In 1690, the first of my ancestors to come to America left the Old World for the New World. His name was Donald MacKay, and all I know about him is that he came from a village somewhere in northwestern Scotland, that he sold himself into a seven-year indenture to pay for his trans-Atlantic passage, and that he had to be a courageous, or perhaps desperate, guy to try that journey in those days. But try he did, and he obviously made it, since here I sit.
Of course, if you had asked old Donald if it was possible that a woman could become a man, his likely reply would have been along the lines of, "Wot, have ya lost your conkers, ya great daftie?" (You'll have to imagine the Scottish accent in that sentence.)
Scotland has changed a lot since then, and not necessarily for the better. Now, it seems, having an understanding of basic mammalian reproductive biology can get you labeled as "far-right," and someone not to be trusted around kids - maybe not even your own. Now Scotland's largest union, and surprise, it's their teachers' union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), is blowing the alarm on Scotland's "far right."
The Daily Sceptic's Annamarie Ward has some details.
Scotland’s far Right is so tiny it could hold its AGM in the disabled toilet at Wetherspoons and still have room left for a flipchart. Yet here is the country’s largest and most influential union producing a 16-page political field manual that treats this microscopic fringe as if it is marching on Holyrood with flaming torches and matching armbands.
None of this resembles safeguarding. It is not professionalism. It is certainly not education. It is politics in fancy dress, and it insults the intelligence of teachers, parents and pupils alike.
What's considered "far right" in most of Europe would be a Lisa Murkowski-level squish in the United States, but that's not really the point. The point is that the EIS has, apparently, lost its conkers, as my ancestor may have said.
The briefing begins with what looks like a perfectly sensible academic definition of the far Right. That lasts for all of two minutes. Then the definition begins to stretch and swell until it covers almost anything that does not suit the worldview of whomever wrote the document. Real extremists do exist, and nobody sensible denies that. Every society has a small fringe of people who are vulnerable to rigid identities and destructive beliefs, usually because they are looking for certainty in a chaotic world.
But the EIS manages to take this small and unpleasant fringe and stretch it to breaking point. Suddenly people who are pro-business, parents who worry about asylum hotels, anyone concerned about collapsing public services, women raising safeguarding issues, and every adult in the country who thinks biological sex corresponds to reality are all apparently drifting towards radicalisation.
So, parents who don't want their daughters attacked by "migrants," parents who are worried about the collapse of Scotland's institutions, and most of all, parents who know the difference between boys and girls, are now to be tarred equally with the far-right brush.
Here's the problem: While Scotland's teachers union is sniveling about parents having insufficient zeal for teaching woke gender theory, Scotland's schools are collapsing. Violence is on the rise.
Scotland has the highest rate of violent injuries to school staff in the UK, new figures from a freedom of information request suggest.
The figures, obtained by Channel 4 News FactCheck from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), show that between March 2014 and March 2024 there were 490 reports of serious injuries to school staff in Scotland caused by violence.
Perhaps worse, Scottish children can't read or do mathematics.
The Pisa report, which measures education standards among 15-year-olds worldwide, showed a long-term decline in Scotland’s performance in reading, maths and science.
That's the real problem, not mushy-headed woke horse squeeze.
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Scotland was once a nation known for brave, determined people. Some of the most determined people in Europe, at that. Scottish infantrymen wore kilts in the muddy trenches of the Great War, in the deserts and fields of the Second World War, and went into battle accompanied by their regimental bagpipers. Scottish farmers and herdsmen scratched a living out of the harsh, stony, unforgiving soil of the highlands. Now, Scotland is home to the largest welfare-dependent population in the United Kingdom. Now, Scotland's schools are collapsing. Now, Scotland's government is importing hordes of "migrants," many of whom are preying on the Scottish people.
Many American families have been, through the generations, proud to call Scotland the source of much of their culture, their heritage, even their genes. Can we still be proud of that? Should we?
My ancestor Donald MacKay's family name, by the way, in my line terminated with my great-grandfather, William Wallace McKee, the spelling of his last name changed via rather haphazard frontier recordkeeping. We have to wonder what he would think of Scotland today. That - or this?
It's a fair question, Scotland: What will you do without freedom? You're finding out, now. The English didn't take it from you. You did it to yourselves.
