Here's Tae Us # 3: Backland of Howp and Glore?
We Scots are being advised these days that better times are coming... we're moving centre stage and emerging out of the de-industrialised shadows - no more in the economic backlands of the nation. What's more we're getting this advice from BOTH sides of the independence debate. Vote for independence say the Yes lobby and we're on a winner, all that's left of the oil is ours alone. Just say no, is the dictat from the other side, and you'll get more devolution and the 'safety net' of being better together - even if the oil is running out. This glorious future, filled with hopes for success will only come about if we vote YES or NO... Sadly, there's no third option, no wonder so many of us remain on the fence!
An interesting result of all this conflicting debate though, is that ordinary folks have begun talking about 'the UNION' in a way that hasn't ever happened in my lifetime (not telling you how long that has been, but I wasn't born yesterday!) not even at the time when we were granted a devolved parliament in 1998. Indeed, in the years following this momentous occasion, the cost of the parliament building has possibly generated more discussion than the blurring of the edges that quickly began to happen in the social and political union between Scotland and the rest of the UK (rUK as it's come to be known).
Clearly, and aside from when certain sporting events took place, the union between us was so unremarkable and so assimilated, those of us (and, after all, we are still the majority) who didn't vote SNP hardly gave it much of a thought... But there's no dodging the UNION now. Aside from football and rugby, and the birthplace of a tennis player, were there other occasions when the union was brought more fully into popular consciousness? And if so, how did folk of my generation continue to so completely ignore the unionist elephant in the room? Well, historical pageants were one such example of popular consciousness raising. And the ways that the national story was expressed within these, might tell us quite a lot about the union between Scotland and rUK and indeed, about historical forgetfulness...
Nationalists would of course point to the way that Scottish history has been taught, or indeed, not taught, as being at the root of a lot of confusion and lack of awareness among Scots. I've come to have quite a lot of sympathy for this argument, because although I do recall learning about Robert the Bruce in school, the longer term fallout and historical significance of the Wars of Independence is not something that stuck... The romance of the Stuart dynasty and thereafter the Jacobites, I more than likely learned about from novels (price 1s each, so yes I am that old!) And the Act of Union, well if I was taught about this, I've somehow failed to remember it! On the other hand, I clearly recall learning about Hapsburgs and Bourbons and the Russian Revolutions... how did that happen?
To understand why there may be such a lacuna of historical knowledge specifically about the Union for many Scots born in the 1950s and 1960s, we can look not only to educational policy but also to the glory days of historical pageantry in Scotland in the 1920s, 30s and in the immediate post war period. In these, the drip drip drip message of the Union as a natural and inevitable development is all too clear. And evidently, this message continued to filter through to successive generations.
My most recent pageant research provides a good example of this. The Border Pageant held in the grounds of the Minto Estate in the Roxburghshire in 1930 has left little in the way of ephemeral evidence. A programme was produced and likely printed in significant numbers (10,000 people attended despite a downpour of rain) but this piece of pageant literature is now archivally AWOL. However... royalty shored up to the event, and where a Prince goes, newspaper reporters will follow. So this pageant, which attracted Prince George (another of this name, he was the fourth son of King George and Queen Mary and became an alleged Nazi sympathiser so therefore not much talked about nowadays) was much reported in the press. It was, more or less, a celebration of 'British' identity and the contribution of Scots to the success of this, both nationally and within the context of Empire. The point being made was that Scots were more than equal partners in the ascendancy of the United Kingdom, and this, is a message I certainly do recognise. For example, it was taught to me in school within the context of the story of the industrial revolution, and if I'm honest, it's a version of Scottish history that continues to have some authority. Most particularly, if we acknowledge the influence still felt among professional historians in Scotland of the effects of several decades of close interest in Scotland's role in the economic and social history of urbanisation, industrialisation and the growth of the labour movement.
The Border Pageant was the work of Scottish Girl Guides (ably assisted by a coterie of Scottish aristocracy) but it is interesting to note how the unionist and imperialist message delivered was done so in a way that was completely matter of fact in the context of these times. The writer of the pageant scenario was a then well known and widely published author called Molly Clavering and here is a flavour of what she delivered in her closing message to the Guides in attendance at the pageant:
The past is gone, but its noblest traditions still live and from them has sprung a mighty Sisterhood of Nations who call Britannia their mother... Never let it be said of you, who are Guides that you stood idle when there is work for you to do in the world... To your hands I give this wreath, lay it at Britannia's feet in token of the loyalty which Scotland gladly gives to that Empire of which she forms a not unworthy part...
The pageant then closed with a rendition of Land of Hope and Glory!
So, which way to hope and glory now? Should we stick with a post-imperial Britannia or dump her (and if so, who's going to be her replacement!? Caledonia? And what does she look like?) Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, I really cannot envisage any scenario nowadays where Land of Hope and Glory might be played at a cultural event in Scotland. All of which makes studying events such as the Border Pageant so interesting for understanding how we got to where we are now in Scotland, culturally and politically. Moreover, they do illuminate a great deal about the evolution of unionist sentiment, for want of a better description, at a popular level among Scots.
Never mind the economic argy bargy, the current elephant in the room for Scots, is how do we feel about the Union nowadays? After all, it's often said that the independence vote is one that people will make with their hearts as well as their heads. Mr Salmond says that our social union will continue and prosper if we vote Yes, while the other side say nationalists stir up anti-English sentiment and promote xenophobia. Well, I know what I believe... but I think there are still a lot of folks out there who are finding it hard to make up their minds, and can you blame them? Perhaps we really could do with a bit more of a history lesson on the Union. Actually, where is the Pageant of the Union when you need it?!
For anyone interested, some film footage of the Border Pageant is available on YouTube.