Anyhoo, I spotted something yesterday that seems to have been lost in the plethora of St Andrew's day malarky of Scotland Bills, hilarious and terrifying Wikileaks and the ongoing snowpocalypse.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, she of President Bill and the current US Secretary of State, sent Scotland a Happy Saint Andrew's Day card on behalf of the American people.
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Scotland as you celebrate St. Andrew’s Day on November 30.
Scotland’s unique culture and traditions have long been admired around the world, and the special ties between our two nations date back to the founding of the United States. From Patrick Henry and John Paul Jones to Davy Crockett and Neil Armstrong, trail-blazing Scottish-Americans have helped shape the history of our country in profound ways.
Today, the United States and Scotland continue to share strong ties rooted in our common ancestry, values, and interests. Our people work together on many of the most pressing challenges of our time, and both houses of the United States Congress have Friends of Scotland Caucuses to further promote friendship and cooperation between Scotland and the United States.
I wish the people of Scotland a joyous St. Andrew’s Day celebration and a successful year ahead. We look forward to further deepening our friendship throughout the future.
Now colour me sentimental, but I was really chuffed by that random act of pleasantness. Naturally I'd have been happier if she given us a wee row of kisses at the bottom, however, the sentiment is there and that's enough for me. Given the madness emanating from the Megrahi affair, I found it comforting that the USA could be bothered to extend a friendly hand for shaking. Naturally this err positive story didn't impel the Scottish media to give it much coverage as they were universally writhing in paroxysms of orgiastic delights over the fact that we can now set our own speed and alcohol limits and shock horror oh and ban neds from shooting drug dealers with air rifles. Only STV managed a bit of online presence and covered the story, highlighting the fact that this greeting was delivered by telegram. The site of a young feller wading through the snow to deliver this missive to his Eckness fair cheered me up no end.
It was particularly nice, as some of our blessed Unionist dependence junkies have decided to add the Megrahi effect to the Gary McKinnon extradition bollocks mix and come up with the entirely without-any-foundation claim that McKinnon will be extradited to the USA. This despite the intervention of that one eyed bloke who used to be Prime Minister's intervention, who, fair do's to him, plead for McKinnon to serve any sentence in the UK.
My local MSP Elaine 'Tiny Tears' Murray in The Herald
was front and centre with her own distinctive brand of caterwauling. “There is no doubt that Kenny MacAskill’s flawed decision to release the Lockerbie bomber damaged our international relationships, but it is important to establish that it did not have an impact on other specific cases.”
Now that sounds to me like she's calling for an investigation into the Megrahi release which will display concrete examples of how compassionate release equates to 'damaged international relationships. In the words of the Wendy, bring it on. It'd be nice to see Tiny Tears doing something worthwhile for a change, she's been gulping at the public teat in Dumfries since 1999 and has exactly diddly squat to show for all her harpy like shreiking.
Anyhoo back to the 'telegram' from Mrs Clinton. She makes reference to trail-blazing Scottish-American's Patrick Henry, John Paul Jones, Davy Crockett and Neil Armstrong. John Paul Jones and Armstrong are well known for having Dumfries and Galloway backgrounds. I might claim Davy Crockett as a D&G boy, although I can only loosely presume he is connected to Crocketford... Patrick Henry, on the other hand is someone I'm not too aware of, other than his "Give me Liberty or death." speech he's never really registered on my Scottish connection radar. So I was delighted that a wee internet trawl revealed that his father was from Aberdeen and attended the city's Kings College before heading off to Virginia as an, ahem, plantation owner...where young Patrick was born.
There's a fabby wee biography about the chap here I particularly like his role opposing the Stamp Act which revolted against the Westminster Parliament's claim of authority to tax the colonies...sounds familiar! One of his more famous orations, the Ceasar-Brutus speech, inferred the British king was facing assasination if he continued to quash American liberty, I'm sure things don't have to go that far today, after all we live in a democracy, don't we?
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