Remember at this time last year, unionist commentators couldn’t contain their rather inappropriate jubilation at the TV pictures of people in Scotland lining the streets to see the Queen’s final journey, or queueing up at St Giles’ Cathedral to pay their respects? This was, we were excitedly assured, absolute proof that there exists in Scotland a “silent majority” who love Our Precious Union and who quietly seethe away on a daily basis at an SNP government and a wider independence movement that Don’t Represent The Real Scotland. It was wishful thinking on steroids, of course – if any such silent majority existed, it would show up in election results and there wouldn’t have been a pro-indy government since 2007. Even silent people are perfectly capable of going to a polling station and using a pen or pencil to mark a cross on a ballot paper. (Incidentally, I was one of the people who lined the streets last September, but that didn’t make me a silent Brit Nat.)
But this unionist infatuation with the idea that anecdotes or things you see happen on the TV somehow trump election results is, I think, the explanation for their weird meltdown over the booing at Hampden last night. Spontaneous episodes of that sort are supposed to affirm their belief thaf ‘The Real Scotland Is Decent And British’, but instead it went completely the other way. That bothers them on a visceral level, and they need to find An Explanation For It. Naturally they’re going for the lazy option of “it’s just a tiny minority of idiots whipped up into hatred of the English by the SNP”, but not even they really believe that. It didn’t sound much like a tiny minority, did it? I could barely even hear the tune over the booing (I’m using the word “tune” in the loosest sense).
To be clear, I do not approve of the Hampden crowd booing other countries’ anthems. I was there in person in 2021 when the Czech anthem was booed, and I said at the time how much I didn’t like it. Exactly the same principle applies to the English anthem. But by the same token, I’m realistic enough to know that Scottish football supporters booing the English anthem is an unstoppable force of nature, and getting overly worried about the fact you can’t stop it is about as daft as worrying about the fact that you can’t stop pantomime audiences from booing the Evil Stepmother. Unionists are incapable of putting it in that proper perspective because they didn’t hear the English football anthem being booed, they instead heard the British political anthem about the British King being booed, and according to unionist ideology Scots are supposed to secretly adore Britain and His Majesty.
BBC unionist propagandist Nick “he didn’t answer” Robinson got so frantic about the whole problem that he suggested England should stop using God Save The King as their football anthem because it’s an “invitation for the Tartan Army to boo in order to demonstrate that they are loyal to Scotland”. That was a somewhat puzzling comment, but I think what it’s supposed to mean is that the Tartan Army would boo any anthem England come up with, but that wouldn’t actually bother Robinson one jot as long as it’s not God Save The King – the booing of which is apparently intolerable to his dignity as a Brit and thus must be stopped by any means. Why is it intolerable? Robinson’s official version is that it needlessly creates a false impression that Scottish football fans dislike the UK, whereas in fact they adore the UK and would never boo anything British unless they were forced into it. The unofficial version is that he’s worried the fans were booing God Save The King precisely because it’s the UK anthem and he would rather not be confronted ever again with that disquieting possibility.
It reminds me of one of the lowest points in the history of BBC Sport, when political impartiality was completely tossed aside to allow the Belfast-born (ahem) football commentator Alan Green to launch into a lengthy ranting monologue about Scottish supporters booing God Save The Queen at the Scotland v England Euro 2000 qualification play-off in late 1999. He made clear that he was only angry about the incident because “the last time I checked, that’s still the anthem of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a part”. So in other words, he wasn’t bothered about Scots booing the anthem of another country, but expected the English anthem to be an exception to the general rule because it doubles up as the political anthem of the sovereign state Scotland is part of, even though it wasn’t being used in that context. As it happens, Alan and Nick, Scots are quite capable of booing the United Kingdom anthem when it’s actually being used as the United Kingdom anthem, because at least half of us don’t want Scotland to be part of the United Kingdom. But I must say that as special pleading goes, saying that Scots still have to treat GSTK with reverence even in the context of England nicking it and using it as their anthem alone, really takes the biscuit. That arrogance would in itself probably warrant at least a few jeers.
The supreme example of this double standard is Ally McCoist blasting Scotland supporters as “SNP fans” for booing the English anthem (a nakedly political comment that undoubtedly oversteps the mark for any sports broadcaster) and then openly admitting that he lustily sang along with the English anthem “because I’m British”. I mean, it’s one thing treating the opposing side’s anthem with the appropriate respect, but singing it yourself and believing you’re somehow singing for your own country in doing so? It’s just bizarre. Let’s hope people don’t react by calling him a “Tory fan”, but he wouldn’t have much credibility in complaining if they do, because they’d just be following his own logic to its inexorable conclusion.
* * *
I have an article on The National’s website about the new Find Out Now poll which shows a pro-independence majority – you can read the article HERE.
