THE Declaration series has many contributions from a broad spectrum of people who were keen to give their views on the iconic document.
Author Alexander McCall Smith is one. He said: “I don’t think recognising the Declaration of Arbroath for what it is, as this great heart felt plea, doesn’t necessarily mean that one goes down any particular political road – obviously it is a very, very powerful Declaration in that sense, but it’s a declaration for all people.
READ MORE: Radio shows to explore Declaration of Arbroath impact on anniversary
“It’s immensely powerful, it’s beautiful, it’s heart-felt – you feel that listening to it, there’s a moral force to the wording, it’s one of the great moral declarations I think, one of the great moral declarations of the world.”
Historian and presenter Fiona Watson said: “It is the earliest Medieval European expression of the right to self-determination of a nation, and you know it really deserves to be as well known globally as Magna Carta ... but nonetheless I think the reason it has survived the test of time as a document that inspires, is because in a way it is a very modern document.”
Actor Brian Cox said: “It’s the first protestations of democracy and it’s something that is so inherent in who we are. We do understand the democratic right of people.”
Dauvit Broun, a historian at Glasgow University, said: “It is a political document, and it should remind people of what cannot be denied, which is that Scotland was an independent kingdom and there was a moment in its history where that had to be asserted.”
READ MORE: Billy Kay tells the story of Declaration of Arbroath on anniversary
Tom Walker, from Arbroath, said: “It embodies the feelings of Scots, even those who need not necessarily think that Scotland should be independent ... there’s an independence of thinking that’s in it that I think appeals to the majority of Scots.”
The contributors to the series are: Dauvit Broun, Alexander Broadie, Corey Gibson and Murray Pittock from Glasgow University, historian Fiona Watson, Brian Cox, Alexander McCall Smith, Michael Brown and Roger Mason from St Andrews University, Steve Boardman, Hector MacQueen and Alex Murdoch from Edinburgh University, Graeme Morton from Dundee University and Marjory Harper of Aberdeen University.
Historian Rebecca Wills, Ian Forrester, the UK’s last judge in the General Court of the EU, Eric Milligan, Former Labour Lord Provost of Edinburgh, MSPs Liam McArthur, Linda Fabiani and Graeme Dey, Dr Alan Borthwick from the National Records of Scotland, Jim Lynch, and Jim McGugan, Gordon Casely, and the late Paul Henderson Scott.
Henry Lafayette Collins, Ann Straiton Pearson, Alasdair Nichol, Dan McSweeney, Lesley MacLennan Denninger, Margaret Kennedy, Kyle Dawson, Fr George Rutler, and Richard James Porter. And in Arbroath Tom and Anita Walker,
Dr Nicki Scott of Historic Environment Scotland, and the bairns of Hayshead Primary.
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