And shield
Posted on 03/26/2005 8:22:57 AM PST by Keyes2000mt
SCOTS students have been banned from wearing the kilt to graduations at Cambridge University.
Instead, men must wear the traditional English formal dress of a morning suit and white bow tie.
The authorities at Cambridge have allowed undergraduates to wear national dress to ceremonies for decades.
But now Scots have been told they can no longer wear kilts under their academic gowns.
The move was sparked by the university proctors, officials who are responsible for student discipline.
They claimed graduation ceremonies were being ruined by students wearing flamboyant national dress and insisted that an ancient dress code barring them should be enforced.
The senate syndicate - - senior members of the university - agreed the move.
Last night, the decision was described by Glasgow Tory MSP Bill Aitken as 'racist'. He added: 'They want to drag themselves into the 21st century.'
The SNP's Kenny MacAskill said: 'This is petty and very narrow-minded.The Cambridge Uni would do well to realise we're now living in 2005.'
Brian Wilton, spokesman for the Scottish Tartan Authority, said: 'While we do not know the dress code of the colleges concerned, we would be very disappointed to see a ban on tartan and the wearing of national dress.'
Military uniform has also been banned. Female students must wear black dresses or suits.
A fourth-year male student, who did not want to be named, said: 'I'm very proud of my Scottish identity and I think this is unfair on Scottish students.'
A Cambridge spokesman said: 'National dress at graduation has always been banned but the rule was never enforced.
'The proctors felt the situation was being abused and called for the law to be upheld.'
Let them run nakkid. When you are so eager to sacrifice your rights, don't be surprised if a few unexpected ones also fall by the wayside.
But of course if these were Muslim students, they would be allowed to wear whatever they wanted!
well as long as they dont ban beer I think they will get over it.../sarcasm
If it's not Scottish, it's CRAP!
;-)
Laws were passed against speaking the Galic and wearing national dress in an attempt to make the Scots and Irish more English like. If you take away their heritage you can more easily assimilate them( Borg type thinking).
This works if you are talking about immigrants but only irritates people if you are trying to subvert them. Witness, galic is still spoken and Kilts are still worn, except of course at graduations!
"as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself"
BUAIDH NO BAS.
But aren't msot of these Scottish students lowlanders who are not entitled to wear the kilt? Not Celtic at all, but invaders who pushed the Celtic tribes into the mountains?
one of the best SNL skits EVER !
And shield
In any case, the kilt cannot be considered morning dress, which is a different sort of formal attire. The kilt can be worn for dinner dress--that is what we in America call "black tie"--but is not worn for white-tie occasions like state dinners at Buckingham Palace or the White House, and does not constitute morning dress either. Morning dress requires a pale-grey cutaway jacket and a grey top hat, which would look pretty silly with a kilt. And the last thing we want is to make the proud kilt look silly. It is noble, handsome, and romantic in its place, but morning wear is not its place.
What kind of confused pseudo-history is this? The Scotti themselves were a Celtic tribe, and the Picts were most likely an earlier native people. That aside, the evolution of the kilt comes far, far later. So we lowlanders are "entitled." (though by whom, I do not know)
Andrew
Not true. Institutions are allowed to ban camo suicide bomb vests. They must be black or a single subdued color.
Disgusting. Where's the "tolerance"? Where's the "diversity"? *\;-)
Ahem. In English it's "Gaelic" (in Scottish Gaelic Gáidhlig). Tha beagan Gáidhlig agam.
The terminology is all wrong. In Britain, people of Scottish descent are called Scotch. I talked with them on the Isle of Skye. Scotch folks are well-defined by custom. I had the pleasure of watching the 'Games' years ago and those men were huge. At night, they dressed up in kilts and visited the restaurants (pubs) where everyone could meet them. Gentlemen of the highest order.
Well, it was my understanding that in historic times (1600-1800) only recognized Highland clans had a tribal plaid and wore kilts. They also spoke Gaelic and were Catholics.
The lowlanders wore trousers, spoke Scots English, and were Presbyterians. They looked down on the Highlanders as barbarians.
Yeah... they could hide a weapon in there!
If you look at the battles over headscarves in Europe, it's clear that Western authorities have tried to limit what Muslims can wear, and also that it's hard to make those rulings stick, but I don't think the Scots are really what this is all about.
This may be a clever way of restricting what African or Asian graduates can wear without singling them out. No one objected to kilts in past years, and no one's going to tell non-Whites how to dress, so the rule is made and the focus is put on the Scots, whose tartans are a lot less distracting than other ethnic costumes. It could be a way of making the ruling stick while skirting a more troublesome conflict with Muslims and other, less assimilated groups.
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