Thanks for your response and it’s a reasonable one. Of course we need people to be positive about the future of this country, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with expressing anger. Since the SNP’s election triumph of May 2011, which triggered the independence debate, there has been a barrage of ill-informed and often ferocious anti-Scots prejudice in the London media, and very little going in the opposite direction. The SNP have been relentlessly positive in their campaign, seeking to reassure the English people at every stage, which is the correct and statesmenlike thing to do. This has not been reciprocated. Westminster has been feeding the English a steady supply of ‘subsidy junkie’ nonsense, creating a politically-convenient backlash against Scotland. When David Cameron tried to comandeer the referendum I couldn’t contain my feelings, and this poem was the result.

Is it bitter and angry? Absolutely. But surely justifiable?

Scotland’s affairs have been imperially controlled by London for a thousand years (the last three hundred of those being under the guise of the British state) and yet many people in England genuinely seem to believe that we are the priveliged ones and that they are being hard done by. This is an extraordinary distortion, as anyone who even casually glances at a Scottish history book will realise. The ‘petty’ issues which the poem raises are all parts of the ongoing narrative of exploitation. The Unionists’ rejection of Scots’ anger about their situation – the depiction of it as, say, ‘chippy’ or ‘anti-English’ – in itself is a colonial tactic designed to defuse dissent, and has to be challenged.

Secondly, there are a great many Scots undecided about independence. I want to wake them up to the reality, historical and contemporary. Scotland is being puppetered for Westminster’s own ends. Anger is the best way of making people listen. The massive wave of support the poem has had suggests, to me, that there is a huge resorvoir of resentment that Scots feel they are not allowed to express for fear of being called negative or prejudiced. The London media feel no such compunctions. This poem is anti-imperialist, pure and simple, and a roared demand for self-determination.

A.x

It was a fab night at the Forest cafe, liked the sound of the new book (H-Glen gang) made me laugh … the two i was sitting with enjoyed your stuff so it was okay to big you up in the end, left early so didn’t really get a chance to say any of the above face to face, blame headache and lack of fresh air.

Rob

http://theviewingfoots.blogspot.com/

P.S. Did i hear right, you run writing classes every now and again (out in the middle of nowhere in the highlands?) if so would be interested.