Our Scotland - www.our-scotland.org

sandmountainslim

Compatriots,
I have saw traitors before but this fellow takes the cake! Professor
Ferguson lets loose with a torrent of Anti-Scot Bigotry unlike
anything heard since the days of Longshanks and he himself is Scottish
born, perhaps he has been at Harvard too long? It is convenient
however that this scoundrel has made his email address public, please
join the members of ScotWatch and myself in sending him informative emails, he can be reached at:
nfergus@fas.harvard.edu
Deo Vindice
WP

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=3022006

Time to liquidate Scotland and sell off her assets, says expat historian

ALASTAIR DALTON

Key points
• Expat Scot historian attacks Scotland's misplaced "superiority complex"
• Brands Parliament "county council" rather than sign of independence
• Calls for Old Firm to move to the English Premiership "where they
belong"

Key quote
"The idea that Scotland might one day 'be a nation again' should
simply be dropped. We had our chance, when everyone else in Europe had
it, in the 19th and 20th centuries. But we calculated that the Union
and the Empire were a better bet than independence. Well, live with
it." - PROF NIALL FERGUSON

AN EXPATRIATE Scottish historian provoked fury yesterday by calling
for the land of his birth to be put into "liquidation" because it had
become "the Belarus of the West".

Professor Niall Ferguson said Scotland's glory days were long over,
leaving it a "small, sparsely-populated appendage of England". The
Glasgow-born academic, who is now based at Harvard University in
Massachusetts, said that Scotland's assets should be broken up, with
the Scottish Parliament closed and the Scottish Football Association
taken over by its English counterpart. However, a leading fellow
historian condemned his views as "tripe", while the Scottish National
Party said they would be "unrecognisable and unsupported by the vast
majority of Scots".

Prof Ferguson said the "ridiculous" Holyrood parliament building -
which he described as a "risible and over-priced folly" - should be
turned into a multiplex cinema or shopping mall, while Rangers and
Celtic should "go where they belong": to "pretty near the bottom of
the [English] Premiership". The Laurence A Tisch Professor of History
at Harvard, who moved to the US from Oxford University in 2002, has
long been an arch-critic of Scotland, but his latest tirade in a
Sunday newspaper marks a new level of hostility towards the country.

Writing from South Africa - to escape his "Caledonian heritage" of
Auld Lang Syne, kilts and whisky - Prof Ferguson said Scotland must
"face up to some harsh realities". He said the country's weather is
"impossibly wet", most of the land north of Loch Lomond is "barren
rock", and said that educational standards have mostly collapsed. He
added: "When it comes to sport - and I do not count the one decent
tennis player - Scotland is the Belarus of the West. In fact, when it
comes to just about everything, it is the Belarus of the West."

Prof Ferguson said Scotland had been cursed by a misplaced
"superiority complex" that it did things better than south of the
Border. He said that rather than a "Scottish cringe", there was a
"Scottish swagger", which he admitted he had been guilty of in the
past. However, the academic said it was time to cut Scotland down to
size. He said: "Those who called it 'North Britain' in the 18th
century had it right."

Prof Ferguson said the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament
after 300 years had created a "glorified county council" rather than
restoring the country's political independence. He said: "The idea
that Scotland might one day 'be a nation again' should simply be
dropped. We had our chance, when everyone else in Europe had it, in
the 19th and 20th centuries. But we calculated that the Union and the
Empire were a better bet than independence. Well, live with it."

Professor Tom Devine, who has just become the Sir William Fraser
Professor of Scottish History at Edinburgh University, dismissed the
diatribe as "ludicrous". He said: "I can only assume he
over-celebrated - although obviously not on whisky - when he penned
this tripe. His ignorance of modern Scotland is so vast as to be
hilarious. Is this really the standard of academic analysis at Harvard?"

The SNP, which last week launched a campaign to attract expatriates
home to help boost Scotland's economy, described Prof Ferguson's views
as "sweeping and hyperbolic". A party spokesman said: "His comments
will be unrecognisable and unsupported by the vast majority of Scots,
particularly those of the diaspora he claims to speak for. If he is
genuinely frustrated by the relative decline of Scotland, why does he
ignore the obvious fact that many of the powers to address those
issues are held in London? A position which he and the failing
Labour-Liberal Democrat Executive in Edinburgh supports."

_________________
William Potter
ScotWatch International
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scotwatch/
Jefferson Republican Party
http://jeffersonrepublicanparty.com
http://jeffersonrepublican.blogspot.com/

Aventinian · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:59 pm Post subject:

Well, for all of that article that wasn't complete sensationalism and nonsense, he actually raises many good points. I certainly understand his frustrations with this place.

The Scottish Parliament building is a disgrace, and really more suited to being a multiplex cinema. I'd be happy to see it sold off. Scotland's economy is a mess thanks to years of socialistic policies made by bodies that don't have the problem of paying for them. As for the football, I'd be quite happy to see Rangers and Celtic play in the Premiership. They might actually get some decent competition then and end the incredibly unfair dominance of the game.

It's funny that they managed to drag up old Tom Devine - notorious arsehole and s***e historian - as the only one who would actually question his views.

Perhaps instead of throwing your toys out of the pram and proving his point about the 'Scottish swagger', you'd do well to acutally face up to those harsh realities that he mentions.

Oh, and despite what some may tell you, Scotland is already a nation (a cultural entity) - and the line is 'be THAT nation again.

SLG · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:28 pm Post subject:

Rinty · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:56 pm Post subject: IN

Aventinian · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:27 pm Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:58 pm Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:00 pm Post subject: Re: IN

Rinty · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:12 pm Post subject: b

Aventinian · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:51 am Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:34 am Post subject: Re: b

SLG · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:36 am Post subject:

Rinty · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:24 am Post subject: and that

SLG · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:08 pm Post subject:

Cheers Rinty. You wonder whether the journalists in question really listened to the speeches.

I do think there is a place for talking Scotland up. I think the cringe does exist and it's good to be positive about ourselves sometimes. But yeah, it needs to be grounded in reality.

sandmountainslim · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:18 pm Post subject:

Compatriots,
I recieved the following reply from Mr Ferguson today, apparently he would like to pretend his rant was nothing more than a New Years joke, afraid to stand by his own words I assume.
Deo Vindice
WP

Dear Mr Potter,

I should perhaps say that, in the true spirit of Hogmanay, the article
in question was not wholly serious. But it did separate out the
thin-skinned from those who know when they are being teased.

Yours sincerely,

Niall Ferguson.

William Potter wrote:

>Professor,
>You are either a total and complete idiot or the worst traitor which
>Alba has ever witnessed, either way I certainly hope you stay at
>Harvard and away from the Scottish people, I condemn you and your
>hare-brained ideas concerning Scottish Nationalism and Independence.
>Sic Semper Tyrannis
>William Potter
_________________
William Potter
ScotWatch International
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scotwatch/
Jefferson Republican Party
http://jeffersonrepublicanparty.com
http://jeffersonrepublican.blogspot.com/

SLG · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:43 pm Post subject:

So he was just doing it for a bit of publicity then. He has definitely sparked a wee bit of debate, mostly encouraging nationalistic feelings. Maybe he's a nat in disguise. I'm sure I've heard that he used to be sympathetic to the cause.

Pip Pip · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:01 pm Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:04 pm Post subject:

Pip Pip · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:08 am Post subject:

azzuri · 'Our Scotland' Fossil Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 3777

why so patronising Pip Pip? I hardly think that SLG is suggesting that an organised letter writing campaign to The Herald is going to achieve the break up of the UK.
_________________
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Possibly the funniest site in the world, 'The Daily Mash' - http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/

Aventinian · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:24 am Post subject:

Herald letter writers of Scotland unite...
_________________
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'Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.'