At the risk of (again) being accused of anti Scottish tendencies I draw bloggees attention to an article in the
Observer about
a talk to be given, in Edinburgh, by Stuart Cosgrove (a Scot despite his Irish name) in Edinburgh. In this he is going to condemn the Scots' 'love and indulgence of the culture of poverty' which he claims is deeply embedded in the nation's collective psyche. And I do agree with his comment that 'The Scots are very tough on success' (anticipating, no doubt the drubbing at the hands of the Irish Rugby XV yesterday) 'They prefer failure-whether that's the failure of the national footbll team, the failure of industries, the failure of the parliament. They almost obsess over it. They also love the culture of poverty' Too many Scots writers portray a povery stricked Scotland: ' There is hardly one film made in Scotland that is not cast in some dreary, awful, urban deprived social landscape. I think this is a failure of the imagination'
Many people will,I fear agree with this self analysis but the people of the Merse won't mind too much. They are Borderers first and Scots a long way second. Until at least Scotland beats someone at something.
