Book Review: 50 People Who Screwed Up Scotland As the referendum on Scottish independence approaches, it is unsurprising that both sides are pulling out the stops rhetorically. It is equally unsurprising that some of this rhetoric is shrill, tetchy and hysterical. Enter Allan Brown, formerly of Sunday Times Scotland; his book has a foreword by AA Gill. To be clear: I have nothing against iconoclasm, irreverence, persiflage or pasquinade. Nor do I subscribe to the myth of Scottish exceptionalism best exemplified by the Whas Like Us? Damn Few An Theyre A Deid tea-towel. And Brown should at least be commended for setting his cards on the table. The introduction states that the population, in the main, is coarse, badly educated and poorly spoken and that the greatest regret of the authors life is that he didnt get out 20 years ago. The dust-jacket states that Scottish competence is as mythic as the Loch Ness Monster. The cover is rather strange: a caricature features Mel Gibson in full wode-ish mode, Charles Edward Stuart and Billy Connolly, with Alex Salmond, Sean Connery and George Galloway levering away England with long poles. Thats right, Galloway, currently touring with his Just Say Naw show.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 07:42:59 +0000
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