@jeanne-mayell We followed what had been happening in Quebec referendums and we have such empathy for the people there, there is nothing worse for a culture to be crushed by another culture. London banned our Highland Dress and bagpipes because the Jacobian rebels defied the English Redcoats and continued to show Scotland's culture loud and clear, they were hunted down and jailed or shipped abroad as indentured slaves by England and over the years unionists have tried to crush our identity and they have over the centuries eroded our culture. The biggest sadness is Scottish born in the Central Belt of Scotland to think its a waste of money for Gaelic to be continued taught in school and also to be put on road signs etc. Considering Gaelic is our oldest language many Scots fought back in support for continuation of Gaelic which is mostly used in the Highlands and Islands. In Moray they are teaching one of our other languages in school, Doric, that was the Scottish language my dear Mum spoke from that area Aberdeenshire etc.
In the central Belt it is Scots tongue that we speak yet over the years we were made to speak 'proper English' to be understood. Many of us now over the last number of years write in Scots on the likes of Twitter and Facebook, I guess the bloodline of rebellion is always there.....lol. Yes, it certainly sound like there are many similarities between Quebec and Scotland in the oppression of our cultures. I hope Quebec never gives up, we know Boris Johnson and his team are already plotting the takeover of Scotland, next year a new building opens that is supposed to replace a small Scotland Office which was the go between office in Scotland that whichever Secretary of State for Scotland would work for Scotland in Westminster, behind our backs they were planning out this massive building that will house over 3000 staff with duplicate offices that are in Westminster with Conservative Gov in London basically running Scotland from this office, more or less making our elected Scottish Parliament redundant, the London Gov have renamed it UK government Office in Scotland instead of Scotland Office.
The powers also that were due to come back to Scotland which before we joined EU belonged to Scotland, our fisheries and agriculture etc has been stolen by Westminster along with other powers belonging to us. They are bit by bit taking back the powers we have as a devolved Nation with one objective, to stop our Independence and to kneecap us, trap us, chain us to the Uk and under London dictatorship. We are very scared Jeanne, for us but mostly for our young Scots. Next year is our Scottish Government Election, if Nicola and our SNP Government win majority of seats which the data seems to show that will be our mandate to have another Independence Referendum and that London cannot stop us no matter what they say, in the Scotland Act 1989, Scots were made the Sovereignty of Scotland so it is our decision and in International Law ever peoples have the right to self determination and no country can stop another country from having a referendum when the majority is showing over a period of time above 50%.
It is not just Scotland that is moving more towards Independence, Wales Independence movement has grown quite a bit after Brexit and the stealing of their devolved powers too. Northern Ireland was looking to have a referendum on the reunification of Ireland and N.Ireland leaving UK especially when both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump weren't caring if there was a hard border in N.Ireland which may bring back old troubles there. Joe Biden being half Irish is very passionate like the democratic Party in protecting the Good Friday Agreement so its possible that this might appease our Celtic cousins in N.Ireland. That would be something, big bullying England reduced to Little England and no more on the World Stage.
@lovendures, oh I am jealous now;-) Thank you! Back to Ireland first and then Scottish highlands, Skye and the coast for whale watching with my 6 year old ❤️
Here's hoping we get to live again and Covid will fade away.
One of the most difficult things in tracing back one's family names is because they were stripped of the clan's surname, as in the case of my own ancestors.
The surname 'Laird' was taken, and forever used after for fear of being found out and prosecuted by the English maybe, even after immigration to the 'Colonies'. They must've murdered alot of the oppressors (?)
So the rumor is the surname was McCleod ("There can be only one" ? lols), even though my mother and grandmother were still tight lipped about it after all the time had past ... their family secrets.
And that was just one branch of the Scots ... there were more, and probably the tangle will be forever obscured in the mists of time. I suppose that 'Ancestry' might be a good source to check out, and could render some light on the ship's records, etc.
I do have Native American ancestry as well, and that is a really difficult path to source, because of all the Troubles, and lack of records.
When once I worked for a very English geneologist, she asked me about my lineage, and when I told her she said "Oh no, two of the worst!" Hahaha. (I didn't last too long with that).
I'm going to try that shortbread recipe as well, it sounds wonderful .... ?
@elainesk tomorrow Scotland votes on the question of its independence. What is the mood right now and how are people feeling? I understand that the Scottish leader’s popularity has increased during the pandemic because of her honesty and compassion for everyday people.
@Polarberry @bluebelle @dina .
@jeanne-mayell. My gut feeling is that Scotland will eventually gain independence. Most Scots opposed Brexit and Scotland has been hurt financially because of it. I don’t know if the Scots can make the break happen yet, but Scotland is on my personal radar and there is a fierce independent streak there.
@jeanne-mayell Hi Jeanne, it's been a very tense run up to this election and in last year the attempts by unionist parties and media across UK to smear Nicola has been appalling. The Westminster Gov do not play by the book as Europe found out and the stronger the support for Independence have grown the dirtier UKGov have played like interfering in our devolved decisions which is breaching the agreement on devolution. Nicola's biggest enemy has come from the previous First Minister Alex Salmond who to cut a long story short was investigated for 2 accusations of sexual misconduct and where mistake were made in the handling of the case Nicola as FM as law stated was not involved and let the enquiry go ahead and play out. He was found not guilty but on his own admission admitted to inappropriate behaviour towards female staff while FM.
He started up his own party for Independence called Alba and his supporters have spent last year joining the unionists trying to bring Nicola down.
The strength and resilience of Nicola has warmed people to her who supported unionist parties, she has faced misogynist leaders of the other parties in TV debates and came off as winner because there isn't anything she doesn't know about politics, economy and honesty. Her handling of Pandemic and standing up to Boris Johnson in at times handling Covid in a different way to England, has again seen Johnson's media attack her brutally but she stood firm and we are doing well. She has not even had a long weekend break throughout, days off here and there but her priority was our health and safety.
She is very grounded, has never forgotten her roots and 7 years on as FM she is still the most popular leader in UK parties. Wales is a also now increased their want for Independence because like Scotland, England's decision on Brexit has harmed devolved Nations trade especially fisheries. Northern Ireland's peace is being tested because Johnson broke his promise to Northern Irish that there would be no border between then and Republic of Ireland in the EU.
Westminster fears that this time, Scotland through a good result in Scottish Election if Scottish National Party and Nicola get a majority seats for Government that Johnson cant refuse Scots a Indy referendum in eyes of International law.
@bluebelle l so hope and pray you are right, the union is broken beyond repair but while the UKGov in England has spread myth for decades that Scotland was too poor to ever go it alone, they had a report written on Scotland's wealth in the discovery of oil back in the 70s at a time Scots were fighting UKGov for our own Parliament and powers. The Conservatives in power back then feared if Scotland knew how wealthy Scotland now was, we would go for Independence and win so the UK Gov filed the report away in secret for 30 years (worth reading McCrone Report) and then spread the lie it was England that supported Scotland even though to this day, all Scotland's wealthy resources help prop up UK.
They aren't our neighbours, England is our oppressors and English people believe the myth that we are subsidised. The penny hasn't dropped as to why UKGov playing every dirty trick under sun to stop 'scrounging' Scotland from leaving. Our Scottish Gov needs a majority seats to be a strong message that we want Indy and England can't stop us but we fear of interference in the election results to stop that happening. Nicola has massive support so we pray that if we get a majority of power, we can start journey to leaving UK. Even if we get a minority, we would be in shared power again with Scottish Greens who are also pro Independent but a majority is what Nicola and SNP really need.
Just joining my virtual Scots family here.? I am a fifth generation direct descendant of the David Lindsay, the First Earl of Crawford.
Forgive me if this seems off-topic, but I want to hear from someone from Scotland on this subject. Do you consider Scots to be a distinct language, or just a dialect of English? And do you think Scots and Scottish Gaelic should have any official status in an independent Scotland?
I’m not Scots though that is a good chunk of my heritage, but here’s an excellent video from a linguist I follow on YT. https://youtu.be/8X5zX3yVoiQ