Letter from Scotland

Football is on our minds this weekend. The most exciting League season for 60 years comes to a thrilling end with a clash between Hearts and Celtic on Saturday.

The television cameras of the world will be at Celtic Park, watching as Scottish football takes to the international stage once again. We are, of course, going to the World Cup this summer, just as we did in Germany in1974, the year I was a young volunteer teacher in Cameroon, West Africa. The boys in my class knew all about Scottish football, looking up to us as a world-class player of the game.

They followed the fortunes of Celtic and Rangers and even clubs further down the League, like my home team of Aberdeen.  This was in the days when Cameroon had not yet emerged as a leading team in Africa and a provider of football stars to all corners of Europe. It came as a huge disappointment to those bare-footed boys that I had no footballs skills whatever.    

I will however be watching on Saturday as the drama of the last few weeks comes to a crunching end.  It could be the first time for 40 years that neither Celtic nor Rangers win the Scottish Premier League. Heart of Midlothian have had a magical season, just as Celtic and Rangers have faltered.  Rangers finally went down to a 2-1 defeat against Hibernian on Wednesday evening. Celtic only just won 3-2 against Falkirk with a controversial penalty goal in the 98^th minute. It means Hearts only need a draw at Celtic Park on Saturday to win the League and break up the Glasgow duopoly.  

While this is going on in the real world, in the mad world of Westminster another drama is being acted out. Scotland only has a bit-part to play here but a handful of Scottish MPs are among the 90 who have called on Sir Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister.  They include the Glasgow MP Zubin Ahmed who has resigned as one of the UK health ministers. It follows the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sawar’s call, during the election campaign, for a change of leadership at Westminster.   

Keir Starmer has been blamed as one of the reasons for Labour’s poor  showing in the Scottish Parliament elections last week, down from 22 MSPs to just 17, equal to Reform.  But actually, it was his failure to end government austerity and cuts to the public services that was the principal cause of disillusionment with Labour.  Sir Keir’s big speech on Monday and his programme for government outlined in the King’s Speech on Wednesday did little to change course.

But changing the leader, without changing the policies, won’t restore Labour’s reputation.  It will make it worse, since we will be back in the Tory-style maelstrom of revolving leadership.  It would be like sacking a football manager after losing just a few games.  In any case, where is the democracy in ousting a prime minister who won an overwhelming majority at the last election?  Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner and the other rebels need to answer that question.

Compared with the chaos at Westminster, the Scottish Parliament is like an orderly church service. In fact MSPs were at a church service on Wednesday, at the so-called “Kirking of the Parliament” in St Giles Cathedral. The Moderator of the Church of Scotland Rt. Rev. Rosie Frew told MSPs the new parliamentary term offered a new beginning, a chance to implement the manifesto imprinted on the parliamentary Mace: to act with “wisdom, integrity, justice and compassion.”

On Thursday, all 129 MSPs were sworn in, in various second languages, including Gaelic, Scots, Doric, Polish and Mandarin.  They then went on to elect a new Presiding Officer in a secret ballot.  Kenneth Gibson SNP emerged as the surprise winner. Surprise, because the person running the parliament is usually, and wisely, from the opposition.  He’s also something of a disrupter, saying he wants to liven things up and he likes “a noisy, boisterous chamber.”  

We are back in the world of football, a noisy boisterous Celtic Park. The fate of the nation may not be decided on Saturday but the shape of our national game will.