Scotch on the Rocks
Encyclopedia
Scotch on the Rocks is a novel by Douglas Hurd
and Andrew Osmond which was adapted into a TV serial. The book is the third in a loose trilogy, the other two being Send Him Victorious
and The Smile on the Face of the Tiger.
Written around 1968 and first published by William Collins in 1971, it was a political thriller set in Scotland
in the near future (early 1970s). It assumed that there would be a political crisis in which the Scottish National Party
would emerge as a serious force. A paramilitary organisation operating on the fringes of the SNP, the Scottish Liberation Army, stages a rising, seizing Fort William
. BBC
TV adapted it in 1973.
Both the novel and the television serial proved quite controversial. The BBC is believed to have wiped the tapes because of the controversy (although many other BBC programmes from that era do not survive either).
In 2010, Alex Salmond
, then leader of the SNP, told Douglas Hurd that it was one of his favourite novels and described it as "a cracking read".
agent Graham Hart, and Detective Superintendent Rennie of the Glasgow CID
infiltrate a demolition expert named MacNair into the SLA. Hart is trying to prove that David Mackie, an SNP Member of Parliament
with Socialist leanings, is involved with the SLA, while Rennie wishes to arrest Brodie, a vicious criminal who is organising Glasgow youth gangs for the SLA. They also hope that MacNair can identify the SLA leader, a shadowy figure named An Ceannard.
The general election takes place, and results in a hung parliament
. The SNP also fail to win an absolute majority of the Scottish seats. Mackie's girlfriend Susan ("Sukey") Dunmayne, daughter of a laird
, briefs an SLA section in Stirling
, consisting mainly of students and commanded by effete lecturer Donald Levi, to act against any deal between Henderson, the moderate leader of the SNP, and the sitting Conservative
Prime Minister Patrick Harvey. Their plan to kidnap SNP delegates is reported to the authorities by MacNair. The students are arrested, except one who is armed and is shot by soldiers led by notorious British Army
hard-liner Colonel Cameron.
Brodie has discovered a paper trail left by Hart's clumsy attempt to establish a cover story for MacNair's past. He, Sukey and Donald Levi kidnap MacNair and take him to a castle in the Highlands where the SLA keep much of their arsenal. Under duress, MacNair uses his expertise to carry out a number of demolitions.
Henderson and Harvey have meanwhile thrashed out a deal at Hexham
, making several concessions to Scotland but stopping short of independence. When the SNP meet to ratify the deal, Henderson is surprised that Mackie's militant wing of the party is prepared to support it, in return only for a letter from Henderson, which states that the SNP remains committed to obtaining independence for Scotland by any means. However, at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool
, Mackie deliberately shows this letter to Anglo-Scottish Tory grandee Lord Thorganby. Although semi-retired, Thorganby still has influence, and when he reads out Mackie's letter in front of the delegates, he thwarts any possibility of the Conservatives ratifying the deal worked out at Hexham. Brodie has kidnapped the ineffectual Secretary of State for Scotland
George Scullard as a publicity stunt, but the kidnapping goes wrong and Scullard is drowned. Forced to reverse his policy on Scotland, Harvey appoints Thorganby to be the new Scottish Secretary.
Having belatedly discovered the link between Mackie and Sukey Dunmayne, MI5 send Hart to France to investigate possible links between Sukey and French Communist Party
leader Serge Bucholz. Hart is betrayed by French security officials and is shot dead from a passing car. Donald Levi has tried to emigrate to Cuba
via France, but has been forced to return to Scotland with a letter from Bucholz for Sukey. MacNair sees him pass the letter to SLA section leader Robert Duguid.
Following Thorganby's appointment and the promise of a hard line being taken with pro-independence agitation, Mackie has decided that the time is right for the SLA to launch an armed insurrection. Thorganby is taken prisoner by Sukey while on a brief walking holiday in the Highlands. The SLA seize Fort William
, while several Scottish units of the British Army
defect to the SLA. Mackie openly joins the insurrection. MacNair prepares the bridge at Ballachulish
for demolition, to forestall any counter-attack. Left alone briefly, he stuns Duguid and snatches Bucholz's letter from him. Brodie seriously wounds him with a knife but he breaks free. Brodie blows up the Ballachulish bridge to stop him, causing many SLA casualties.
Thorganby is stunned to discover that Colonel Cameron is An Ceannard. Cameron believes that Scotland will become a nation only if blood is shed in a war of liberation. He forces Thorganby to walk to "English" lines in his pyjamas in full view of the press and TV cameras, to ensure maximum humiliation and publicity. The SLA then begin to advance south through Argyll
. In London, the Cabinet
is prepared to capitulate. Thorganby is especially despondent. However, Brodie, who had been placed under arrest by the SLA for insubordination, has deserted and brought with him Bucholz's letter, which MacNair had dropped. He expects a reward, but Rennie arrests him for the murder of MacNair, whose body was found under the ruined Ballachulish Bridge.
Prime Minister Harvey uses Bucholz's letter to sway the Cabinet into decisive action. He then reads selective parts of the letter on television, stating that the avowed aim of Bucholz and Mackie was to establish a Socialist dictatorship in Scotland. When Cameron hears the broadcast, he forces Mackie to flee, rather than face retribution. The broadcast also induces many recent recruits to desert the SLA, taking advantage of an amnesty announced by Harvey. Henderson has already disavowed the SLA, and he and Harvey negotiate a limited form of independence for Scotland. The SLA tries to retreat into the Western Highlands, but its remnants are defeated and scattered by an air assault
. Cameron takes to the hills as a fugitive.
Two months later, an independence ceremony is held in Edinburgh
. Thorganby has died of pneumonia
, Mackie and Bucholz have fled to the Soviet Union
while Sukey Dunmayne, who has been granted an amnesty, has given birth to Mackie's child. Cameron makes a sensational appearance at the ceremony and tries to hoist the Scottish flag. When the flag party tries to arrest him, he commits suicide, stabbing himself with a Sgian-dubh.
Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995....
and Andrew Osmond which was adapted into a TV serial. The book is the third in a loose trilogy, the other two being Send Him Victorious
Send Him Victorious
Send Him Victorious is a political thriller, written in 1968 by Andrew Osmond and Douglas Hurd Send Him Victorious is a political thriller, written in 1968 by Andrew Osmond (a former officer of Gurkha troops and diplomat) and Douglas Hurd Send Him Victorious is a political thriller, written in...
and The Smile on the Face of the Tiger.
Written around 1968 and first published by William Collins in 1971, it was a political thriller set in 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 the near future (early 1970s). It assumed that there would be a political crisis in which the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
would emerge as a serious force. A paramilitary organisation operating on the fringes of the SNP, the Scottish Liberation Army, stages a rising, seizing Fort William
Fort William, Scotland
Fort William is the second largest settlement in the highlands of Scotland and the largest town: only the city of Inverness is larger.Fort William is a major tourist centre with Glen Coe just to the south, Aonach Mòr to the north and Glenfinnan to the west, on the Road to the Isles...
. BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV adapted it in 1973.
Both the novel and the television serial proved quite controversial. The BBC is believed to have wiped the tapes because of the controversy (although many other BBC programmes from that era do not survive either).
In 2010, Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
, then leader of the SNP, told Douglas Hurd that it was one of his favourite novels and described it as "a cracking read".
Plot
In the 1970s, a general election is approaching and the British authorities fear that the Scottish National Party and an underground movement, the Scottish Liberation Army (SLA), will increase their influence. Pro-establishment MI5MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
agent Graham Hart, and Detective Superintendent Rennie of the Glasgow CID
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
infiltrate a demolition expert named MacNair into the SLA. Hart is trying to prove that David Mackie, an SNP Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
with Socialist leanings, is involved with the SLA, while Rennie wishes to arrest Brodie, a vicious criminal who is organising Glasgow youth gangs for the SLA. They also hope that MacNair can identify the SLA leader, a shadowy figure named An Ceannard.
The general election takes place, and results in a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
. The SNP also fail to win an absolute majority of the Scottish seats. Mackie's girlfriend Susan ("Sukey") Dunmayne, daughter of a laird
Laird
A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...
, briefs an SLA section in Stirling
Stirling
Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
, consisting mainly of students and commanded by effete lecturer Donald Levi, to act against any deal between Henderson, the moderate leader of the SNP, and the sitting Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Prime Minister Patrick Harvey. Their plan to kidnap SNP delegates is reported to the authorities by MacNair. The students are arrested, except one who is armed and is shot by soldiers led by notorious British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
hard-liner Colonel Cameron.
Brodie has discovered a paper trail left by Hart's clumsy attempt to establish a cover story for MacNair's past. He, Sukey and Donald Levi kidnap MacNair and take him to a castle in the Highlands where the SLA keep much of their arsenal. Under duress, MacNair uses his expertise to carry out a number of demolitions.
Henderson and Harvey have meanwhile thrashed out a deal at Hexham
Hexham
Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...
, making several concessions to Scotland but stopping short of independence. When the SNP meet to ratify the deal, Henderson is surprised that Mackie's militant wing of the party is prepared to support it, in return only for a letter from Henderson, which states that the SNP remains committed to obtaining independence for Scotland by any means. However, at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, Mackie deliberately shows this letter to Anglo-Scottish Tory grandee Lord Thorganby. Although semi-retired, Thorganby still has influence, and when he reads out Mackie's letter in front of the delegates, he thwarts any possibility of the Conservatives ratifying the deal worked out at Hexham. Brodie has kidnapped the ineffectual Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
George Scullard as a publicity stunt, but the kidnapping goes wrong and Scullard is drowned. Forced to reverse his policy on Scotland, Harvey appoints Thorganby to be the new Scottish Secretary.
Having belatedly discovered the link between Mackie and Sukey Dunmayne, MI5 send Hart to France to investigate possible links between Sukey and French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
leader Serge Bucholz. Hart is betrayed by French security officials and is shot dead from a passing car. Donald Levi has tried to emigrate to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
via France, but has been forced to return to Scotland with a letter from Bucholz for Sukey. MacNair sees him pass the letter to SLA section leader Robert Duguid.
Following Thorganby's appointment and the promise of a hard line being taken with pro-independence agitation, Mackie has decided that the time is right for the SLA to launch an armed insurrection. Thorganby is taken prisoner by Sukey while on a brief walking holiday in the Highlands. The SLA seize Fort William
Fort William, Scotland
Fort William is the second largest settlement in the highlands of Scotland and the largest town: only the city of Inverness is larger.Fort William is a major tourist centre with Glen Coe just to the south, Aonach Mòr to the north and Glenfinnan to the west, on the Road to the Isles...
, while several Scottish units of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
defect to the SLA. Mackie openly joins the insurrection. MacNair prepares the bridge at Ballachulish
Ballachulish
The village of Ballachulish in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, is centred around former slate quarries. The name Ballachulish was more correctly applied to the area now called North Ballachulish, to the north of Loch Leven, but was usurped for the quarry villages at East Laroch and West Laroch,...
for demolition, to forestall any counter-attack. Left alone briefly, he stuns Duguid and snatches Bucholz's letter from him. Brodie seriously wounds him with a knife but he breaks free. Brodie blows up the Ballachulish bridge to stop him, causing many SLA casualties.
Thorganby is stunned to discover that Colonel Cameron is An Ceannard. Cameron believes that Scotland will become a nation only if blood is shed in a war of liberation. He forces Thorganby to walk to "English" lines in his pyjamas in full view of the press and TV cameras, to ensure maximum humiliation and publicity. The SLA then begin to advance south through Argyll
Argyll
Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western coast between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath...
. In London, the Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
is prepared to capitulate. Thorganby is especially despondent. However, Brodie, who had been placed under arrest by the SLA for insubordination, has deserted and brought with him Bucholz's letter, which MacNair had dropped. He expects a reward, but Rennie arrests him for the murder of MacNair, whose body was found under the ruined Ballachulish Bridge.
Prime Minister Harvey uses Bucholz's letter to sway the Cabinet into decisive action. He then reads selective parts of the letter on television, stating that the avowed aim of Bucholz and Mackie was to establish a Socialist dictatorship in Scotland. When Cameron hears the broadcast, he forces Mackie to flee, rather than face retribution. The broadcast also induces many recent recruits to desert the SLA, taking advantage of an amnesty announced by Harvey. Henderson has already disavowed the SLA, and he and Harvey negotiate a limited form of independence for Scotland. The SLA tries to retreat into the Western Highlands, but its remnants are defeated and scattered by an air assault
Air assault
Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing aircraft—such as the helicopter—to seize and hold key terrain which has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces...
. Cameron takes to the hills as a fugitive.
Two months later, an independence ceremony is held in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. Thorganby has died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, Mackie and Bucholz have fled to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
while Sukey Dunmayne, who has been granted an amnesty, has given birth to Mackie's child. Cameron makes a sensational appearance at the ceremony and tries to hoist the Scottish flag. When the flag party tries to arrest him, he commits suicide, stabbing himself with a Sgian-dubh.