Scots snub jubilee and monarchy

“The monarch we are supposed to celebrate this odd weekend has no claim to the throne of Scotland. She is not, and has never been, my queen,” Ian Bell, a leading Scottish Republican, said on Saturday.

Bell’s remark became real over the past two days as eyes turned to scant Scottish jubilee parties.

Reports said street parties were 95-fold less in Scotland than in England while 20 out of the overall 100 street parties held in Scotland were organized by the Orange Order, with direct funding from the Labour party.

Scots’ indifference to Jubilee celebrations, as Prof John Curtice from the Strathclyde University, was symptomatic of the population seeing their identity at odds with endorsing Queen Elizabeth as their monarch.

“We know that Scotland feels predominantly Scottish, although most people have some sense of British identity, but for most people that is secondary … The monarchy isn’t regarded as a particularly Scottish institution, it’s a British institution,” Curtice said.

Indeed, past polls show the Scots’ feeling about Britain and its monarchy even tends toward hatred.

A YouGov poll in May found that 44 percent of Scottish people associated the union flag with “racism and extremism.”

Another study by the think tank British Future showed in April that only 41 percent of Scots approve of the queen.

All that serves to undermine the myth of a Scotland united with Britain under a single monarch.

Green Scottish parliament member Patrick Harvie put it all in a nutshell last week.

“Sticking to the hereditary principle in the 21st century is bound to seem bizarre to many Scots,” Harvie said.

AMR/HE

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