AS somebody that’s campaignt for the Scots language owre mony years, I wis maist upliftit tae read aboot the young singer Iona Fyfe, supportit by MSP Clare Adamson, persuadin Spotify tae recognise Scots as a language, an saicondly, tae hear her arguing the case for a Scots Language Act. It’s a proposal some o us hae buin advocatin for mony years – probably even afore Iona wis born– but withoot much success it has tae be said, at least up tae noo. On the ither haun, when I read some bloggers’ predictable comments aboot this in The Herald, I wis remindit that owre mony Scots still cannae help spewin oot cairtloads o ignorant an snobbish keich, (or cac in Gaelic) aboot Scots (or Gaelic), revealin ugsome prejudices that were deeply plantit in their nappers by previous generations o dominies wha were theirsels ignorant aboot the fact that Scots isnae “bad” English at aw, but “guid” Scots, an that it is a language by ony criteria ye care tae pit furrit. The EU’s
LAST week I said I would be writing about the early years of the Union after 1707 and telling the untold story – never mentioned by the Unionists – of how that Union nearly collapsed and was quickly recognised as a disastrous deal for Scotland, even by those who had helped to bring it about. I crave your indulgence and I will definitely return to the subject next week, but when you receive a cry for help from one of Scotland’s greatest modern-day cultural figures, I have to respond, so please consider this an emergency column to right a perceived wrong. For tomorrow is the bicentenary of the birth of Màiri Mhòr nan Òran, Great (or big) Mary of the Songs, a truly influential songstress and a towering presence in Gaelic culture. Màiri Mhòr was so-called because she was literally big being 5’ 9” tall and latterly quite rotund.
Gray died in December 2019 a day after his 85th birthday following a short illness. In his final interview before his death - conducted on the day of the 2019 General Election - Gray was critical of the SNP for not taking a stronger line on independence in Holyrood. He told The National: In the past, I wrote a number of pamphlets supporting the Scottish National Party, and if I were to write a pamphlet now, which I thought of doing, it would be highly critical of the Scottish National Party. I am a big supporter of independence but I rather regret the fact that the party in Holyrood is not taking what strikes me as a properly independent line.”
Rewriting colonial past through culture Bashabi Fraser was recently awarded one of the highest civilian honours of the UK in the New Years Honours list by the Queen, in recognition of her services to education and culture in Scotland. A chat with the Scottish-Bengali academic, writer and artist Debanjan Chakrabarti | | Published 21.02.21, 06:14 AM
First, huge congratulations on this wonderful achievement, Bashabidi. How did you come to know about your name featuring in the Queen’s New Year’s honours list? What were your first reactions?
In November last year, when I had gone to Calcutta to bring my father back with me to Edinburgh, I received a letter through email bearing the Royal Coat of Arms, from the Ceremonial Officer at the Cabinet Office, addressed to ‘Ba
Letters
We don t have answers to basic questions such as the number of arrivals from South Africa since the new variant originating in that country was identified I CHARGE this Tory government with a complete and utter dereliction of duty from the beginning of this global pandemic in 2020 to the present, painfully slow, closing of our borders in 2021. The government knew about the new, more easily spread, deadly South African strain of Covid in late December but only now, supposedly starting next week, will measures be put in place to check and control people coming into the UK. In Piers Morgan’s ITV morning show a stream of government ministers have been unable to answer basic questions, such as the sizeable number of people from South Africa who have and are still coming into the country from the beginning of this year and also how many hotels, if any, have signed up to the government’s late, late scheme.