SCOTS language experts are scunnered with MSPs who signed a pre-election promise to lift up the leid – then ignored a bid to restart a key parliamentary push.
Only the SNP bothered to attend a summit aimed at boosting the language, the Sunday National can reveal.
There’s been no active cross-party group on the Scots language at the Scottish Parliament since session four, which ended in 2016. Re-establishing that is seen as vital to efforts to get better protections and investment in Scots.
South of Scotland MSP Emma Harper invited every single sitting MSP to a meeting aimed at doing just that – but it ended in a single-party summit when no members of any other party turned up.
That’s despite a 60-strong crowd of teachers, writers and other experts logging in for the meeting.
READ MORE: Scots Language Centre to offer new guide in writing in the leid
And it’s despite many of the current MSPs signing a pre-election pledge by the Oor Vyce campaign – which seeks legal status for Scots similar to the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 – that saw each promise to “heize up the profile o Scots in ma constituency, the chaummer, ma pairlamentary office an ayont” and “gie ma support, in principle, tae the idea o legislative action fir tae proteck, empooer an promuive Scots”.
If the other parties don’t get involved, Harper won’t be able to restart the group under parliamentary rules.
She now has until the end of October to win the support that’s needed.
Meanwhile, Scots language champions have hit out at the slight. Poet Willie Henshaw of the Scots Language Society, co-editor of Lallans magazine, told the Sunday National: “I’m really, deeply disappointed. Everybody’s first reaction was to write a furious email and send it to their MSP.
“There are so many young people interested in the language, there is interest across the board. There’s an appetite to get Scots on to the same footing as English and Gaelic. This is really important. If we are going to make progress we have got to have everybody on board.
“We really need to bring pressure. If we can get a status for the language in law it would make it much, much easier to achieve these things.”
And Dr Michael Dempster (above), who is director of the Scots Language Centre and was the first official Scots Scriever, said: “The audience was incredible, the people who came along. The vast majority were educators, academics, from all dialect regions and beyond – aw the airts and pairts. We had a lot from Education Scotland and a lot of creatives working with Scots in arts, heritage and culture.
“That incredible response was from people who are all really passionate about wir language and in taking it with us into the future. Sadly we didn’t get the cross-party MSPs turning up that would be required to reinstate the group.”
On the Oor Vyce signatories who stayed away, he said: “We might have expected some of them to turn up. This is the language of 1.5 million people in Scotland. It’s a significant and legitimate concern for everybody’s constituents. It’s quite surprising that it isn’t attracting support, cross-party.”
Harper’s invitation read: “I was keen to re-establish the CPG [cross-party group] in session five but Covid-19 prevented me progressing. Given the Scottish Government’s commitment to bringing forward legislation on the Scots language, now is a guid time tae re-establish the CPG. It will help shape and inform government policy in relation to the Scots leid and a Scots Language Bill.
“The process for re-establishing the group requires that I call a first meeting with interested MSPs, the proposed secretariat and members.
“In order for a cross-party group to be approved by the Parliament’s Standards Committee, it must first have members from all of the parties represented on the Parliamentary Bureau. I have contacted colleagues and have some interest and hope to see cross-party representation at the first meeting.”
The Sunday National asked each of the Scottish Parliament’s parties why their members hadn’t attended the meeting. Only the Scottish Greens replied, saying that while new Highlands and Islands MSP Ariane Burgess had signed the Oor Vyce pledge, she had been unable to attend the talks on August 26.
Other non-attending signatories from across the chamber included Finlay Carson and Alexander Burnett (above) of the Conservatives, Mercedes Villalba of Labour, Liam McArthur of the LibDems and Lorna Slater of the Scottish Greens.
The news follows the Friday-night launch of the Scots Language Centre’s Scots Warks project, which includes guidance for learning to write in Scots plus new works by writers and performers such as Iona Fyfe, Antonia Uri and Gerda Stevenson.
Available online, the move is inspired by the August 2020 controversy surrounding Scots Wikipedia, which revealed that most of the content was written by an American with little experience of spoken Scots. Much of that has now been addressed through weekend “editathons”.
Dempster said: “Writin in oor language haes a continuous seiven hunner year tradition an A’m hairtened tae see sae monie fowk continuin it the day. Scots Warks haes been sic a braw experience bringin thegither sae monie participants an braw airtists fae aw the dialects tae tak sic a deep luik at the challenges an sheer joy o writin Scots.”
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