Scotland’s greatest speeches

ONE involved rousing the troops to fight against the overwhelmingly powerful forces of Rome as they tried to subdue Caledonia. Another welcomed the formation of the first Scottish parliament in 300 years as a new political dawn broke across the country.

A third bemoaned the fate of ordinary Scots as the “lowest of the f*****g low”, living in a nation “colonised by “wankers”.

Calgacus, the first-century Scottish chieftain, former First Minister Donald Dewar and Renton, Irvine Welsh’s junkie creation in his ground-breaking novel Trainspotting, may not seem to have much in common but according to a new book, they are among those who have made some of the greatest Scottish speeches.

The book, to be published next week by Luath Press, contains 65 speeches by Scots - or made in Scotland - that range across some of the most enduring moments in the country’s history over the past 2,000 years.

The publishers of Great Scottish Speeches want readers to vote online for their favourite pieces of oratory, with the results broadcast on St Andrews Day, 30 November.

Robin Jones, the spokesman for Luath, said: “The book is a marvellous collection of some of the great speeches over the course of Scottish history but everyone will have their favourite. We hope that readers will take part and we can arrive at some sort of conclusion as to whose was the very best.”

The author is political biographer David Torrance, whose criteria were that the speeches had to be made in Scotland, or by Scots elsewhere in the world and that each one had to be “great. Primarily this came down to content: a truly great speech needs to say something, make an argument with coherence and brevity.”

Calgacus opens the book with his rallying cry to persuade 30,000 warriors to take on the all-conquering Roman army at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland around AD83. “To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace,” he told his soldiers before, unfortunately, leading them to defeat against numerically-inferior but war-hardened Roman legions.

But it moves into more peaceful and politically-inspired times that encompass the Acts of Union, Scotland’s contribution to the British Empire, the emergence of socialism in Scotland’s industrial heartlands and the beginnings of Scottish Nationalism in the early 20th century.

Great social and economic issues are covered in the speeches of BBC founder Lord Reith, who opposed the introduction of commercial TV and Edinburgh-born politician Robert Boothby, who argued in 1954 that “homosexuality is far more prevalent in this country than is generally admitted”. Union leader Jimmy Reid’s 1972 rectorial address to Glasgow University students on Communist philosophy and human nature - later described by the New York Times as “the greatest speech since President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address” also earns its place.

But as well as politicians and social reformers, fictional literary characters also get a chance to shine. Miss Jean Brodie’s mission statement - “I am a teacher! I am a teacher, first, last, always,” as written by Muriel Spark is there. The cry from the heart by Renton (played by Ewan McGregor) - delivered to his junkie pals - was Welsh’s way in the early 1990s of describing the relationship that had built up between Scotland and England over the preceding centuries. The book moves on to a prescient piece of crystal-ball gazing by veteran Labour parliamentarian Tam Dalyell who in 1977 predicted that “the devolutionary coach ... will be on a motorway without exit roads to a separate Scottish state”.

Dewar’s speech came on 1 July, 1999, when the Scottish parliament ushered in a new political era. “Today there is new voice in the land, the voice of a democratic parliament,” he told the massed ranks of newly-elected MSPs and the rest of the nation. The book ends with the current First Minister’s speech to Holyrood on 4 May, 2007, as he formed the first SNP government. “Scotland has changed - for good and forever,” he exclaimed, four years before his party was returned to Holyrood with a majority.

Salmond has penned a foreword in which he says: “As Scotland embarks on a new process of discussion and debate about our constitutional future, it is timely to celebrate the different voices and strands of opinion which have taken the nation to our present place - and to encourage new voices for our future progress. Let the discourse begin!”

Below is a selection of some of the entries to make in into David Torrance’s book. Which speech, listed or not, do you think is the greatest Scottish speech of all time?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home (speech urging a ‘no’ vote in the 1979 devolution referendum)

Alex Salmond (speech during 1992 Usher Hall debate on Scotland’s future)

Alex Salmond (speech on winning 2007 election)

Alick Buchanan-Smith (speech supporting devolution in 1976)

Andrew Carnegie (on wealth)

Arthur James Balfour (1910 speech on British foreign policy)

Billy Graham (sermon to 1955 rally at Ibrox Stadium)

Calgacus (‘Scotland free or a desert’)

Charles I (speech prior to his execution)

Charles Kennedy (speech at 2001 general election rally)

David Kirkwood (speech at 1917 Labour Party conference)

David Steel (‘rocky road’ leader’s speech in 1976)

Donald Dewar (speech at John Smith’s funeral)

Donald Dewar (moving second reading of Scotland Bill, 1998)

Donald Dewar (speech at opening of Scottish Parliament)

Duchess of Atholl (maiden speech in House of Commons)

Edward Heath (Declaration of Perth, 1968)

Edward Rosslyn Mitchell (speech opposing prayer book, 1928)

Florence Horsbrugh (1936 speech proposing the Debate on the Address, the first woman to do so)

Frederick Douglass (black American social reformer, 1843 speech in Dundee)

George Buchanan (1942 Commons speech)

George Cunningham (speech proposing amendment to 1979 devolution referendum)

George Galloway (opening statement to US Senate)

George MacLeod (1954 General Assembly speech opposing nuclear weapons)

George Reid (2003 Scottish Parliament speech opposing war in Iraq)

Gordon Brown (resignation speech, 2010)

H H Asquith (resignation speech as Liberal leader, Greenock, 1926)

H H Asquith (Paisley by-election speech, 1920)

Hamish Henderson (peace address, 1950)

Harry Hopkins (speech in Glasgow pledging US support during war)

Helen Crawfurd (speech during Glasgow rent strike, 1915)

Henry George (American political economist, 1884, Edinburgh)

Henry McLeish (resignation speech/speech supporting free personal care)

Holy Willie’s Prayer (Burns poem)

Hugh MacDiarmid (‘a political speech’, 1968)

Iain Gray (2010 Labour conference speech)

J M Barrie (‘Courage’ rectorial speech, 1922)

James Connolly (speech in Dublin, 1914)

James Douglas-Hamilton (speech opposing Act of Settlement)

James Ramsay MacDonald (speech prior to becoming first Labour Prime Minister, 1924)

James Renwick (last speech, 1688)

James Wilson (High Court, 1820)

Jean Brodie (speech on being sacked)

Jenny Geddes (‘daur ye say Mass in my lug’)

Jim Sillars (House of Commons, 1988)

Jim Telfer (1997 ‘Everest’ speech)

Jimmy Reid (UCS ‘no bevvying’ speech)

Jimmy Reid (‘rat race’ Glasgow rectorial speech)

Jo Grimond (‘towards the sound of gunfire’ conference speech)

Jock Stein (Lisbon, 1967)

John Bannerman (maiden speech, House of Lords)

John Buchan (1932 Commons speech on Scottish Home Rule)

John Buchan (1927 maiden speech, House of Commons)

John Knox (1550 sermon)

John MacCormick (1950 Glasgow rectorial speech)

John Maclean (speech from the dock, 1916 or 1918)

John Major (‘save the union’ 1992)

John McAllion (speech against warrant sales

John P Mackintosh (speech on Scotland and Wales Bill, 1976)

John Reith (House of Lords speech opposing commercial television, 1952)

John Smith (1993 Commons speech on Queen’s Speech)

John Smith (final speech, 1994)

John Wheatley (1923 speech on Housing Bill)

Keir Hardie (1901 Commons speech on a ‘socialist commonwealth’)

Keir Hardie (1892 maiden speech in House of Commons)

Keith O’Brien (2004 speech to General Assembly)

Kenyon Wright (Scottish Constitutional Convention speech, ‘we say yes and we are the people’)

King Charles II (1650 apology to Scottish parliamentarians)

Lord Balmerino (1746 speech prior to execution)

Lord Belhaven (speech opposing union of England and Scotland, 1706)

Lord Birkenhead (1923 Glasgow rectorial speech, ‘glittering prizes’)

Lord Glencorse (1857 speech in defence of Madeleine Smith)

Lord Rosebery (tribute to Robert Burns)

Lord Rosebery (‘a clean slate’, 1901 Chesterfield speech)

Macbeth (‘is this a dagger which I see before me?’)

Malcolm Muggeridge (1968 speech resigning as Rector of Edinburgh University)

Malcolm Rifkind (1979 speech moving repeal of the Scotland Act)

Margaret Thatcher (1982 Scottish Tory conference speech during Falklands crisis)

Margaret Thatcher (1988 ‘Sermon on the Mound’)

Margo MacDonald (Holyrood speech proposing right to die)

Michael Davitt (1887 speech on land reform in Portree)

Mick McGahey (1985 speech after miners’ strike)

Mick McGahey (1968 STUC speech on devolution)

Mick McGahey (1963 STUC speech opposing Polaris)

Nelson Mandela (1993 speech in Glasgow)

Noel Skelton (on a ‘property-owning democracy’, 1925, House of Commons)

Norman Willis (1988 TUC speech on Ford Dundee debacle, ‘never again’)

Pastor Jack Glass (sermon)

Paul Henderson Scott (1989 Dundee rectorial speech)

Paul Robeson (1960 Glasgow May Day rally speech)

Pope John Paul II (speech to the young people of Scotland, Murrayfield, 1982)

R B Cunninghame-Graham (Speech at Bannockburn rally, 1930)

R F Mackenzie (1974 speech on sacking as headteacher at Summerhill School)

Renton (‘it’s crap being Scottish’ speech from Trainspotting)

Rev James Barr (1927 speech moving Home Rule Bill in House of Commons)

Rev James Whyte (sermon at memorial for victims of the Dunblane massacre)

Richard Hamilton (Sanquhar Declaration, 1680)

Richard Rumbold (1685 speech from the scaffold)

Robert Boothby (1954 speech advocating a commission on homosexuality)

Robert Colquhoun (sermon from Sunset Song)

Robert Louis Stevenson (1873 address to the Speculative Society)

Robert McIntyre (1945 maiden speech, House of Commons)

Robin Cook (resignation speech)

Robin Cook (1980 Commons speech moving amendment to Justice Bill to decriminalize homosexual acts in Scotland)

Robin Cook (1996 Commons speech on the Scott Report)

Russell Johnston (1976 speech on the ‘fundamentals of Liberalism’)

Sir Alex Ferguson (1999 European Cup final)

Sir Archibald Sinclair (1938 Commons speech opposing Munich Agreement)

Sir Compton Mackenzie (1932 Glasgow rectorial address)

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1901 speech opposing Boer War)

Sir John Cope (Battle of Prestonpans, 1745)

Sir Walter Scott (defence of Scottish legal traditions, 1807)

Sorley MacLean (speech in honour of Hugh MacDiarmid, Langholm, 1985)

Tam Dalyell (1977, ‘the West Lothian Question’)

Thabo Mbeki (speech to Scottish Parliament)

Thomas Carlyle (1866 Edinburgh rectorial address)

Thomas Carlyle (‘great men’, 1840 speech)

Thomas Chalmers (1843 speech following Disruption)

Thomas Johnston (1943 speech on hydro-electricity)

Thomas Muir (at trial for sedition)

Tommy Sheridan (2000 Scottish Parliament speech proposing abolition of warrant sales)

Tommy Sheridan (2006 speech after winning case against News of the World)

Wendy Wood (1961 speech to General Assembly of the Church of Scotland)

William S Burroughs (speech to 1961 International Writers’ Conference in Edinburgh)

William Gladstone (1879 Midlothian speech)

William McIlvanney (1987 speech, ‘stands Scotland where it did?’)

Willie Gallacher (Debate on the Address, 1935)

Willie Ross (speech opposing Nationalism, STUC, 1968)

Winnie Ewing (1967 maiden speech)

Winston Churchill (1941 speech at Glasgow City Chambers)

Winston Churchill (1908 Dundee speech on ‘Liberalism and Socialism’)