Every so often I look at BBC Scotland's response to potentially damaging stories for the Labour party and their lack of reporting and being a fair sort of chap give them the benefit of the doubt. I ponder that perhaps these stories that so inflame my pro-Independence chums are not that big a story, that perhaps we're guilty of being desperate to see an institution we're all share holders in, stand up and give us some unbiased reporting on the latest Labour slip up, faux pas, blatant piece of political chicanery or outright corruption. Sadly, we've become so accustomed to being on the kicking end, that just once it would be nice to see the shoe on the other foot and our viewpoint perhaps get a bit of fair coverage.
The Rami Okasha story, where former Secretary for the State of Scotland, Jim Murphy's senior aide actively tried to smear a member of the public for having the temerity to submit a Freedom of Information request on the whole Wendygate £995 donations, I felt was something that at the very least deserved a little bit of the notorious grilling that the beebs permanently aggrieved political journalists and morning disc jockeys dish out to their SNP counterparts. Alas not to be, never reported, nothing to see here move along please. After Baroness Dreich and Douglas Murray's deeply offensive anti-Scottish comments on Radio 4's 'Any Questions' I considered the reaction from the English audience as excellent, the majority of the Sutton Coldfield appeared to cheer Murray and Dreich inane dribblings. My thoughts were along the lines of, good let them believe the bollocks these people have just spouted, let the middle England resentment that all of us Scots are alcoholic, benefit scrounging wannabes living off English largesse flourish, let them foster that discontent and actively end the Union from the English side. Let the insults from English BBC grow to such a crescendo that eventually a Scottish voice in BBC Scotland might say enough is enough. Again not to be.
Which brings us neatly to the latest Iain Gray farrago. It may not quite be the smoking gun we'd want it to be, but it is something that one might expect BBC Scotland to cover following the Sunday Herald, Scotland on Sunday and Sunday Express coverage. When nothing appeared on BBC Radio Scotland morning news or their online presence. I sent a message to a BBC presenting friend asking if the item would be covered in the news. So far, sadly no reply.
I suppose I'm in quite an unusual position in that I have friends who are Montenegrin and I have actually visited this beautiful little country.
My wife and I met brother and sister Milica and Branko on a beautiful beach on the Florida Keys nearly 20 years ago. We all hit it off, finding shared interests and things to laugh at in a sterile straight laced American atmosphere. Particularly a park ranger who looked remarkably like Leslie Neilson of the Naked Gun movies, who gave Milica and I a ticket for 'failure to wear appropriate swimwear in a swimwear designated area'. She was topless, I was err bottomless... Camping, imported beers, racoon dodging and shrimp gorging are some of my memories of our short time together. Their English was excellent, they had driven from Montreal to the Keys in, if memory serves me correctly, a gas guzzling late 1970's Oldsmobile Cutlass sedan, piloted by Milica's Dutch boyfriend, Johan.
They were surprised to discover that a few years earlier we had driven through Montenegro en route to Turkey, driving a tiny Fiat Uno. Yes, we did drive it through the Paris peripherique, and no we didn't bump into any black Mercedes...
Our Montenegrin chums were confounded at the news that an Uno could drive that far but were utterly gobsmacked to discover that we'd not only stopped in Titograd but stayed the night, in what was then a featureless town almost enirely devoted to Soviet era architecture.
Over the years Milica and I have kept up correspondence. Thanks to the arrival of the internet, communication is easier, photos and stories are now shared on facebook and by email. Two years ago family illness prevented us from visiting Branko in Montenegro. Milica lives in the USA these days selling exclusive jewellery for one of those companies whose shiny baubles are beyond the reach of 99% of this planets mortals.
So when Iain Gray, Scotland's own International Man of Misery, put both his size twelves in it by erroneously inferring that Montenegro was involved in 'ethnic cleansing' and made reference to a war crimes tribunal and a peacekeeping mission, I sought Milica's opinion on this slur on her homeland.
She was not best pleased. Milica is not into politics. For your elucidation I've included some of the relevent text from her response below. For the uninitiated CG is an abbreviation of Crna Gora, the real name for Montenegro.
I took a quick gander and that lady from the Embassy had a point. I got a bit irritated when I read his retort so spoke to Mom about it and she said that all it really took was the vote. Yes there had been World Wars, but that didn't have anything to do with independence of CG? What kind of reference was that.. Didn't the rest of Europe suffer through the wars also? geez... The guy yapping on about the crimes and cleansing is an ass who should look up his info a bit better before he spews BS. Uninformed politicians are not my thing as you can see. I usually keep my opinions to myself and don't really like to talk about politics, but when someone is being stupid and since you were asking... :)
Milica goes on to illustrate something that I am sure will bring bells for those of us in Scotland and our relationship with England.
It always irritated me to get clumped in with the neighboring country. I know I don't like to be called something I'm not, which is probably a common thing and is likely what brought about the separation for Montenegrins I suppose... It was one thing to be Yugoslavian. Everyone was united as a country and yet also kept their identity. People were Yugis, and whatever else it was, and nobody really seemed to mind one way or the other, but even then, the people of Montenegro were NOT Serbian. We may have all spoken " Serbo Croation" throughout the country but we all also spoke our own language and were proud to be who we were.
When the country started splitting up, and Yugo was done, the Montenegrins were not going to get lumped in with Serbia. The Montenegrins were not Serbian. There is a difference between them and for some reason Serbians always liked to say that Montenegrins were the same thing, but the folks in CG don't feel that way... Obviously or they would not have voted to separate...
It was quite simple and quite fast when it came down to it. The people were ready for it. They just didn't want to do it like savages and waited out there time, then took back their name. We did have our own Royal family before the country was made one based on external war time negociations, so I still don't understand why the Serbians seem to think that Montenegrins should have remained part of their little clump, but oh well... what do I know...
I still think that guy is full of S--t though...
Really irritates me... He should research the facts and look into who was in Den Hague before before he says stupid crap. I always loved how people would write history as they pleased without all the facts... Sort of why I don't get into politics and I don't usually comment on any of it...
Then again isn't it the winners of a war that write the history books... even if all the details were not correct, and much of what was said during that time was not completely truthful or evenly discussed about ALL sides... BUT I'm not going to get into that now :) It would turn into a long dissertation
The chances are that Iain Gray, in his ignorance intended to sympathise with the people of Montenegro being simply bracketed with other Independent countries who had achieved normalcy. His spin being that Montenegro suffered for Independence, that it didn't just take a bit of baby kissing, some fancy posters and a mere 40 days to settle the will of a people. By conflating that with war crimes, etnic cleansing and UN tribunals he misjudged a wonderful people who have witnessed horrors on their borders, suffered great privation and shown extreme generosity in opening their borders to the suffering. Most of all the Montenegrins I've met are funny and not afraid to poke fun at themselves. Iain Gray owes them an apology for trying to score cheap political points against an opponent who out thinks him at every encounter. Most important of all, when he does find a selection of words that placate Montenegro, BBC Scotland should report it.
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