The Brown Tartan

Thats the Brown tartan up there and Mac Broon trying to flog a dead horse.Apt ?


Perhaps my favourite Tory Blogger is Croydonian . Let me recommend anyone who wants up to the minute repartee, gossip and sheer good humour to his blog . I look in very day and generally lower the tone . He has been doing all the work as usual comparing the heterogeneous origins of London MPs to the racially selected Scottish ones. I must also recommend Praguetory , another superb commentator whose idea it all was. Hat tips and genuine admiration to both.
http://www.croydonian.blogspot.com/
http://praguetory.blogspot.com/



I decided to have a look at the situation in these parts and took on London: out of 70 MPs I can offer - by birth - seven Scots, two Welsh, two Northern Irish, two Germans, one Egyptian (hello Margaret Hodge), one Swede, one Hollander, one American and one Indian. Beyond that, there are six MPs from the Midlands and 12 Northerners of various stripes. There are a further four from the SE or the West and four who have kept their place of birth well away from the public gaze, so if anyone can help out on the origins of the members for Ruislip, Islington South, Ealing North and Hackney South, I would be much obliged. Unambiguously London born MPs make up 26 of the 70, so on a like for like basis, 91% of Scottish seats have Scottish MPs, whereas only 37% of London seats have London MPs.

Now to me this is all about the end of the Union and the attempt of the Broon to hide it from the English . I had this to say:

Scottish attitudes are driving the Union apart and this process has been going on for a long time.When I am not happily giggling at Lord Snooty and his merry capers in the Beano I leaf through such books as “Death of Tory England” In it there is good chapter ,“celtic fringes”, charting the decline of the Conservative Party ,“Unionist Party”, in this context” in those areas. As late as 1955 the Conservative party had 36 Scottish seats in Scotland, Labour 34. Astounding don’t you think how strong that “British National “sentiment was , and when you think of what British National means now .. Oh dear .

The death of the Conservative party in Scotland especially is bound up with the death of the concept of Union . People who echo Margaret Thatcher ,”every Conservative should be a unionist in their bones” are like Angels beating their wings in a vacuum , to misquote Mathew Arnold.. There is no point applying the kiss of life to a corpse and Margaret Thatcher never believed it anyway. It will be interesting to see if nationalistic themes come to predominate in England , I suspect it will not be quite the same .

. By the way this staggering shift since the 50s is one of many that are dealt with in the book “The Chosen People”. Sometimes we think , by a sort of chronological illusion we are in the same period as the Coronation of our present Monarch . We are more remote than they were from the Victorians . You notice this trick of time when , in Alan Clarks diaries he writes “thirty years ago when the Luftwaffe flew over London “ in 1973!!! Thirty years ago was the Sexpistols. Times they are a changing and the attitude of the English to the UK is about to change . Scotland behaves entirely as you would expect any nationalist sovereign country to.It has felt that way about itself for along time now . It has been hidden from the English because Conservatives are still sentimental about the old days and the Labour party , more venally , need the votes

All of this of course has one important point for us . It is the Laird MacBroon of the clan Broon unwilling to let Scots in England vote on devolution , let is not forget , is in a sticky spot. Let us join with Alec Salmon in shouting “the Mac King has no clothes” He is going to try to govern England with Scottish votes and it will be the greatest imposture on any electorate in this land in all history .

God I do feel sorry for the Scots Tories though , what marvellous people they are .