Scotland and its people can stop you in your tracks and make you think about the world, our place in it and how others see it so differently from ourselves. I’ve just had such an experience following a cup of tea with my neighbour and builder Malky. Now you have to understand, where I live, builders are like hen’s teeth, they don’t really exist in this part of the country. When your builder says he or she is coming round, everything else is immediately cancelled or rescheduled. That’s just the way it is north of the Highland Boundary Fault. Register now with your local builder and they’ll try and get to you before Christmas. If it’s a plumber you need, they’ll put you in their diary for some time before next Easter.
It’s Highland living
You get used to it after a while. Malky texted to say he was coming on Saturday, and I immediately cancelled my participation in a sponsored walk up Ben Wrackie. Ben Wrackie, our local hill will always be there as far as I’m concerned, Malky’s a different kettle of fish. ‘Carpe Diem’ as they say in Glasgow, or was it Rome?
The job was to replace a bathroom window, so it took a couple of hours and a few trips to collect bits and bobs to complete the job. Towards the end of the morning, I offer him a cuppa, he gladly accepts, and so we have a few minutes sitting in the back garden in the sun. He then tells me a tale of his trip to London to see a rugby match (Glasgow Warriors vs Saracens). Now I’m not sure how long ago this trip took place, but the trip is seared in Malky’s memory. The conversation that takes place goes something like this:
Me: So, what did you make of London then?
Malky: Oh Charlie. We got off the train and had a hotel that was five miles from the station. The ground was another five miles beyond that, so we jumped in a taxi, dumped our stuff in the hotel and we were charged £85 – £85 for the trip! Ten miles!
Me: That’s London prices Malky!
Malky: We ended up in Golder’s Green, looking for a curry. We found a restaurant serving Kosher curry. One of the lads was wearing his kilt. You know, the full outfit. I couldn’t get over the sight of the local Hasidic Jews with their curled sidelocks pointing at our mate in his kilt. They thought we were strange! It was too busy for me. I was glad to get home.
This conversation got me thinking. The gap between life in Highland Scotland and London is huge. For some Highland people, London may as well be on a different planet, no more accurately, it is on a different planet. It appears that way to Highland people who take a trip there.
Now I know what you’re going to say. Take a thoroughbred East Ender, put them on a plane to Glasgow followed by an onward flight to Barra, and sit back and watch culture shock unfold in front of your eyes.
This is the challenge we face when we talk about the ‘United Kingdom’.
Need for common goals
We don’t appreciate the diversity of the country – our country. We need some kind of ‘National Mixing’ opportunity to bridge the divide. I hesitate to talk about ‘National Service’ at this juncture but that served previous generations well. At least there were opportunities to mix with people from different classes and different parts of what purports to be one country. Otherwise, we live in ignorance of each other or worse, observe people rioting in faraway towns and think, ‘’Thank God I don’t l live there! I have nothing in common with these people. Look at how ignorant they are. No, we’re not citizens of the same place.’’
So, here’s a challenge for the new UK government. Once you’ve sorted out the rioters and the armchair rioters who were encouraging others to take to the streets and fight everyone they came across, perhaps we need to think about creating conditions where we can work together on tasks in the national interest, with a common goal, in well-mixed social groups to give us opportunities to create a better future than the one full of prejudice and strife. It’s not going to be easy but it’s what you promised us with your election slogan.
‘Change!’.
You said it, we badly need it.
More in lifestyle.
