Posted on 01/16/2007 7:30:35 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
Tony Blair mounted a strong defence of the 300-year-old union of Scotland with England yesterday, saying it would be "crazy" for Scotland to quit the UK.
His warning came as wrangling between politicians north and south of the border overshadowed the low-key anniversary celebrations.
Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, said the lack of events showed there was little public enthusiasm for the Union.
Even Gordon Brown, who has recently emerged as the champion of the Union, left for a trip to India yesterday, pulling out of hosting a party in London to launch a £2 coin to mark the anniversary.
Mr Salmond said: "I think they realised that very few people would turn up — and it's unwise to hold a party no one would come to."
At his monthly Downing Street press conference, Mr Blair said the "most important thing is not fireworks but argument". He said the Government's role was to present a coherent reason as to why the Union of England and Scotland "is good for today's world and the future".
He said both countries benefit "enormously" in areas such as jobs and security, and it would be "crazy for Scotland to be wrenched out of the United Kingdom". Mr Blair said when the Act of Union was signed, 30,000 Scots, about three per cent of the population, had relatives in England. Now 2.5 million — half of Scotland's population — had English relatives.
Ministers were heartened by a BBC Newsnight poll that suggested 73 per cent of people in England and 56 per cent of those in Scotland wanted the Union to remain.
The poll also showed that 61 per cent of people in England, 51 per cent in Scotland and 48 per cent in Wales supported an English parliament.
However, Mr Blair said setting up a separate English Parliament would be "unworkable" and "unnecessary". The population of England accounted for the "vast majority" of people in the UK and did not need more representation, he said.
Mr Blair warned against any attempt by the Scottish Parliament to hold a referendum on independence.
"If Scotland ends up with an independence Bill and referendums on Scottish independence, then you are just going to create a situation of enormous uncertainty and instability," he said.
Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead, claimed the debate was being misread.
"It is not so much that the Scots want more independence but that, with devolution, a clear majority of the English are demanding their own Parliament and an end to Scottish MPs voting on exclusively English matters."
Earlier, Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, who is running Labour's campaign for the Scottish Parliament election, said he did not believe there was a mood in Scotland to break the Union.
"When people focus on the real choice, they will recognise that the combination of economic links, family ties and shared values that have served this Union well will actually serve Scotland and England well in the future," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
But Mr Salmond said the tide was now running in favour of independence.
"The increase in Scottish identity has been the underlying movement in Scottish politics over the last few generations," he said on Today.
The Tories sought last night to embarrass Gordon Brown in his role as a staunch opponent of allowing only English MPs to vote on English issues by revealing that in 1980 he co-authored a book advocating just that.
Oliver Heald, the shadow constitutional affairs secretary, said Mr Brown's book, The Politics of Nationalism and Devolution, outlined a system in which "the remaining Scottish MPs at Westminster would not be allowed to take part in the proceedings of the House when it was debating England or Welsh domestic matters".
This is just another rung on the ladder that started with guns and advanced to knives.
Next thing you know they'll be going after what's under the kilts.
The Scots ran England far well for a good long time, but Londinstan may be beyond their ken. Best let it go Laddie.
OK, this post has been up for 7 minutes - where is the Mel Gibson pic with a text baloon "Freedom".
I hate to do this but
FREEDOMMMMMMMMM
Would be crazy? How many Scotsmen has he known who weren't?
Maybe we ought to have a vote on removing the occupation forces from Dixie.
Robert the Bruce's castle is between the 9th and 10th holes.
Our last night during our trip, and after a few wonderful ales, I asked the bartender why anyone would want to leave Scotland.
His response "Because of the brits".
Our tour/golf guide took us through Edinborough, and there is a great British stone seal near the.
He told us that during the day, Scots spit on it, and at night...".
The Brit's killed lots of Scots during the 18th. century. No love lost there - Braveheart also comes to mind ....
They are equaled in this by the Irish, Welsh, Cornish and Bretons.
Only the Galicians of all the Gaelic speaking peoples exceed them. I think almost 100% of them moved out ~ even to the extent their language went extinct in the 1600s.
It was only afterwards someone discovered oil.
The reason the Scots want to disassociate themselves from England is that the country is full of englishmen...
Being of dominant Scottish heritage myself, I cannot think of a more perfect example of girliemen than the majority of the english male population.
Prepare to face east to Mecca, you stooges! I suppose we'll have to come to your rescue again and you won't appreciate it, either.
Several years ago I took a visiting Scotish business guest back to his hotel after dinner. Wife and I drove him around Cincinnati a bit and he asked "how many people live in Ohio" I replied "ten or twelve million". He laughed that just in this one state were three times as many prople as lived in Scotland.
Got my Vote..!or ,,,
William Wallace
Part of the amazing legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment. He must have felt proud.
Robert the Bruce's heart finds its final resting place
Stephen Goodwin Scotland Correspondent
THE HEART of Robert the Bruce, the great 14th-century warrior- king of Scotland, was officially laid to rest yesterday in a ceremony heavy with political symbolism.
To the strains of Border bagpipes and medieval poetry in praise of freedom, Donald Dewar, Secretary of State for Scotland, unveiled a marker stone over the spot at Melrose Abbey where King Robert's heart has been reburied. The shrivelled relic, contained in an ancient casket, has been held in safekeeping in Edinburgh for the last two years following its rediscovery during an archaeological dig.
The ceremony took place 684 years to the day after Bruce dispatched the much bigger army of Edward I back to England to "think again" at the Battle of Bannockburn. Bruce went on to unify the kingdom, earning himself the sobriquet "Good King Robert", a piece of history Mr Dewar would like to repeat. Though the Secretary of State said he was conscious of the dangers of ascribing to a 14th-century warrior-king the social and moral standards of the opening of the 21st century the parallels, eventually overcame him. The ceremony was "one of great significance and symbolism for the people of Scotland", he said. "The exciting and dramatic changes we see in Scotland today are, perhaps, a very appropriate extension of those events back in medieval times." He hoped Scotland was about to enjoy a period of "stability and good government", as it did under Bruce after Bannockburn. The unveiling of the simple sandstone marker in what would have been the Chapter House of the ruined Abbey marked the end of another chapter in the romantic story of Robert the Bruce. He had a great affection for Melrose and instructed that his heart be buried there, while the rest of his body was destined for Dunfermline Abbey, the traditional last resting place of Scottish kings. On his deathbed, Bruce asked his knights to go on a crusade and take his heart with them. It was carried by Sir James Douglas, who was killed in battle with the Moors in Spain. The casket was brought back to Scotland and buried at Melrose - an event recorded in John Barbour's epic 14th-century poem "The Bruce". There is no proof that the heart venerated yesterday is definitely King Robert's, though the casket is of the right age. Historic Scotland have refused to allow tests on it and, as Mr Dewar said, the uncertainty adds to the romance of the story. "There is a strong and proper presumption that this is the heart," insisted the Secretary of State. "But in a sense it does not matter. The casket and the heart are symbols of the man." The casket containing a mummified heart was first unearthed by archaeologists in 1921. It was placed in a lead container and reburied, only to be uncovered by another set of archaeologists 75 years later. Yesterday's unveiling ceremony followed an unpublicised reburial on Monday. Historic Scotland said it had been felt appropriate for the reburial of what were human remains to be a private, dignified occasion. However, it is also likely that the agency and ministers were keen to avoid the reburial of the heart of one the greatest champions of an independent Scotland being hijacked in a politically motivated stunt. Though Jim Wallace, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, was in the crowd at Melrose, there was no high-profile SNP presence. The party celebrated Bannockburn on the battle site last weekend. The marker stone was designed by Victoria Oswald, a BBC sound engineer working in London, and carved from Scottish sandstone by the stonemason Hugh Durrant. Rising only a few inches above the turf, it depicts a heart and a saltire and bears an inscription taken from Barbour's poem: "A noble hart may have nane ease. Gif freedom failye."
Copyright 1998 Newspaper Publishing PLC
"I hate to do this butFREEDOMMMMMMMMM"
Well actually Princess of Wales was blonde LOL!
Rack it MONK ROFL
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