Get some guts

One of the greatest challenges facing us is that of overcoming difficulties caused by the economic crisis.

Faced with a similar total economic meltdown after the Second World War (and aided by the Marshall Plan, admittedly), the West Germans created a success of astonishing magnitude in less than two decades.

They adopted a "can-do" attitude to life and to the world. Unfortunately, here in Scotland and in much of the rest of the UK, this approach to difficulty does not apply.

In Scotland, this is best exemplified by the recent correspondence and articles relating to the old chestnut of whether Scotland is a "colony" of England (Letters, 18 August). Naturally, those of a nationalist leaning want to portray us in this unflattering and untrue light, as it makes our lack of success someone else's fault, which is always a vote-winner.

The unpalatable truth, however, is that we are the authors of our own misfortune. If Scotland is full of "English middle-class professionals" who head "large swathes of Scottish public life such as the arts, academia and public bodies", as Sophie Anderson avers, England is equally awash with Scots who dominate broadcasting, academia, the arts, trades unions and anything else you care to name.

Were you to ask for a medical opinion from a doctor in Lancaster or Devizes, up will pop a Scot. An expert in accountancy in London? How about a Scot from the enormous number of members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland who work there? Head up leading edge BBC news programmes, or even the government until recently? You get it.

There are those who wish to have a victim mentality and, in a free society, you are allowed to. If you want to be part of a colony in your own mind, go ahead. We have a Scottish Government that lives in that world. The real world, however, will pass you by. Defeat begins in one's own attitude of mind. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Scots just got on with it.

Once the myth of Scotland being a colony was spread by separatists, the victim mentality crept in. It is alive and well, especially in the Letters pages of The Scotsman.

However, when the tartan tat sold in the High Street is made overseas and the newest Cunard liner was not built on the Clyde, it is time we did for ourselves what our ancestors did and built up our own businesses instead of taking the lazy route and saying it's everyone else's fault.

ANDREW HN GRAY

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh