Though Cowards Flinch

Several instances worthy of mention from the Scots’ Nats have appeared on the BBC website recently. Christine Grahame, MSP, tabled a motion at Holyrood calling for the return of a letter carried by William Wallace upon his capture. The letter was originally from the King of France, not that anyone should care in a modern political context since all of these people have been dead for about seven hundred years.

What interests and irritates me isn’t so much the call for the return of the letter – the British Empire, after all, had form in regard to pinching things. The Parthenon Frieze is probably the outstanding example, but there are others as well. The Stone of Scone was symbolically returned by John Major’s government as a way to pacify Scottish dissatisfaction (not that it did much good, since the 1997 wiped out the Tories).

The important part is the way in which the return has been called for (hat tip BBC):

“This is a very significant historical document related to Scotland’s most iconic and lasting national hero,” she said.

“In the year of homecoming it would be fitting to see this document finally returned to Scotland.

“There are very few artefacts around today that we know for certain Wallace handled and held in his possession.”

Ms Grahame said it would be “entirely inappropriate that it should languish, forgotten in some closed drawer in Surrey and urge the UK National Archive to pass it to the National Museum of Scotland where it can be properly displayed.”

My question is this: so what? SNP members of the Scottish Parliament have been calling for the return of all sorts of things, including a letter written to the city of Lubeck, Germany, telling them that Scotland was once more open for trade. What right does Scotland have to any of this stuff? Moreover, on what reckoning can William Wallace be accounted a “hero”?

Blood and soil nationalism I’ve always accounted as foreign to the traditions of these islands, but counting a blood thirsty murderer (for he was no less a murderer than Edward Longshanks) and tyrant as a “hero” surely puts the SNP one foot down that road. Discussing and celebrating the past is important – but glossing over the reality of William Wallace á la Braveheart is a tad disingenuous.

On the point as to the legitimacy of the claim, surely if the Scots have a right to a letter written to Wallace, surely Lubeck has a right to a letter written to the merchants of their city? Or vice versa: if the SNP claim the right to the latter, then surely we should ship the other letter back to France. It’s inconsistent and smacks of a bunch of juvenile delinquents bloviating simply because they can.

Reading over some of the debate on the European Working Hours Directive, calling for random historical artefacts to be returned isn’t all. Trying to outdo Gordon Brown for pointless nationalist sloganeering, MSP Alyn Smith demanded “A Scottish solution for a Scottish issue”. I’ll have more on the European Working Hours Directive presently, but this aspect of it just highlights what an opprobrious bunch the SNP are, and why they’re no better or more progressive than Labour.

What they lack in being mildly pro-redistribution of wealth, they more than make up for in nationalist parochialism.