I’ve just read John Harris’s book ‘The Last Party’ which explores the Britpop era. In it he describes Alan McGee as “altogether a self-centred kind of operator with no sense of common cause.” He also quotes Geoff Travis of Rough Trade who talked of McGee as doing his own thing with no ideology, no ethical morality linking what they were all doing at the time. Travis said McGee had a “much more Alex Ferguson mentality than the rest of us: ‘I don’t care about anyone else - this is what I’m going to do.’”

That is too familiar in my experience as a Scot. I would say that the McGee/Ferguson attitude is very prevalent in the under-belly of the Scottish character and I would say it’s about a lacking in moral education and intelligence.

That is not to say that Scottish people are in general immoral. It is to say that their sense of inferiority results in a diminishing of the stature required to consider any kind of elevated moral dimension in their actions. It is not only a lack of moral intelligence in their thinking but also a lack of moral application when it comes to how they live their lives.

The Scots are far more likely to take the route of self-interest and not risk the sacrifice that might come from a broader, ethical position. The average Scot is too tied up in self-reference. His thinking is “what will this do to me or for me?”

Ignoring the bigger picture in this way means the bigger picture is so much smaller than it need be thereby inhibiting creative potential, development, growth and progress for everyone. I would say this is a national defect and is one of the central factors in Scotland’s historical under-performance.