John Cooper is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Dumfries and Galloway.
Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, with the mighty Castle at its summit and the storied Palace of Holyroodhouse at its foot, has many architectural delights – there’s even a house with a cannonball embedded in its walls.
But squatting there is also the Scottish Parliament building, for my money a concrete bunker inside; a jarring jumble outside.
I said so on X, formerly Twitter, in response to claims the building was once controversial but was now ‘considered one of the most treasured and beautiful buildings in Britain.’
What followed is deeply instructive about Scottish Nationalism, as unlovely as the Parliament’s bare concrete interiors.
But that ‘controversial’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting. As a journalist I lived and breathed it… costed at about £10m to £40m, the building finally weighed in at a whopping £414m.
Its Spanish architect, Enric Miralles, died of a brain tumour before completion, and it emerged he had been inspired by upturned boats on a beach – a beach in Northumberland, not Scotland…
My post on X moved Scottish Nationalists to light fiery crosses in the glens and come after me.
‘Joe Brown’ said I had nothing positive to say about Scotland, and questioned why I live and work here. So many so-called civic nationalists want to eject people with whom they disagree.
‘Staples’ – amazing how many of these people are anonymous – suggested I preferred the ‘rotting – in all senses – Westminster, which requires £BILLIONS spent on it.’
And so on. And on…
In short, the Holyrood building may be an overpriced pile of bin-end junk entirely out of context with its historic surrounds, but for Nationalists, it’s our overpriced pile of bin-end junk.
Those of us who bear the scars of the deeply divisive 2014 Scottish independence referendum know all about the internet abuse meted out to opponents by what became known as the CyberNats, but the roots of their bile run deep.
George Orwell outlined it all in his Notes on Nationalism in 1945. ‘The smallest slur upon his own unit, or implied praise of a rival organisation, fills him with uneasiness which he can only relieve by making some sharp retort.’
The sharp retorts this time didn’t include the old chestnut ‘House Jock’, but Quisling was lobbed my way.
I filled in one of those questionnaires we politicians get from time-to-time, and under ‘What keeps you awake at night?’ I replied ‘the thought of Scotland being ripped from the Union by people who think it acceptable to liken others to a Norwegian Nazi collaborator.’
Independence would mar the life chances of Scottish children yet unborn, and would maim and belittle Britain.
Yet the threat remains real, despite the convincing defeat of the separatists in that 2014 vote.
John Swinney, Scotland’s First Minister, has lately been seeking common cause with Welsh separatists.
He even travelled to Dublin – despite having no foreign affairs remit – at British taxpayers’ expense to foment the break-up of Britain with Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Féin with a vile sideline in praising terrorist killers.
The Nationalist narrative is that the break-up of the United Kingdom is inevitable. It is not, but it will take work.
And I fear new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, all hands-in-pockets blokey charm, is not the man to put in that effort.
He has vague ideas about more devolution, but as Scotland’s Parliament has shown, devolution can be suborned.
Intended to put decision making closer to the people of Scotland, the SNP have instead bent Holyrood to their separatist agenda, platforming their kooky ideas about gender and soft-touch justice while school standards slip and the very fabric of the country crumbles as local authorities are starved of cash.
The SNP talk of the will of the Scottish people but ignore the will, so clearly expressed in 2014, to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Fellow Conservatives at Holyrood do an amazing job of trying to keep the Nationalists on the day job – tackling the myriad problems of the NHS, transport, agriculture – while pushing back on the SNP’s constitutional grandstanding.
To use an architectural term, I don’t give a flying buttress about the Nationalist attack dogs on X. Female colleagues in both politics and journalism get much worse.
But I do care deeply about the United Kingdom and Andy Burnham’s drift towards a federal system.
Mr Burnham – I abhor Labour’s habit of calling him ‘Andy’ – is a fan of the band the Stone Roses.
His devolution nostrum may be the Fool’s Gold of which they sang.
John Cooper is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Dumfries and Galloway.
Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, with the mighty Castle at its summit and the storied Palace of Holyroodhouse at its foot, has many architectural delights – there’s even a house with a cannonball embedded in its walls.
But squatting there is also the Scottish Parliament building, for my money a concrete bunker inside; a jarring jumble outside.
I said so on X, formerly Twitter, in response to claims the building was once controversial but was now ‘considered one of the most treasured and beautiful buildings in Britain.’
What followed is deeply instructive about Scottish Nationalism, as unlovely as the Parliament’s bare concrete interiors.
But that ‘controversial’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting. As a journalist I lived and breathed it… costed at about £10m to £40m, the building finally weighed in at a whopping £414m.
Its Spanish architect, Enric Miralles, died of a brain tumour before completion, and it emerged he had been inspired by upturned boats on a beach – a beach in Northumberland, not Scotland…
My post on X moved Scottish Nationalists to light fiery crosses in the glens and come after me.
‘Joe Brown’ said I had nothing positive to say about Scotland, and questioned why I live and work here. So many so-called civic nationalists want to eject people with whom they disagree.
‘Staples’ – amazing how many of these people are anonymous – suggested I preferred the ‘rotting – in all senses – Westminster, which requires £BILLIONS spent on it.’
And so on. And on…
In short, the Holyrood building may be an overpriced pile of bin-end junk entirely out of context with its historic surrounds, but for Nationalists, it’s our overpriced pile of bin-end junk.
Those of us who bear the scars of the deeply divisive 2014 Scottish independence referendum know all about the internet abuse meted out to opponents by what became known as the CyberNats, but the roots of their bile run deep.
George Orwell outlined it all in his Notes on Nationalism in 1945. ‘The smallest slur upon his own unit, or implied praise of a rival organisation, fills him with uneasiness which he can only relieve by making some sharp retort.’
The sharp retorts this time didn’t include the old chestnut ‘House Jock’, but Quisling was lobbed my way.
I filled in one of those questionnaires we politicians get from time-to-time, and under ‘What keeps you awake at night?’ I replied ‘the thought of Scotland being ripped from the Union by people who think it acceptable to liken others to a Norwegian Nazi collaborator.’
Independence would mar the life chances of Scottish children yet unborn, and would maim and belittle Britain.
Yet the threat remains real, despite the convincing defeat of the separatists in that 2014 vote.
John Swinney, Scotland’s First Minister, has lately been seeking common cause with Welsh separatists.
He even travelled to Dublin – despite having no foreign affairs remit – at British taxpayers’ expense to foment the break-up of Britain with Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Féin with a vile sideline in praising terrorist killers.
The Nationalist narrative is that the break-up of the United Kingdom is inevitable. It is not, but it will take work.
And I fear new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, all hands-in-pockets blokey charm, is not the man to put in that effort.
He has vague ideas about more devolution, but as Scotland’s Parliament has shown, devolution can be suborned.
Intended to put decision making closer to the people of Scotland, the SNP have instead bent Holyrood to their separatist agenda, platforming their kooky ideas about gender and soft-touch justice while school standards slip and the very fabric of the country crumbles as local authorities are starved of cash.
The SNP talk of the will of the Scottish people but ignore the will, so clearly expressed in 2014, to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Fellow Conservatives at Holyrood do an amazing job of trying to keep the Nationalists on the day job – tackling the myriad problems of the NHS, transport, agriculture – while pushing back on the SNP’s constitutional grandstanding.
To use an architectural term, I don’t give a flying buttress about the Nationalist attack dogs on X. Female colleagues in both politics and journalism get much worse.
But I do care deeply about the United Kingdom and Andy Burnham’s drift towards a federal system.
Mr Burnham – I abhor Labour’s habit of calling him ‘Andy’ – is a fan of the band the Stone Roses.
His devolution nostrum may be the Fool’s Gold of which they sang.