No flowers of Scotland
Graham Spence
Imagine if KwaZulu-Natal got its own home
rule. Then imagine if in the next World Cup
– or any other sports event – the people of
Eastern Cape, who are predominantly Xhosa,
rooted for any team but KZN because the
people there are predominantly Zulu. That in
a nutshell is the story of England and
Scotland, which is now bubbling more angrily
than ever with the recent World Cup. To give
a brief background: Scotland has its own
parliament, which is subsidised to the tune
of R70.5-billion a year by English
taxpayers. However, to complicate matters
Scottish MPs can vote on English issues, but
the reverse is not true for English MPs who
have no say in Scottish affairs. Most
controversial English bills – from banning
foxhunting to immigration fiascos – have got
through courtesy of key votes from Scotland.
Scottish MPs can vote for completely free
health care in their homeland, then vote
against it for England. The same with
schools; Scottish pupils receive far larger
subsidies than their English counterparts.
To rub more salt, all top cabinet ministers
are Scots: Gordon Brown, John Reid, Alistair
Darling and Des Browne. Tony Blair was born
in Scotland but does have English ancestry.
The Liberal Democrats leader Menzies
Campbell is Scottish; so was his predecessor
Charlie Kennedy, who was fired for swigging
back too much Highland happy-juice during
office hours. Yet despite all this, Scotland
has a chip on its shoulder bigger than Ben
Nevis. The Scottish ‘auld hatreds’ are
endless, going back to Braveheart, Bonnie
Prince Charlie, the Highland Clearances and
... well, being regularly beaten by the
Sassenachs at every sport except Elephant
Polo. (No kidding, the Scots won the
championships in Nepal). To spark this
kindling, the Scottish Prime Minister Jack
McConnell took it upon himself to announce
he was supporting any World Cup team but
England. The Scots cheered him to the
rafters; Trinidad flags were sold out in
Glasgow when the islanders took on Beckham
and co. Then Scottish tennis player Andrew
Murray, who relies on extensive English
support, showed surprising lack of
circumspection by declaring he was
supporting Paraguay against England. When he
next appeared in Wimbledon he was greeted
with a chorus of ‘Go, Andy, go ... to
Paraguay’. All harmless banter, you may say.
But it soon turned nasty up north. A seven
year-old child was punched by an adult for
wearing an England football jersey in
Edinburgh; ditto a disabled Englishman in
Aberdeen. People ordering pints with English
accents in pubs were abused. Cars flying
English flags were given finger-salutes at
traffic lights. I must say I never knew such
resentment existed, and am sad it does as
the Spences originally hailed from Scotland,
a sub-clan of the McDuffs. However, in this
case I take the side of the English. In the
past they handled Scottish antipathy with
amazingly good grace, even though Celtic
boorishness bordered on outright malice. But
something has now snapped. Perhaps it is
because every unpopular law passed in
England’s nanny state is done so with a
Scottish accent. Perhaps it is because they
see welfare benefits being bestowed on the
Scots that can only be dreamed of south of
Hadrian’s Wall. Perhaps because they’re sick
of the North Sea Oil question continually
being thrown in their faces, ie it is
Scottish oil. (In fact, much of the oil
fields are in international waters; British
multi-nationals developed them; and North
Sea oil deposits are worth R50-billion
annually – R20-billion less than taxes for
Scotland raised in England.) Perhaps,
they’re tired of the Scottish-dominated
Labour Party doing all it can to discredit
English identity. Whatever. The English are
now fuming and the fowls are stampeding home
to roost. This World Cup saw a plethora of
St George flags like never before, and for
the first time ever, a poll has shown a
quarter of English voters want their
separate parliament – compared to just eight
per cent a year ago. This is more
significant than it looks, for most ethnic
English voters support the Conservatives.
Labour relies overwhelmingly on the Celtic
and immigrant vote. Thus if there is an
English-only parliament, it will almost
certainly mean a change of government. So
who said football was just a game?
