WHO can fail to be moved by The National’s English readers on the jingoistic imperialism of the mass culture of the London-based media, whether it be sport or rabid right-wing politics in general?
Reader Charlie Clarkson says “Supporters’ racism makes me ashamed to call myself English”. He needn’t be. The English team and manager conducted themselves honourably. The manager condemned racist thugs and did his best to publicly console his heartbroken black player for missing a penalty. He supported bending the knee and bound his team together honourably.
Yes, most Scots gleefully supported Italy. ‘Mon the Glesga “Tallys”. Which child didnae like ice cream and fish suppers? Many teenagers misspent their youth in the Glesga Italian cafes, such as the much-loved Jaconelli faimily, frae Queens Cross, Maryhill, roon the coarner frae Firhill Road and Partick Thistle fitba ground. A friend of mine was once engaged tae a lassie frae Turin in northern Italy, where 17th-century Scottish sojers stayed and never came back. The local pub has a painting of Bruce at Bannockburn above the bar and a statue tae the man himself in the skwerr, or piazza. Most Scots Italians came to work in the forestry commission at the turn of the 20th century and were able to save enough to buy or rent a cafe or chip shoap. Like the Scots Asian community, they worked hard and “exploited” their ain families, who also worked hard for their inheritance.
The Polish community are also renowned as hard workers who came here, with Lithuanians, at end of the 19th century and as gallant patriot exiles during World War Two. Many intermarried and became Scots. The new influx of Polish workers have also done them and Scotland proud. The large Jewish community, fleeing the Czars, settled in the Gorbals, using their clothing skills and commerce to move from the overcrowded Gorbals to Newton Mearns. We may not agree with Scots Zionists over the settlement of the former British “Protectorate” of Palestine, but understand their great sorrow of misplacement and brutal treatment all over Europe and not just from the Nazis.
The greatest influx of all was by our Celtic cousins from across the watter, also fleeing persecution and hunger. Scotland and Ireland have long had mass cross-migrations. The hungry Irish of the 19th century came before the actual famine, which affected Scotland too, especially in the emptied Highlands. The invention of the screw propeller and cheap passage saw them being exploited as cheap labour during the Industrial Revolution.
Families that for generations worked as seasonal farmhands came to stay permanently and suffered from the industrial unrest and were used, deliberately, to depress already low wages and compete for accommodation in the worst overcrowded slums in Europe. About 20% of the hungry Irish were Protestant, who were not accepted by the middle class “English” churches in Glasgow.
It is also pointed that the Bruce’s came from Normandy and Brittany in roughly the same time scale as the Irish. To say they and the Scandies, etc, are not Scots would be just as racist. Everyone who has ever met the English Scots for Independence knows very well the class difference between them and the over-privileged class of moneyed English settlers, whose children are just becoming as integrated as the rest of us.
Yes, Charlie Clarkson and the rest of the decent English people, we do respect and love you despite the nasty hype of the fitba nationalist media. We have oor ain bigots too who deserve to be better educated on their own exploitation and the clan of Joack Thamson.
Donald Anderson
Glasgow
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