SOMETIMES angry or pleading words are just not enough. I refer to the case of Dr Elizabeth Ford, who has been given just two weeks’ notice to leave Scotland, her adopted home for the past eight years, by the UK Home Office.
Dr Ford is an expert in 18th-century Scottish music and is well-known and respected in music, research and writing circles. She is undoubtedly a valued asset to the enrichment of Scottish cultural and musical study. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, she has been told by the Home Office to get out.
Her local SNP MP, Stewart McDonald, has written to the new Home Secretary, Priti Patel, asking for her case to be reconsidered. Well, good luck with that Stewart!
READ MORE: American academic given two weeks to leave UK by Home Office
There have been numerous cases similar to that of Dr Ford’s over the past few years, where valuable, hard-working individuals who were contributing to the Scottish economy and society have been booted out.
In each case earnest Scottish politicians have tried to intervene and prevent glaring injustice from taking place. Usually the answer is an imperious refusal. Know your place, Scotland. Just do as you’re told, Scotland, and don’t be a nuisance.
READ MORE: SNP hit out at ‘inept and cack-handed’ Home Office
Perhaps the time has come for the Scottish Government, in cases like this, to tell the UK Home Office to get stuffed. Perhaps our First Minister should say something like this to the Home Secretary: “We shall not allow you to deport this Scottish citizen or any more of our people. We are going to shelter, defend and protect them with every means available to us because that is the ultimate obligation of every democratic government. And if that means a physical confrontation with your immigration officials then so be it. Bring it on!”
We have tried the pleading and the begging and the humble supplication. For far too long we have meekly accepted whatever diktat emanates from Whitehall.
READ MORE: Colleagues rally around Glasgow University academic after Home Office refusal
There used to be an expression that was recognised the world over to describe someone of strong character, someone who would never accept an injustice or a slight, someone who would never bend the knee to the bully or submit to the oppressor. That “someone” was described as being “as proud as a Scot”.
What has happened to us? Where has our pride gone? Is it not about time we got off our knees and stopped just “rolling over”? Is it not time for defiance, for challenge, for resistance? History shows that sometimes when a country is fighting to preserve its identity or achieve independence, certain laws or conventions have to be questioned or challenged or even simply ignored.
What have we got to lose, the love and goodwill of Boris Johnson (Minister for the Union) and his coterie of dysfunctional losers? I think not.
I have great respect for our First Minister but, sadly, I suspect there’s little chance that she would attempt to defy the UK Home Office in this way. But wouldn’t it be great if she did?
Alex Henderson
Bearsden
WE are on the Literature faculty of the Humanities programme at MIT, and as specialists in 18th-century Scottish studies – with deep and abiding interest in Scottish music of that period – we were shocked at the decision to revoke the residence rights of musicologist Dr Elizabeth Ford, who has made, and is making, a significant contribution to the study of 18th-century Scottish music.
We have both profited from her work: we have attended her lectures at conferences and corresponded with her and she has sent us her unpublished papers when we asked to see them. She is a kind and generous colleague. Her ability to continue her scholarly contributions to the world at her present high level will be seriously impaired if she is uprooted from her sources in this arbitrary, not to say brutal, fashion.
Can you pass on our good wishes to Dr Ford and let us know what we can do to help to have this foolish decision reversed? To whom can we write? What else might we do?
Dr William Donaldson and Prof Ruth Perry
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