Scottish History event in Dundee

Dave Coull · Scottish History event in Dundee

A HISTORIC VOTE ?

That un-elected arm of the British state , the BBC , the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation, is living up to its name by staging an alleged "Scottish History" series which makes a mockery of Scotland's history, and a mockery of democracy. The un-elected unionist establishment, including senior academics from the University of Dundee, are playing along with this farce.

A television series, modelled on other fake audience participation programmes where the viewers can "vote" on matters of no importance, is (apparently) allowing viewers to vote on what they consider the most important events in Scottish history.

The viewers’ verdict is to be endorsed by the vote of a meeting at Dundee University.

One of the candidates for "most important event in Scottish History" will be
the Union of 1707, and Chris Whatley, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Dundee, will be arguing the importance of this event.

But being allowed to "vote" on the importance of this event is a travesty of democracy. OF COURSE it was an important event. We all AGREE with Chris Whatley about that. Where we DISAGREE with him is that he thinks the Union of 1707 was a wonderful idea carried out by great and selfless patriots, whereas we think it was carried out by an un-elected ruling class against the wishes of the vast majority of the Scottish people of 1707. We are not being allowed to vote on THAT question.

Where we disagree with Chris Whatley is he thinks it doesn't matter that this Union has never, at any time in history, been put to a referendum of the Scottish people, whereas we are actively campaigning for a self-determination referendum.
But we’re not being allowed to vote on THAT question, either.

The BBC and the unionist establishment, including some (there are honourable exceptions) historians from the University of Dundee, are trivialising Scottish History.
Okay, so some of the programmes might seem like fun, but the “vote” which they offer on a “Scottish History Top Ten” is an illusion and a travesty of genuine democracy. If you want something more than illusions, if you want something more genuinely democratic, if you want to take part in the Scottish History which is actively happening right now, join with us in Independence First, the single-issue, non-party-political, campaign for a referendum on independence for Scotland,
in creating our own very important event in Scottish History.

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Published by the Angus/Dundee branch of Independence First.

Contact: phone 01356-630386, or e-mail davecoull@btinternet.com

Dave Coull

"The University of Dundee, in association with the Scottish Council of
Archives, the Scottish Archive Network, Caledonia TV and BBC Scotland,
is proud to present a public debate on 2nd December. A panel of five
experts will act as advocates for their chosen topic. The audience will
then be invited to vote on which issue they consider most significant
in Scotland's History."

That's what the blurb said.

This was, of course, a spin-off from the television series.

At the last meeting of the Angus/Dundee group of Independence First,
we had decided to make an intervention in this event. The initial proposal
was leafletting folk going into the event, but that changed to leafletting
and talking part in the event. A leaflet was discussed, and, with amendment so it didn't sound like we were calling for a 'boycott'
of the event, agreed, at our meeting.

The event was ticket-only, but there was no charge for the tickets,
and six of us managed to get tickets.

There was a free-wine reception _before_ the "public debate",
with a "wine-and-nibbles" session _after_ the debate. As I was
driving I didn't have any wine, but the food was both fancy
and very good. Either the university or somebody had gone
to considerable expense.

While people were drinking wine and chatting, I circulated amongst
the crowd distributing leaflets. I half-expected to be stopped
at any minute. A couple of university officials looked clearly
unhappy at what I was doing, and one demanded to know
if I had a ticket. They apparently thought I might be a gatecrasher,
and seemed confused to learn that I did indeed have a ticket.
They also saw that, as I was distributing our leaflets, I was
chatting to some university folk who evidently knew me
(well, after all, I am a _member_ of Dundee University!)
and they evidently decided that, since I was being reasonably
discreet rather than disruptive, they would just let it go.

I gave a leaflet to Chris Whatley, the unionist historian
who was mentioned by name in our leaflet, saying
"Oh, YOU really must have one of our leaflets".

A couple of our local I.F. group members had been
a bit worried about leafletting, as they are students
at the university, and were concerned it could affect
their grades, or even jeapourdise being able to graduate.
One member has Chris Whatley as his tutor this year.......

In general, our leaflet was well received, with several people
making favourable comments. We had produced 100
leaflets, which we had thought would be enough, but
the crowd was bigger than we had anticipated. Also,
although there were not much more than 100 people
present, even after I ran out of leaflets people were coming
up to me and asking "can I have one of your leaflets
for my friend/boyfriend/somebody who is not here?".

The principal of the university introduced the Debate.
He made a rather defensive remark about "some
people think having a history 'top ten' is trivialising
Scottish History but....." then he handed over
to Tom Devine, who was chairing.

The five speakers were Edward Cowan, Joyce McMillan,
Chris Whatley, Owen Dudley Edwards, and Charles McKean.

Edward Cowan spoke first, about Wallace and Bruce. From
what I could hear, he was very good, but unfortunately I have
a hearing problem, particularly for large gatherings, and, despite
sitting right at the front, I just couldn't hear enough. Maybe
one of our other members who was there could say something
about what the speakers said.

Joyce McMillan spoke about Mary Queen of Scots.
As far as I could make out, her case was that Mary
was a real woman, not like Elizabeth of England
who tried to be a man.

Chris Whatley spoke about the Act of Union of 1707. Of course
he took every opportunity to promote his new book on this
subject. He rather cunningly used our leaflet to his advantage.
He said that the Union of 1707 provoked more political debate
in Scotland than any other issue at any time, with more pamphlets
and petitions about this than about any other subject, and that
it still continues to be the object of passionate debate to this
day, and he held up our Independence First leaflet and waved
it and said something to the effect of "as we have all seen here tonight",
and therefore it was the most important issue in Scottish History.
A lot of what Chris Whatley said I missed due to my deafness,
but I couldn't miss seeing him waving our leaflet as "proof".

Owen Dudley Edwards spoke on Robert Burns. Apparently
he was extremely funny. People were laughing a lot
during his talk. I wish I could have shared the joke,
but I missed an awful lot of what he said due to
being hard-of-hearing.

Charles McKean spoke on "The Scottish City". Apparently
some folk were surprised at how good he was, but
Keri, who has been on a course for which he was
one of the lecturers, wasn't.

After that there was some _limited_ opportunity
for questions. One local member of Independence
First did manage to ask a question of Chris Whatley,
to the effect that the British Empire was one of the reasons
for Union but the Empire is no more. Tom Devine interupted
him and said he was making a statement, not asking
a question to the speaker, and would he get to the point.
There was no real opportunity for open "discussion".

Although it had been billed as "Scotland's History: The Top 10"
in actual fact of course there were just five options. At the end,
a vote was taken on which were the most important issues
in Scottish History. Tom Devine said that people could
vote more than once, but that there would be no point
in voting for _all_ of the issues, as this would result
in a dead heat.

I noticed that Chris Whatley and others were looking
at me to see which way I would vote. I abstained from
voting. Having been handing out a leaflet which said
that we were not being allowed to vote on what really
mattered, I couldn't very well take part in a pointless
vote. But some other members of Independence First
did take part and voted for the Union of 1707 as being
a significant event in Scottish History, as did other
supporters of independence for Scotland. This was
in fact the option that came out top. Chris Whatley
immediately said "I welcome this endorsement of
the Treaty of Union of 1707", but at least he had
the good grace to make a joke of that, and to go
on to acknowledge that the vote was no such thing,
but merely an acknowledgement of the _importance_
of this event in Scottish History.

In conclusion, I would say we were right to leaflet.
Our leaflet did have an effect, and has helped to make
our Independence First campaign more well known amongst
people who are interested in Scottish history and Scottish
politics. We were right to say that we were not being
allowed a vote on what really matters. And we should
continue to do this kind of thing in the months ahead
every time that the British establishment present
us with the opportunity to do so.

Firefox

Dave is there an expected date (or even range of possible dates) for the next Independence First rally?

Dave Coull

OUR NEXT INDEPENDENCE FIRST MARCH/RALLY will be on Saturday 31st March, 2007, in Edinburgh. A working group has been set up to organise this event. The size of this working group rather depends on how many people are prepared to WORK ! Volunteers are needed! Time wasters are not....
At our first demonstration, we had representatives of political parties speaking. This time we are thinking more in terms of emphasising cultural, civic, or sporting personalities. Also, we were very lucky with the weather last time. We can’t count on always being so lucky. So we are thinking in terms of the rally at the end of this march being in a large indoor venue. This is going to cost more money. If we can bring in a lot of new members
at the event, then their subs will defray the cost, but we do have to have
it to lay out. We are currently about half way to the amount we need.
So our treasurer would particularly welcome anybody willing to do
some fundraising work!

carol

with our-scotland being a forum for political discussion it may be worth discussing what groups/organisations would be targetted for this event. Firstly imo you may virtually be starting from scratch previously IF were reliant on grassroots activists from pro independence parties and we did have excellent support from these areas. Will IF get similar support from these activists so close to elections? It is harder to try and get people from 'civic' areas. Note Sat 31st March would be pending police/LA approval.

Carol