ONE of the pleasures of the Olympics is when your attention is grabbed by a sport that previously held zero interest. For me it has been the rowing – a sport I previously associated with 10 minutes of wheezy agony on my infrequent visits to the gym. Last weekend I was shouting myself hoarse with the rest of the Scotland on Sunday office, cheering on Britain’s coxless fours as they powered to victory over the Australians. Trailing with just a few yards to go, it took an almost superhuman effort, visible in every strained sinew, to clinch the gold for Britain. Magnificent.

If Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, had been in our newsroom that day he may have been genuinely puzzled by our behaviour. After all, there were no Scots in the boat. Only Englishmen. Why should Scots cheer on Englishmen, or congratulate them on their victory? Why should we support Englishmen over Australians or anyone else? Why, for that matter, should we support Team GB at all? Haven’t we heard that Britishness is dead, a tarnished and worthless identity that should be consigned to the recycle bin of history?


Salmond’s puzzlement would have been all the greater if he had been able to take a peek in the living rooms of millions of Scots over the past fortnight as they have been charmed by Rebecca Adlington’s infectious grin, and taken a tearful Bryony Shaw to their hearts when she said on live TV that she was “so f***ing happy” at her windsurfing bronze. It isn’t just Chris Hoy’s historic three golds that have caught the Scottish public’s imagination.

Salmond’s approach to the Olympics has shown a lack of generosity of spirit. Goodwill or congratulations have been directed only at the Scots athletes taking part. Others in Team GB are not worthy, it seems. What would it have cost Salmond to have wished the Scots good luck and then extended his best wishes to their English, Welsh and Northern Irish teammates? Absolutely nothing. Yet Salmond, a keen golfer, will no doubt be cheering on Europe’s golfers in their tussle with America in the Ryder Cup next month. Supporting Europe is fine. Supporting Great Britain is apparently unacceptable. The First Minister has been churlish and petty.

The SNP believes Britishness is dying as Scots increasingly see themselves as Scottish, not British. This has been repeated so often it has become a truism. The problem is, it simply isn’t true. The Scots are a complex and sometimes contradictory people – inconveniently so for the SNP.

You would assume, wouldn’t you, that in the year Scotland elected an SNP Government at Holyrood the nation’s sense of Scottishness would be at a high, and its sense of belonging to Britain at an all-time low? Er, actually, no. The most authoritative test of public opinion – the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey – reveals that in 2007 Britishness was in better health than for many years. People who regarded themselves as “Scottish, not British” made up 27% of the population – the lowest figure since 1997. Those who considered themselves “equally Scottish and British” accounted for 28% – the highest since 1992. (For the anoraks among you, full figures can be found by logging onto the online version of this column at www.scotlandonsunday.com/opinion.)


Just because Scotland elected an SNP Government doesn’t mean that Scots have wholly embraced the SNP’s world view. Scots are quite happy to have an SNP Government and they’re quite happy to be British, thank you very much. Salmond cannot reconcile this with his zero-sum nationalism – that in order for Scotland to thrive, Britain must die. It ain’t necessarily so, Alex.

Salmond appears to believe that the only legitimate expression of Britishness is through a shared respect for the Royal Family – he believes the Queen should remain monarch of Scotland even after independence. Well, not all of us are as ardent royalists as he seems to be. For most of us, Britishness is expressed primarily through our enjoyment of the most vivid and creative popular culture in the world – something Salmond underestimates at his peril.

Yesterday, the SNP was getting exercised about the prospect of a GB football team at the London Olympics in 2012. This, apparently, would be the end of civilisation as we know it. Yet the Irish, with a rather more bloody history of cross-border rivalry than our own, seem to have little trouble with an all-Ireland team for international rugby union.

Salmond should pause before he hurls himself headlong into an all-out assault on the London Olympics, complaining about the extra money being spent down south (remember, Chris Hoy says he owes his success to Team GB’s world-class facilities in Manchester) and his demand that Scotland fields its own team. I suspect he underestimates how much the London Olympics and Team GB is going to capture the imagination of the Scottish nation. Scotland could never hold an Olympic Games; the fact that our nearest neighbour can should be regarded as an opportunity, not a threat. Scottish athletes will regard this as a home fixture, regardless of what the First Minister says.

If and when Scotland becomes an independent country I’ll be cheering along with everyone else when the Saltire is held aloft at the Olympic opening ceremony. Until then I’m supporting the members of Team GB – regardless of which side of the border they were born.