Back at the Beating Heart

During the 2014 independence referendum, one of the key talking points from the Better Together campaign was to emphasize how poor Scotland wouldn’t be able to cope without consular support from Britain. The suggestion was that Scots abroad were the beneficiaries of great promotion and soft-power abroad. Independence would leave us isolated and bereft.

Aside from the obvious response that hundreds of small nations promote themselves and support their citizens without great difficulty, it also became obvious that Britain actually failed to promote Scotland and Scottish trade or culture properly at all.

An obvious example of how other small nations promote themselves would be Ireland, which uses St Patrick’s Day to promote all things Irish and connect the Irish diaspora on 17 March each year.

So it was with some surprise that we saw Labour Minister, Michael Shanks, MP for Rutherglen tweeting yesterday: “Downing Street in blue and the saltire flying to celebrate St Andrew’s Day tomorrow. Great to see Scottish businesses, music, culture, members of our military and the PM celebrating Scotland’s role in the world – and tandoori salmon!”

I think he must have got mixed up with Burns Night, or Easter, or Samhuinn or Hanukkah (or something!). But it’s great to be Back at the Beating Heart of government.

Can you imagine how a government that actually knew what day St Andrew’s Day was could do to promote Scottish trade and culture around the world? Or what soft-power Burns Night could evoke?

But there’s another thing about this which is worth noticing. The Minister writes: “Great to see members of our military and the PM celebrating Scotland’s role in the world”. Yet for juxtaposition, see the Ferret’s recent report [Navy made legal threats to try and keep nuclear pollution secret ]:

“The Royal Navy threatened legal action as part of a fierce, high-level, behind-the-scenes battle to block publication of information about radioactive pollution at the Coulport nuclear bomb base on the Clyde.”

“Files released to The Ferret reveal that over nine days in July and August the navy sent 130 emails, held five meetings and made numerous phone calls urging the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) to keep details of the pollution secret.”

“Naval officials repeatedly warned of legal action, spoke of the need to “calm some nerves” and said they were “deeply uncomfortable” with information proposed for release. One was anxious to avoid “another crazy Friday”, while another complained of becoming a “zombie” after a long week.

“Top naval commanders also had an online meeting with the Scottish Information Commissioner, David Hamilton, late one evening to try and persuade him to reverse his decision to reject most of their pleas for secrecy.”

“But all these eleventh-hour efforts failed. As The Ferret reported on 9 August, Sepa released 33 files revealing that Coulport had polluted Loch Long on the Clyde with radioactive waste after old water pipes burst and caused a flood in 2019.”

Far from “Members of our military celebrating Scotland’s role in the world” they are actively contriving to suppress the fact that they are contaminating our lochs.

What a shambles.