New Statesman Scotland
In the spirit of the times this diary is much engaged by matters constitutional. We firmly approve of parliament-building in the Celtic twilight zones along with an elected assembly for London and the pruning of the House of Lords. We also think it is helpful, from time to time, to shed a little light on the mustier corners at the Scottish end of the British constitution. One such corner, we believe, are the 129 folk who are listed in the various directories as "Chiefs of Clans and Names in Scotland".
Unsurprisingly, the Top Chief is HM The Queen who is listed as head of the Royal House. Presumably the aforesaid Royal House has subsumed the Stewarts (and/or Stuarts), because that particular family seems to have no chieftain to call its own. And anyone who cherishes the notion that traditional Scottish society is more populist or less elitist than any other should think again: toffs and castles abound. There is one surprise. Only "whole names" need apply. Under a legal decision (Campbell-Gray 1950) possessors of double and triple-barrelled names are ruled out.
And around one-third of the chiefs live outside Scotland. Most of these seem to be happily ensconced in London or the leafier parts of southern England, but quite a few have joined the Caledonian diaspora. For example, the Mackintosh of Clan Chattan can be found in Gwelo, Zimbabwe; Sir James Dunbar of Mochrum hangs out in Ramstein, Germany; the Macnaghten of Macnaghten does his clan chiefing from Bushmills in County Antrim; Peter Lamont of that Ilk makes his seat in Manly, New South Wales; Kenneth Urqhart of Urqhart presides over his clan from Jefferson Park, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Scotland (and indeed Britain) has little enough purchase on the space age. It seems a shame that what little we do have goes unmarked. By way of redress, this diary would like to point out that, on the 10th of last month, a 30,000-ton ship built at the Kvaerner Govan yard - which is now more or less closed - played a central role in an operation that will change the face of the commercial space industry. The Clyde-built ship is the "command and control" vessel for "Sea Launch", a venture that will loft satellites into orbit on (Russian) rockets that will blast off from the deck of a converted drilling rig.
There was a sad sense of futility about the recent debate in the Scottish Parliament on the 309 British and Commonwealth servicemen (39 of them Scots) who were shot for cowardice in the first world war. The MSPs spent most of Armistice Day deploring the brutal executions of shell-shocked men. The speeches were overwhelmingly in favour of posthumous pardons. But in the end there was nothing the MSPs could do. The long-dead men come under the heading of defence which is a matter reserved for Westminster. But the Scottish executive did promise to pass a copy of the proceedings to the Ministry of Defence.
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