St Andrews Day – ce n’est pas Bastille Day

For those of you not in the know, Scotland entered a new phase in its long and often bloody history with the election in May 2007 of the first SNP (Scottish Nationalist) Government since devolution. A government that has as its aims independence for Scotland, thus restoring Scotland’s place in the World order and, presumably, opening up a new chapter in “the auld Alliance” between Scotland and France – suits me.

I’ll leave any general observations on the success or otherwise of this new administration to others but I do want to pick up on recent moves to establish St Andrews Day as Scotland’s National Day.

Scotland is something of an outsider in UK National Day stakes. The English celebrate St George’s Day, the Welsh have St David and the Irish (courtesy of Guinness I am advised) St Patrick. St Andrew has long been the Patron Saint of Scotland, but has never been given the honour of a public holiday like our neighbours in the Union.

The SNP Government has been seeking to right this wrong and to much literal and metaphorical flag waving announced various plans to give St Andrew his rightful place in the annual calendar, to sit alongside other impassioned celebrations of national identities like Independence Day in the USA and Bastille Day in France – our Auld Alliance comrades.

You may think so far that this sounds like an admirable plan, which when taken at face value it undoubtedly is. But scratch the surface and I fear that like many comparisons with Mediterranean life our Scottish approach lacks substance, value and credibility, which is why I continue to dream of a life of clement weather, plentiful and affordable food and wine, and a culture that better embraces the importance of family and community.

Unlike the approach to Bastille Day taken in France then, there is no sense that St Andrews Day is a festival for the people; for the population that makes Scotland what it is – flawed or otherwise. The sum total of the celebratory opportunities as far as I was able to tell included an open-air concert in Edinburgh and all Scotland’s public buildings and attractions being free of an entry fee for the day – which is fine if you have a car as most of them are in fairly rural locations. Even in the city though, hopeful visitors to Edinburgh Zoo, in the spirit of honouring Scotland and St Andrew, had to wait three hours in a four mile long tailback to get anywhere near the place.

To my – admittedly incomplete – knowledge then, there were few if any community celebrations. And this in a country of 5 million people. So whereas in France on Bastille Day every city, town, village and hamlet has a community-focussed celebration of the founding of the republic, where everyone has an opportunity to take part and enjoy the atmosphere, in much of Scotland this rather cold and damp Sunday 30 November, most of the population did their ironing for the week ahead and tuned into “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” as normal.

There was no public holiday, nor were there any fireworks, community dances, concerts, street parties, bull-running, cycle racing or wine tasting (apart from the usual selection of youths drinking Buckfast and Mad Dog around street corners). The day passed by almost unnoticed for the majority of the population. There was nothing in it that made me feel more Scottish. There was nothing to celebrate our turbulent past, nor set down a marker of optimism in the future. There was nothing to get me out to meet my immediate neighbours for a drink and there was nothing in the media to focus the population’s attention or secure their participation.

It seems to me that the Government’s aim for St Andrews Day is for it to be another tartan painted biscuit tin approach to marketing this ancient nation to the rest of the World, rather than using it as an opportunity to inject a bit of confidence back into a nation that has the worst health record in Europe; or to encourage a stronger sense of community responsibility for our environment and our citizens – many of whom live below the bread-line and are afflicted with jaw-dropping levels of substance misuse with little or no support.

Compared to Bastille Day, Scotland’s approach to establishing St Andrew’s Day as our national celebration has some way to go to put it politely. Give me the buzz of a village place in July any day – and that’s where you’ll find me getting my fix of community spirit, co-operation and fraternite. That’s where you’ll find me with my wife and two young children – in an atmosphere of acceptance, of celebration and pride in your country.

I can’t ever see it happening this way in Scotland, and not just because Scotland in November is a far cry from France in July; but because we have lost the very things that make Bastille Day a family oriented, community spirited festival.

St Andrews Day? Ce n’est pas Bastille Day.