Union Flag waistcoat.-Origin:...
or a unified Britain and Ireland as seen in Thomas Page's The Use of the Highland Broadsword published in 1746. Propaganda of the time included the minting of anti-Jacobite or Scottish medals, and political cartoons to promote the Scots as a barbaric and backward people, similar in style to the 19th century depiction of the Irish as being backward or barbaric. English supporters of the government were likely to view all Scots as disloyal Highlanders, especially in the political cartoons depicting the jacobite’s as an unprepared rabble or in the modification of the anti-Irish song Lillibulero claiming although without proof, during the rising of 1745 the Scots marched unprepared without shoes. Plays like William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
’s Scottish play Macbeth,was popularised and considered a pro-English (British), pro-Hanoverian
House of Hanover
The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, anti-rebel and anti-Stuart play. Printings included Sawney in The Boghouse itself a reference to the tale of Sawney Bean depicted the Scots dressed as a Highlander, too stupid to use a lavatory and gave a particularly 18th century edge to traditional depictions of cannibalism and such ideas were modified to smear Africans as cannibals in the following century in the colonial age. The Highlander and Scottish people were promoted as brutish thugs, figures of ridicule and no match for the English modern army. They were feminised as a parody of the female disguise used by Bonny Prince Charlie in his escape, and as savage warriors that needed the guiding hand of the Anglo-British to render them civilised.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
as can be seen in William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
’s 1748 painting The Gate of Calais
The Gate of Calais
The Gate of Calais or O, the Roast Beef of Old England is a 1748 painting by William Hogarth, reproduced as a print from an engraving the next year. Hogarth produced the painting directly after his return from France, where he had been arrested as a spy while sketching in Calais...
with a Highlander exile sits slumped against the wall, his strength sapped by the poor French fare – a raw onion and a crust of bread. Political cartoons in 1762 depicts the Earl of Bute (a vocal pro-Jacobean) as a poor John Bull
John Bull
John Bull is a national personification of Britain in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged man, often wearing a Union Flag waistcoat.-Origin:...
depicted with a bulls head with crooked horns ridden by Scotland taking bribes from a French monkey Anti-Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
or Scottish sentiment was captured in a verse appended to various songs, including in its original form as an anti-Jacobite song Ye Jacobites By Name, God save the King
God Save the Queen
"God Save the Queen" is an anthem used in a number of Commonwealth realms and British Crown Dependencies. The words of the song, like its title, are adapted to the gender of the current monarch, with "King" replacing "Queen", "he" replacing "she", and so forth, when a king reigns...
with a prayer for the success of Field Marshal George Wade
George Wade
Field Marshal George Wade served as a British military commander and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.-Early career:Wade, born in Kilavally, Westmeath in Ireland, was commissioned into the Earl of Bath's Regiment in 1690 and served in Flanders in 1692, during the Nine Years War, earning a...
's army which attained some short-term use debatably in the late 18th century. This song was widely adopted and was to become the national anthem of Britain now known as God Save the Queen
God Save the Queen
"God Save the Queen" is an anthem used in a number of Commonwealth realms and British Crown Dependencies. The words of the song, like its title, are adapted to the gender of the current monarch, with "King" replacing "Queen", "he" replacing "she", and so forth, when a king reigns...
(but never since sung with that verse).
- Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
- May by thy mighty aid,
- Victory bring.
- May he sedition hush,
- And like a torrent rush,
- Rebellious Scots to crush,
- God save the King.
The 1837 article and other sources make it clear that this verse was not used soon after 1745, and certainly before the song became accepted as the British national anthem in the 1780s and 1790s. On the opposing side, Jacobite beliefs were demonstrated in an alternative verse used during the same period:
- God bless the prince, I pray,
- God bless the prince, I pray,
- CharlieCharles Edward StuartPrince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...
I mean; - That Scotland we may see
- Freed from vile Presbyt'ryPresbyterianismPresbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
, - Both GeorgeGeorge II of Great BritainGeorge II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
and his FeckieFrederick, Prince of WalesFrederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...
, - Ever so, Amen.
Modern day
In 2007 a number of Scottish MPs warned of increasing anti-Scottish sentiment in England, citing DevolutionDevolution in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, devolution refers to the statutory granting of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly and to their associated executive bodies the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government...
as a cause.
There have been a number of attacks on Scots in England in recent years. In 2004 a Scottish former soldier was beaten up by a gang with bricks for having a Scottish accent. In Aspatria
Aspatria
Aspatria is a small town and civil parish in Cumbria, England, and lies half way between Maryport and Wigton, on the A596. Historically within Cumberland, it is about away from the coast. It is approximately seven miles from the northern boundary of the Lake District, and located to the south east...
, Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, a group of Scottish schoolgirls say they received anti-Scottish taunts and foul language from a group of teenage girls during a carnival parade. An English football supporter was banned for life for shouting "Kill all the Jocks" before attacking Scottish football fans. One Scottish woman says she was forced to move from her home in England because of anti-Scottish feeling, while another had a haggis thrown through her front window. In 2008 a Student nurse from London was fined for assault and hurling anti-Scottish abuse at police while drunk during the T in the Park
T in the Park
T in the Park is a major British music festival that has been held annually since 1994. It is named after its main sponsor, the brewing company Tennents. It was originally held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire but since 1997 has been held at a disused airfield in Balado, Kinross-shire...
festival in Kinross
Kinross
Kinross is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It was formerly the county town of Kinross-shire.Kinross is a fairly small town, with some attractive buildings...
.
In the media
A stereotypical Scotsman is often depicted as being fiery-tempered, militaristic and/or miserly. Examples include: Groundskeeper WillieGroundskeeper Willie
William McDougal, usually referred to as Groundskeeper Willie, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School. Willie is a Scottish immigrant, almost feral in nature and immensely proud of his homeland...
, Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Scrooge is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats...
, Private Frazer, Mr Mackay
Mr Mackay
Mr. Mackay was a character in the popular BBC sitcom Porridge, played by Fulton Mackay.Mackay is a neurotic and tough prison warder whose constant obsession in life is to catch out Fletcher. The rivalry between Fletch and Mackay was a thing of comedy legend...
, Scotty
Montgomery Scott
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott is a Scottish engineer in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series, Scotty also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and in numerous...
, and WWE hall of famer Rowdy Roddy Piper. When such a character wears a kilt
Kilt
The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...
there is often ribald speculation or innuendo about what is underneath. The accompanying sporran
Sporran
The Sporran is a traditional part of male Scottish Highland dress. It is a pouch that performs the same function as pockets on the pocketless Scottish kilt....
is often thought to be amusing too.
The term Scottish mafia
Scottish mafia
The Scottish mafia, Scottish Labour mafia, tartan mafia or Scottish Raj, is a term used in politics in the United Kingdom.-Political use:...
is a pejorative term used by English nationalists
English nationalism
English nationalism refers to a nationalist outlook or political stance applied to England. In a general sense, it comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for English culture, language and history, and a sense of pride in England and the English people...
for a group of Scottish Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politicians and broadcasters who have been seen as having undue influence over the government of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and in particular of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The term is widely used in the UK press and in parliamentary debates. Members of this group include: Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
, Alistair Darling
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament since 1987, currently for Edinburgh South West. He served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010...
, Charles Falconer, Derry Irvine, Michael Martin
Michael Martin (politician)
Michael John Martin, Baron Martin of Springburn, PC is a British politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Glasgow Springburn from 1979 to 2005, and then for Glasgow North East until 2009...
and John Reid
John Reid (politician)
John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan, PC is a British politician, who served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament and cabinet minister under Tony Blair, most notably as Defence Secretary and then Home Secretary...
.
Kelvin MacKenzie
TV pundit and former editor of The SunThe Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
, Kelvin MacKenzie
Kelvin MacKenzie
Kelvin Calder MacKenzie is an English media executive and former newspaper editor. He is best known for being editor of The Sun newspaper between 1981 and 1994, an era in which the paper was established as Britain's best selling newspaper.- Biography :MacKenzie was educated at Alleyn's School...
has courted controversy recently by making a series of attacks on the people of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
In July 2006, MacKenzie wrote a column for the Sun newspaper referring to Scots as 'Tartan
Tartan
Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...
Tosspots' and apparently rejoicing in the fact that Scotland has a lower life expectancy than the rest of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. MacKenzie's column provoked a storm of protest, and was heavily condemned by numerous commentators including Scottish MPs and MSPs.
On 11 October 2007, MacKenzie appeared on the BBC's Question Time
Question Time (TV series)
Question Time is a topical debate BBC television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience...
TV programme and launched another attack on Scotland. During a debate about tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
, MacKenzie claimed that: The comments came as part of an attack on Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
whom MacKenzie said could not be trusted to manage the British economy because he was "a Scot" and a "socialist", and insisting that this was relevant to the debate. Fellow panellist Chuka Umunna
Chuka Umunna
Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British Labour Party politician and employment lawyer. He has been the Member of Parliament for Streatham since 2010. After less than 18 months in Parliament, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary by Labour Leader Ed Miliband on 7 October 2011...
, from the think tank Compass
Compass (think tank)
Compass is a left wing pressure group, aligned with the UK Labour Party describing itself as 'An umbrella grouping of the progressive left whose sum is greater than its parts'...
and a Labour Party member, called his comments "absolutely disgraceful", and booing and jeering were heard from the Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
studio audience. The BBC received 350 complaints and MacKenzie's comments drew widespread criticism.
In a number of further interviews, MacKenzie went on to say that without England's financial support Scotland would most probably be a third world
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
country.
Quotations
- "There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make" - J.M.Barrie
- "The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads to England." - Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...