View Full Version : Historic chip on the shoulder?
This is a short Video regarding supposed Anit-English Sentiment in Scotland. Well worth watching and your comments welcome.
Personally I think that we in Caithness welcome all who come to live here no matter where they come from.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7874754.stm
K
Personally I think that we in Caithness welcome all who come to live here no matter where they come from.
K
Really, my memory of growing up in Caithness is of fellow pupils and and local families being treated differently and in some ocasions being abused because they come from England.
Lots of Scots living in Barrow and I can honestly say I have never witnessed any anti Scots bigotry. However, when Celtic are playing Rangers the old tribal hatred is very evident.
This is a short Video regarding supposed Anit-English Sentiment in Scotland. Well worth watching and your comments welcome.
Personally I think that we in Caithness welcome all who come to live here no matter where they come from.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7874754.stm
K
In general Caithness appears to have it's fair share of English people, and in general or at least I have never heard of anything untoward going on between them and us, however, North Scotland is a world away from those in the South west & Islands, whereby, there appears to be a hidden secret agenda to rid certain communities of anyone remotely english and where sectarianism and racism are the "order of the day" for many.
Quite apart from the fueding sides between the fans of the teams of certain football clubs there are certain sectors of society who are born to hate the english regardless,
I despair, at some things I have witnessed in the South West, of Scotland.
The people up here are without doubt, friendlier, helpfull and without prejudice as far as I can see anyway.
Have never encountered any sort of racism no matter where we have visited in Scotland, have always found the people to be warm and welcoming and we take no offence at the humorous banter that we have been the butt of at times .In fact, it often adds to the enjoyment.
People always seem to have time for a chat and listening to well informed locals can only add to the pleasure.It makes a pleasant change to find folk that don't ignore you and are happy to share their knowledge and experiences.
peter macdonald
07-Feb-09, 23:23
All racism and sectarianism are to be to deplored without any excuse
But so why only illustrate certain kinds ..Anti English yes should be condemned without doubt but please we should also make sure we dont have outbreaks of the anti Polish /East European gunge that was allowed on the org about a year ago
It was offensive to say the least and if the E word was substituted for the P word then all
of the H word would have been let loose
PM
I have never felt any anti-English vibe in Caithness personally. Everyone here is warm and welcoming. In fact there is much more of a community spirit here than in many other areas I've been.
I have come face-to-face with this kind of racism, for example at one point as a teenager being told I wasnt getting a job because I was English (but being too young and stupid to do anything about it) and I can honestly say its not something I've come across here.
I have never felt any anti-English vibe in Caithness personally. Everyone here is warm and welcoming. In fact there is much more of a community spirit here than in many other areas I've been.
I have come face-to-face with this kind of racism, for example at one point as a teenager being told I wasnt getting a job because I was English (but being too young and stupid to do anything about it) and I can honestly say its not something I've come across here.
Agreed, there appears to an openess and honesty in Caithness, whereby incomers of any race are indeed welcomed and revered.
Caithness is a credit to Scotland, I only wish that there were more places like it.
It is not so bad in the highlands but elsewhere and on certain islands,
english people are abhorred regardless of how long they have been there.
I know for fact, of people who have been harassed and intimated and hounded from there homes, just because they are english.
Quite apart rom the thugs who indulge in bitter sectarian battles of rival sides in football,
the racism suffered by the english and others is Scotland's national disgrace.
It is the fact that no police, or other authority will take the responsibility of putting an end to it, that gets me.
As a whole I think Caithness is fairly tolerant of other nationalities not just ones that are connected to us by land. I have seen many examples of what I would call tongue in cheek anti-english comments but it has usually been associated with banter going both ways way with ginger haired skirted jock comments coming the other way. I think I have only once witnessed true anti-english racism and that was quite bad.
Someone wanted to rip someone elses head off in a takaway in the county because the person in front of them had an english accent. Full marks to the person behind the counter in the takeaway as he managed to calm it all down but I was expecting a full blown physical assault to follow the verbal abuse that was being thrown. The person with the English accents "crime" was being in front of the attacker in the queue. Aparently he thought english folk were not allowed to be served food in front of a local.
From my perspective I take each person I meet on an individual basis and colour or nationality has nothing to do with the opinions I form of that individual. Respect is something that is earned and it is a 2 way street as far as I am concerned. Absoluteley anyone is welcome to come and live and work in Caithness as long as they intend to be a benefit to the area. I dont want to see criminals moving up thinking Caithness is a soft touch.
I never felt anti english sentiments on living in caithness or indeed here in inverness. I think people either like you or they dont and that largely depends on how you are when you are introduced to them. I know fine well the children were picked on because they were english at school but I think they would have been picked on regardless because they were new - interestingly some friends of mine whose children went to the same school had their children picked on too and they were very definitely scottish. Childen get picked on at school because they are fat, wear glasses, speak posh, have red hair, cant play football, .... We need to equip our children to deal with the bullying - however it manifests itself and not be too quick to encourage them to develop their own chip on the shoulder. I am aware that other people's experiences are different but for myself and my family we are happy in our english scottishness, in our muddle of english children and scottish children and our mix of lancashire and scottish words. Our Burns night included both Burns poems, and lancashire dialect poems too - Albert and t'lion for example.
Today myself and my english children are part of a scottish battle re enactment and living history group, we go all over scotland re enacting the Scottish battles of independance... a recipe for anti english sentiments you might think - you would be wrong. Our group has english, polish, south african, and lebanese members paying all sorts of different parts. We cheer for scots and english, we encourage people to remember that Robert the Bruce and William Wallace would be proud of the Scotland we live in today and if we occasionally do two versions of the same battle ( ie: Methven) and the scots get to end the day the victors then its all good fun...
Don’t get me going. How can any country that has to have an Aussie to play it’s National Hero give any other Nationality earache?
Mind you, I suppose it was the nearest the Aussies could get to have revenge for we English getting Mick Jagger to play Ned Kelly.
I’ve only once had an attempt by somebody in Caithness to make a pitiful attempt to “insult” me for being English. I found it rather amusing, especially that the lowlifes concerned would b=have been an embarrassment to any society.
With the incident A9RUNNER described I would guess that if there hadn’t been somebody English there the troublemaker would have taken offence because somebody was taller, or shorter than him, or had the wrong colour eyes or possibly even that somebody came from a different part of Scotland. You’ll always come across one eventually wherever you go. They are what I call the “Who you lookin at” clowns. They’ve not had a good night out unless they’ve managed to have a fight.
Personally, I think the clip is definitely and “ism” desperately searching for a problem it can be applied to.
In every society there are always a small number of people who just have to have somebody to dislike, it makes them feel better about themselves. I feel pity for them, not animosity.
I certainly have not come across any anti-English problems either in Caithness or in the rest of Scotland either.
I’m sure that if I went out of my way to behave in a certain manner towards Scots I could soon discover some. But who would be to blame for that?
If you wish to create an air of being oppressed it’s not very difficult to do, and some manage do it without even trying.
I have come across only 2 anti-english incidents...
One, where I was about to purchase a DVD Recorder @ £450 from a shop in the precinct in thurso, when the customer in front of me dropped a light bulb. The man behind the counter said to her "don't worry love we will sell it to an englishman". She left, I said "I would like to buy that DVD Recorder in the window, but I am english so it may have been dropped" and walked out...
Two, my son was on his works experience at a kichen manufacturers in Wick along with other from his class. When their experience was over all the other boys got a monetary treat except mine. I felt predudice so found out who the others were and they were all local and scottish... I explained the reason as I saw to my boy to which he replied "don't worry, they will probobly end up working there!".
Angel
No wonder Graham Begg is driving a Roller - selling DVD Recorders to English immigrants for £450 a go !
we personally have had no bad experience being incomers or white settlers depending how you see us, but maybe then you can try and explain why an english pupil in a school is told over that they cannot wear a tartan scarf because they are not Scottish.
Also that they should not be celebrating burns night because they are not scottish,
Not all kids are against the English but a majority are. So what happened to being able to freely accept cultures without all the hatred for others.
I am scottish and the oh is english, and whilst in England i never got any hassle for being scottish, unlike comments which have been made against the English up here, and it does go on. Its easy to say it does not if you are not English.
My oh loves Scotland and Caithness and luckily she is thick skinned, but some comments can be harmful. you just need to open your eyes to it and admit it does exist.
I think it depends on the school to be honest router. If your kids are getting picked on then regardless of why that is - it is bullying and you should make sure the teachers are aware and dealing with it they way they should. This year my son was picked to do the Selkirk Grace in front of the whole school and he is very certainly english. He gets absolutely no hassle for his accent at all. The same was not the case for the older boys but they went into P3 and P4 whereas the younger one started in playgroup and just grew up through it. We then left Caithness and moved to inverness when he was nine - therefore repeating the experience of his brothers. Was he picked on for anything at his new school -nope. not cos he was english , wears glasses, is wee, nothing. The discipline in his new school was much better than thatwhich the older boys experienced. That leads me to beleive that it is a school bullying issue and not a racism issue. I dont believe that the children picked on my older boys because they are english and they have an in bred hatred of english people though. I think they would have been picked on for whatever reason the others could find simply because they were new and different. They grew out of it though and once they had their place in the school with their friends and stood up for themselves it stopped. Now my eldest is more a "weeker" than anything else!!!!
Finally and this is a point worth making although dont jump down my throat as its not aimed at anyone here. Having worked with the general public for years and years including for the whole time i have lived in Scotland I have heard negative opinions expressed about english people by colleagues and others. On examination this has without exception been because the said person was nasty, unpleasant, difficult, pompous or rude and not because they were english. Where an english person was pleasant and polite, good humoured and nice I never heard anyone express negative opinions about them. Whilst router says we shouldopen our eyes we should also keep an eye on our behaviour and not be too quick to develop that chip on our shoulders.
Rearing the Bullying issue in a school is a no go area, we have been down that road in england, english kids against english, scots against scots.
My point is simply some see the english in the same light as back in the early 16 centuary.
It should not make a difference to anyone wether the person is english, irish,polish, we all have a right to choose where we live without predjudice.
As i said we have not had any problems our selves , but kids are a different matter and to be honest its the next generation of scots that seem to have a problem.
Our daughter still wears her scarf and celebrates every scottish holiday as she is of English and Scottish descent.
The DVD incident was 5 years ago whereas the other incident last year...
Angel
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