Scotland the Free

Is it really too cynical to think that the most successful politicians are those that find the way to lie most seductively ?

Maybe it has been the same in all times, in all countries.

Right now, it's hard to avoid the sound of English politicians snarling about Scotland's independence. Though why they feel anyone would actually CHOOSE to be dependent on them, I am at a loss to say.

Although I have never been a fan of carrying dirks in my socks, and don't care much for Auld Rabbie, Burns seemed to have it depressingly right in the 1790s, and it feels no less right now. f the Scots fall from the mendacious guff of the English, they deserve all they inevitably get.

Here's Rabbie. Which bit was he wrong about ?

Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory;
Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name,

Sae fam'd in martial story.
Now Sark rins over Solway sands,

An' Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark where England's province stands-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! 

What force or guile could not subdue,
Thro' many warlike ages,
Is wrought now by a coward few,
For hireling traitor's wages.
The English stell we could disdain,
Secure in valour's station;
But English gold has been our bane-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

O would, or I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay,

Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace!

But pith and power, till my last hour,
I'll mak this declaration;
We're bought and sold for English gold-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!