John Cooper

St Andrew was a guest at my wedding. No, I am not that old— I just look that way. Italia ’90 will be remembered by most for “Nessun Dorma”, Totò Schillaci and—my sympathies—England going out on penalties to Germany, but for me it was not about football; it was in Italy in 1990 that, in secret, I got married. The ceremony was held in Amalfi, under a portrait of a bearded St Andrew who looked rather like Matthew Goode as Inspector Carl Morck in “Dept. Q”. Most of St Andrew’s relics reside in Amalfi, having been moved there for safekeeping after the fourth crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Some think that Andrew brought Christianity to Scotland, but that was St Ninian, whose first footfall and church were in Whithorn, in my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway. So much for history. What has Andrew done for us lately? I have often thought that St Andrew’s day suffers a bit because of the date: 30 November tends to be dreich, in the slough of despond between Halloween and Christmas. I also think that we make rather too little of it—compare it with the global Irish celebration of St Patrick’s day and, increasingly, the festivities on St George’s day. Scotland should look ahead and not back, so while we are refreshing our take on St Andrew’s day, might we also move away from the dirge that is “Flower of Scotland” as our anthem, with its maudlin fixation on days that are past and “in the past…must remain”? The SNP needs to snap out of it, too. Scotland’s wars of independence are long over, Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart” is most certainly not a documentary—that may trigger woad rage—and Scotland is no colony, but as one with Britain. However, this Labour Government need to look again at their relationship with Holyrood. The much-vaunted reset between Westminster and Holyrood is just “devolve and forget” with better PR. Money is trolleyed north with little care for what happens once it is in SNP coffers. The nationalists oppose devolution; whether it is throwing a spanner in the works of defence firms by refusing to fund ordnance or a de facto boycott of our ally Israel, they will agitate in any way they can to break up Britain. Andrew was a fisherman before becoming a disciple—he of all people knew the value of mending your nets. Is it too much to ask of this Labour Government that they tend to the fabric of the Union? This is not about putting Holyrood in its place, but about delivering on what the people of Scotland voted for in 2014: remaining part of this great United Kingdom.