Stephen Kerr's attack on Scots only exposes his own ignorance

YET again Scotland's languages are making the news.

Following on from Andrew Marr's factually incorrect and ignorantly dismissive comments about Gaelic, for which he eventually apologised, this time it is Scots which is the object of British nationalist ignorance.

The graciousness free zone which is Tory MSP Stephen Kerr has taken to The Times newspaper to complain that a consultation on the Scots language, written for MSPs as part of supporting documentation for the Scottish Languages Bill currently making its way through Holyrood, has been translated into Scots.

Kerr fumed in The Times: "Written Scots really should be left to the pages of Oor Wullie and The Broons, and esoteric authors."

Leaving aside the fact that the poetry of Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns, is written in Scots and as such is hardly "esoteric”, it is telling that Kerr thinks the only suitable use for written Scots is in the pages of comic books - for all that Oor Wullie and The Broons are Scottish national treasures.

READ MORE: Labour told Union Jack displays 'make them look like Ibrox', book says

His comments reflect the ghettoisation of Scottish languages which is typical of British nationalism and the Cringe.

In the case of Gaelic this ghettoisation demands that the language be confined to the West Highlands and Islands and not be recognised and promoted as a national language for all of Scotland.

Even its detractors cannot deny that Gaelic is a full language in its own right, so their demands usually insist on restricting the language to a narrowly defined geographical area where it can safely be ignored.

Kerr reflected this in his comments in The Times when he stated that he would "support any sensible measure to support [Gaelic's] everyday use in areas where it is traditionally spoken."

But presumably not elsewhere - like areas where it was once traditionally spoken but hasn't been for generations, with such areas encompassing almost all of Scotland.

The attacks on Scots have a different focus.

Scots has a wealth of historical pedigree far beyond Oor Wullie These attacks typically insist that Scots is not suitable as a written medium for serious topics and deny the unity of the Scots language.

Scots is seen as fit for comic use because it's regarded as a fundamentally unserious and trivial language, lacking the dignity of English.

This attitude is one of the key foundation stones of the Cringe.

In many cases the detractors of Scots deny that Scots is a language in its own right.

Kerr did not go that far, but he did deny the unity of the Scots language, saying: "But a Scots language can’t be easily defined; it is different for everyone who speaks it depending on where they are from and how they use it.

“It is a living, breathing and vibrant spoken language.

“There are many dialects and versions of Scots. There isn’t a single Scots language, and it is an oral tradition."

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That's linguistically illiterate.

Scots, like all languages, exists as a series of spoken varieties, however that does not deny the fundamental unity of those linguistic varieties which collectively make up the Scots language.

In fact, Scots has linguistic features, in terms of grammar, vocabulary and phonology, which clearly distinguish varieties of Scots from other languages.

There is a sharp and well defined language border between Scots and northern English dialects which closely follows the political border between Scotland and England.

This linguistic boundary is unique in the English speaking world.

The dialects of Scots are actually not that different from one another as linguists judge these things, and the differences between them pale into insignificance compared to the differences between dialects of certain other languages which are universally accepted as single languages, such as Basque, Slovenian, or German.

Stephen Kerr's comments about Scots expose his ignorance of the language (Image: PA) Scots also possesses a huge wealth of written literature which the late Scottish linguist A.J. Aitken once described as far surpassing in both quality and quantity anything else which might be described as an English dialect.

This literature is not confined to poetry although the Scots poetic tradition is especially rich.

Scots was the official language of record of the Scottish state and Scottish courts while Scotland was an independent state.

There was, and still is, such a thing as formal literary Scots. There is no such thing as formal literary Geordie or Cockney.

What Scots lacks is a universally accepted standard written form but that is a political and cultural choice not a linguistic one.

People like Kerr are determined to resist any moves for Scots to gain one because it would allow Scots to come out of the ghetto to which it has been confined by the Cringe and by British nationalism in Scotland.

Trade union boss warned Labour about Union flags at conference

The Labour Party of Keir Starmer, which wraps itself in Union flags and sings God Save the King, supports Brexit and promises to be "tough" on immigration, even as it denies that it is a nationalist party, was warned by a leading trade unionist that its new-found obsession with displays of Union flags would make the Labour conference hall “look like Ibrox”.

Gary Smith, general secretary of the Labour-backing GMB union, reportedly made the remarks at a meeting with Labour Together strategist Morgan McSweeney in the Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow a few days before Labour’s conference in 2022.

McSweeney, who has just been appointed as Starmer's chief of staff, told the gathering that he wanted Labour to put on the most patriotic show possible and sought to turn the conference hall into a sea of Union Jacks.

The comments are reported in a new book by journalist Anushka Asthana: Taken As Red: How Labour Won Big and the Tories Crashed The Party.

Labour: channeling Ibrox and Rangers in order to prove it's not nationalist at all.

That is infinitely more cringey than using the Scots language as a medium for serious writing.

This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

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