World Cup Watch
Only 32 days to go now. The Scots are excited, I can tell you. Whoa! Wait a minute. Scotland didn't qualify for the World Cup, did it? No, but the World Cup is a global matter and just because countries are not represented in this tournament doesn't mean that they're not passionate about what's going to happen in Germany next month.
What's getting the Scots all worked up right now, though, is not so much the prospect of Saudi Arabia vs. Tunisia as the BBC's tournament soundtrack. "Sports Prepare" is conducted by Carl Davis and features the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers. The tune is a modern rendition of "See the Conquering Hero Comes" by Georg Friederich Händel, the 18th century German composer who lived most of his adult life in London. What a lovely gesture you might say. Nothing like a touch of Anglo-German reconciliation on the eve of an occasion that might lead to ugly stereotypes surfacing in the meeja, eh? We can always count on the BBC to do the right thing, at least when it's politically correct. Erm, not so fast, laddie/lassie.
You see, what's exercising the Scots is that this piece of music honours the man responsible for the most infamous massacre in Scottish history: The Battle of Culloden. Handel composed it as a tribute to William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, better remembered in Scotland as "Butcher Cumberland". Some 1,000 of the 5,000 troops loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie were slaughtered by Cumberland's 9,000-strong army at Culloden in just 40 minutes on 16 April 1746. The battle ended the Jacobite dream of installing a Stuart on the British throne and Culloden was celebrated widely by Protestants, English and Scots, happy at the defeat of the Jacobites, who were mainly Catholics. London encouraged the rejoicing, and Handel did his bit with "See the Conquering Hero Comes". Speaking to the Scotsman, Rob Gibson, the SNP Highlands and Islands Member of the Scottish Parliament, said: "How can they possibly encourage people to support the England team when we are exposed to symbols of oppression like this?"
The BBC exposing us to "symbols of oppression"? Surely, that cannot be? Well, consider "Lilliburlero", which Orange Order bands gleefully play in Northern Ireland when they want to remind Catholics of who is top dog around here. "Lilliburlero" is also the anthem of the BBC World Service. What a bristly neighbourhood, the United Kingdom. History! Doncha wish it would just go away?
