Report to the People
15th November 2004
National Anathema
With
acres of newsprint devoted to the controversy over banning smoking in pubs and
the prospect of more to come when the legislation begins its parliamentary
journey, I will spare you yet another examination of the plans’ merits or
otherwise.
Besides,
there’s hardly been a shortage of alternative talking points in the last week.
On
the world stage, Yasser Arafat’s death triggered political intrigue among
Palestinian powerbrokers in the Middle East.
On the Scottish stage, Tommy Sheridan’s shock resignation triggered
political intrigue among MSPs and the press in the Scottish Parliament.
And,
on the musical stage, some MSPs called for a nationwide debate on a new national
anthem. This follows the opinion of
top lawyers (no wonder, if you’ll forgive a bit of politics, it takes so long
to get murderers jailed if that’s what the legal profession is up to) that the
Scottish Parliament can pass a law to replace “God Save the Queen.”
Don’t
ask me what MSPs are doing spending their time on this. I
would have thought there were one or two more pressing matters facing the
country at the moment.
And
don’t ask me how they would choose either.
Would we get a “pop idol” phone vote on Saturday night TV?
Or have a Committee to write one of these colourless modern anthems so
beloved of what we politely call “emerging nations”?
There’s
only one anthem for a country which has politicians ready to waste time on this
– “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.
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