Don’t the Scots so often shoot themselves in the foot? They have the talent, the history, the credibility in ways, the passion and sometimes the drive. Indeed they have many of the elements for success but then the dark side creeps up and overwhelms, neutralises the effort and renders the good stuff ineffective. This is much of Scotland’s story.

Now, of course every nation, every community has its dark side. This is the way of things. But it plays out differently from one society to another. Whether as group or as individual, I think in general that if you can embrace the dark, negative forces, if you can square up to them and not be afraid to articulate them then their effect can be reduced perhaps just enough so that they don’t have the same paralysing effect. Such a process changes the mix of events.

This doesn’t obtain in the Scottish environment. Too many are afraid to articulate the negative, to accept in an honest fashion their weaknesses with humility. They prefer to laugh it off nervously, to make light of it, be cheery, jokey, to throw it all away like they don’t care. Actually they care very much. Inside they’re shitting themselves in case something doesn’t work out.

This behaviour acts as a kind of schizophrenia, a schism or wound in the national psyche. It think it can be healed. By discussion, by exchange, by acceptance, by insight and articulation it can be integrated properly. This would not happen overnight but subtly over a long period.

It is difficult to imagine how that process might start though. In my experience over thirty years of adult life I have seen no signs of it. Scottish people as far as I can see continue to act in the same old ways handed down over generations. Their material conditions may have changed radically but the internal fabric remains the same: messed up and in need of renovation.