What I love about Scotland is its solemn hills
What I hate about Scotland is the mist that shrouds them
What I love about Scotland its empty moors
What I hate about Scotland is the rain that scours them
What I love about Scotland is the humour of its language
What I hate about Scotland is the sharpness of its tongue
What I love about Scotland is the softness of its voices
What I hate about Scotland is the harshness of its voices
What I love about Scotland is the backbeat of its music
What I hate about Scotland is its sentimental songs
What I love about Scotland is its stern, granite faces
What I hate about Scotland is its stern, granite hearts
What I love about Scotland is ‘You’ll take a dram’
What I hate about Scotland is ‘You’ll have had your tea’
What I love about Scotland is the amber fire of whisky
What I hate about Scotland is the sugar rush of Irn Bru
What I love about Scotland is the roaring of its stags
What I hate about Scotland is the roaring of its drunks
What I love about Scotland is the grandeur of its cities
What I hate about Scotland is its mean little towns
What I love about Scotland is the splendour of its castles
What I hate about Scotland is the blood that built them
What I love about Scotland is the thickness of its walls
What I hate about Scotland is the smallness of its windows
What I love about Scotland is the past is everywhere
What I hate about Scotland is the past is everywhere
What I love about Scotland is its flair and pride
What I hate about Scotland is its misery and envy
What I love about Scotland is its dogged emigrés
What I hate about Scotland is the manner of their leaving
What I love about Scotland is its openness and tolerance
What I hate about Scotland is its chanting on the terraces
What I love about Scotland is the love of being Scots
What I hate about Scotland is the hatred for the English
What I love about Scotland is its pomp and ceremony
What I hate about Scotland is its tawdry tartan tourism
What I love about Scotland is Holy Willie’s Prayer
What I hate about Scotland is that Willie’s still here
What I love about Scotland is its hands across the water
What I hate about Scotland is its feet in the kailyard
What I love about Scotland is it could be great again
What I hate about Scotland is those who don’t believe it
What I love about Scotland is it’s our boy who wrote:
‘For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s coming yet for a’ that
That Man to Man, the world o’er
Shall brothers be for a’ that.’
Jamie Jauncey
October 2012
A Few Kind Words 
You’re teasing us, Jamie! Your visitors were “left in no doubt whether the referendum is all just media hype or whether it’s a serious issue that really engages people”. But you don’t tell us. Does it engage people? The percentage in favour of independence has stubbornly stuck around 30% since the 70s, as far as I can see. This Scottish independence question is being posed as if the English didn’t count. How dare Cameron and Salmond “negotiate” as if both countries didn’t have Parliaments? If support is as low as it seems to be, then it’s all about politics. But on this side of the border we are in the dark. I know it’s not the job of your blog, but a little light would help…..I love your poem – it resonates with this mostly Irish sassenach (can I be a sassenach if 75% of my blood is Irish?).
It certainly engages everyone I talk to. The fact that 30% may not be in favour doesn’t mean they’re not concerned about the whole thing – as well they should be. Whichever way it goes, casting their referendum vote will be the biggest single decision any Scot will have had to make in their lifetime. The consequences are simply enormous. And I agree, England is disenfranchised in this debate. It would be interesting to know what the outcome of an English referendum on the same subject would be. Perhaps a majority of you would be happy to see us go!
Well, first of all it’s 70% of Scots who DON’T want independence, according to research over the past 40 years. I’ve seen nothing that suggests otherwise. So how do you shift 30% up to a majority? I have no idea. I wouldn’t trust Alex Salmond further than I could throw him. And I think I would want to be told how my country was going to work as an entity before I voted for something so drastic. Tommy Sheridan told Andrew Neil last week that the time for telling Scots how the country would work would be after they voted for independence. I had to watch it again to be sure I wasn’t misunderstanding him. As for the English, I think they could barely care, in a truly apathetic sense. We don’t want rid, but we won’t fight about it either, is my guess. We are fed a diet of depressing statistics that make it seem that Scotland will flounder without subsidies from London. The corollary for England, if Scotland votes for independence, is that we could have a Conservative government for a long time. On recent voting patterns, Labour barely has a chance without Scottish votes. We certainly live in interesting times.
Forgetting the politics that I try and do most times, it is the ease and simplicity with which you create great prose that I find so stimulating. Great ideas softly written.
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I loved the poem Jamie. Sums things up very very well. The light and the dark side of Scotland. I am leaving the question re independence for the moment.!
I agree with Margaret. The poem is excellent.
Regarding Independence, I perhaps have read and absorbed too much Don Roberto and dislike the negativity and campaign of hate against Alex Salmond that seems to be the best reasons to remain in political union with England.
The YES campaign has two short years to present their vision of an Independent Scotland. It will take time. After all, they’re not talking about how a picnic in Kelvingrove Park might look, but how a fully functioning Mars Rover might work.
Very useful piece