Wrong message

Published on Monday 3 August 2009 21:39

We are told the Gathering was such a success that we will now have a Rural Gathering in Perth followed by another 20 regional events (your report, 30 July). It is time to consider the message this sends about our country.

Clans, tartan and pipes are iconic brands and rightly central to the promotion of Scotland worldwide. But they must be sensitively handled.

Joyce Macmillan identified the dangers inherent in a mishandling of these images in her review of Aisling's Children when she referred to this "blood-based account of Scottishness" which ignored the "inclusive concept of citizenship on which modern Scotland is supposed to pride itself". Lesley Riddoch also complained about the emphasis on "loss, battle, conflict, confrontation and blood". I applauded her indiscretion in quoting a senior SNP parliamentarian who said it was "too Nuremberg-y for my liking". But the policy-makers responsible for the Year of Homecoming obviously chose those themes and gave this remit to the producers.

The Gathering event of 25 July was hailed as the centrepiece of the Year of Homecoming. Is this really our message? Is Scotland all about blood, clan, battle and forced exile? Is it all about our past instead of our future?

Do we have to be reminded of the consequences where a government is overly dependent on a one-sided view of history, with an emphasis on blood and lineage, and whose populations are drawn into city streets and squares for mass displays of pageantry? We deserve better. We deserve a public debate on the image of Scotland which is being broadcast in our name.

ANNE M KEENAN

Roshven

Lochailort, Inverness-shire