Quote of the day 28th May 2022

“I don’t think it is wise to link Scotland’s politics to those in the island of Ireland.”

“I think it best to let the people north and south in that island find their way to a solution, without a Scottish opportunistic finger being pushed into that complex political pie.”

(Former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars, responding to suggestions that the SNP and Sinn Fein might make common cause, which even some wiser heads in the SNP described as “Not at all helpful.” 

I am inclined to suspect that those Scots like Jim Sillars who are deeply concerned about any such idea may tend to include those who have paid rather more attention to this history of all parts of these islands including their own country than those who think it is a good idea for Scottish and Irish nationalists to make common cause.

There were good reasons why Gerry Adams gave the present First Minister's predecessor a very dusty answer when he tried to suggest that both Ireland and Scotland were fellow victims of imperialism from London. What is known to historians as the "Plantation of Ulster" was organised as a joint Scottish and English venture by a King who had ruled Scotland for decades before he also inherited the throne of England. Nicola Sturgeon would do well to remember how badly Alex Salmond's overtures to Sinn Fein went down.)


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