FREEDOM!!!! [2]

How much of that was donated to facial reconstruction surgery?

Maybe you only give money away to good causes?   


Posted the QI video over on the Who thread.

The Glasgow spirit in adversity as everyone just tries to rally round and help out, even taxi firms-

Fook a dook, Ive never heard of England being so generous, (half rates maybe ?  ) Awful thing to have happened tho ! that crash. At least it sounds like the Scots stick together & help each other no matter what, I dont feel that confident the English would, (unless there's profit?)

I think its something deeply ingrained Azriel- like all the people who formed the human chain into a collapsing building to get to trapped and injured people- you have a choice- stay outside and keep yourself alive but at the potential cost of others dying because you did nothing.
Or you do the right thing, help those in need, and put your own life at risk.

In the Scots mentality dying well is better than living badly.

(I am guessing this is an old trait as its what Shakespeare plays off in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth uses it to coerce him, by not doing it he would be - "a coward in thine own esteem")

The more I hear about Glasgow, the more I'm warming to the place.

I've only ever talked to people from Edinbourgh, you see. So I might have been given some predjudices. All dispelled.  

Like all cities it has areas best avoided if you are stranger and plenty places that are designed to be inviting to the visitor.
Overall it tends to be surprisingly friendly, certainly the friendliest city in the UK I have visited, even the muggers will entertain you with a bit of banter whilst they mug you  

Good to hear. Good to hear.  

Here is the exact QI scene I was refering to earlier:

Kelpie sculpture, they sit either side of a major canal route. And are apparently the worlds largest equestrian sculptures- although given a Kelpie is a mythological sea creature that can take on human form on land I am not sure it strictly qualifies  

I really like those !! I enjoy powerful sculptures rather than smaller ones.

Well we Scots are a modest folk, when we are not reminding the world about all the stuff we've invented for them, the ungrateful bastards  

well we dont go on and on about the stuff we invented for you lot either  

What, like a London based parliment, a common monarch and a tory governement?

I'm sure they don't mind.  

See! Ungrateful bastards!  But we are so nice (and still very crabbit at the shoddy way this universe is put together) that we will keep inventing stuff to improve everyones lives anyway. See how you like that!  

‘Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.’ - Winston Churchill

And thats an Englishman saying that!

well he was a great drinker of whisky. I think thats what he was referring to.

Pettytyrant101 wrote: ‘Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.’ - Winston Churchill

And thats an Englishman saying that!

Did Churchill consider England to be one of "the small nations of this earth"?

if it hadnt been for the English Industrial Revolution none of the Scottish inventions would have happened. Up until the 19th century the Chinese had probably the best record for inventing, well nearly everything

English Industrial Revolution- Mrs Figg

There was no such thing- the Industrial Revolution combined ideas from all across Europe- and arguably the thing that made it work in the early days was the perfecting of the steam engine into something that could be built anywhere and cheaply, allowing for mass industrialisation- and that was James Watt (Scottish) working along side Matthew Boulton (an Englishman) in the early 1700's.

The ground that led to the freedom of thought which in turn led to an explosion in what we would now call the 'sciences' can be traced back to the Scottish Enlightment however-

"By the 17th century Scotland had five universities, compared with England's two. After the disruption of the civil wars, Commonwealth and purges at the Restoration, they recovered with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry. All saw the establishment or re-establishment of chairs of mathematics. Observatories were built at St. Andrews and at King's and Marischal colleges in Aberdeen. Robert Sibbald (1641–1722) was appointed as the first Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh and he co-founded the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1681.These developments helped the universities to become major centres of medical education and would put Scotland at the forefront of new thinking. By the 18th century, access to Scottish universities was probably more open than in contemporary England, Germany or France. Attendance was less expensive and the student body more socially representative. In the eighteenth century Scotland reaped the intellectual benefits of this system.

Adam Smith developed and published The Wealth of Nations, the starting point of modern economics. This study, which had an immediate impact on British economic policy, still frames discussions on globalisation and tariffs.

The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of William Cullen (1710–90), physician and chemist, James Anderson (1739–1808), agronomist, Joseph Black (1728–99), physicist and chemist, was the discoverer of latent heat. Mathematician and physicist Sir John Leslie (1766–1832) is chiefly noted for his experiments with heat and was the first person to artificially create ice. James Hutton (1726–97) was the first modern geologist, with his Theory of the Earth (1795) challenging existing ideas about the age of the earth.His ideas were popularised by the scientist and mathematician John Playfair (1748–1819).

While the Scottish Enlightenment is traditionally considered to have concluded toward the end of the 18th century, disproportionately large Scottish contributions to British science and letters continued for another 50 years or more, thanks to such figures as Thomas Carlyle, James Watt, William Murdoch, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin and Sir Walter Scott. The influence of the movement spread beyond Scotland across the British Empire, and onto the Continent. The political ideas had an important impact on the founding fathers of the US, which broke away from the empire in 1775.The philosophy of Common Sense Realism was especially influential in 19th century American thought and religion.- wiki


And thats just scraping the surface.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:The influence of the movement spread beyond Scotland across the British Empire, and onto the Continent.

An empire that would not have existed -- and thus not provided avenues for the spreading of Scottish thought -- if not the for the English.

The Empire would not have existed without the Scots.

"Scots seem to have hugely dominated certain colonial occupations: for example, administration, medicine, education, missionary work, surveying, conservation, engineering and certain financial activities.

Throughout the American Revolution, Scotland continued to be the most fertile field for recruits. "The present ardor of the Highland Gentlemen," wrote Lord John Murray, "is great to be employed in His Majesty's Service." In the rush to recruit troops to enlarge the army for the American campaign Scotland was to provide over two thirds of the 15,000 troops recruited in 1778. Indeed during the period 1756 to 1815 some estimate that 75,000 Highlanders enlisted.

Throughout every imperial conflict – from the Battle of New Orleans to the suppression of the Indian Mutiny – the Highlanders were thrown in to the brunt of the fighting without thought given to casualties.

The First World War was to see the Highland regiments formed together in their own division – the 51st. It was also to see the impact of large-scale enlistment and conscription, as huge numbers of Scotsmen served – many in battalions replacing those which had been wiped out. The Highlanders served in all the major battles on the Western Front – from Ypres to the Somme and often experienced higher rates of casualties than other regular units. For example some 50,000 Gordons served during the war, and of these, approximately 27,000 were killed or wounded. In total 147,609 Scots were killed during the war, a fifth of Britain's war dead, at a time when Scotland only contained 10% of the population."

Event he well know phrase 'The Thin Red Line' is thanks to Scots-

"The Thin Red Line was a military action by the Sutherland Highlanders red-coated 93rd (Highland) Regiment at the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, during the Crimean War.
The Russian cavalry force of 2,500 was on the road to Balaklava. About 400 of them were involved in the incident. It was early morning, and the sole force that lay between the oncoming cavalry and the disorganised and vulnerable British camp was the 93rd Regiment.

Campbell is said to have told his men, "There is no retreat from here, men. You must die where you stand." Sir Colin's aide John Scott is said to have replied, "Aye, Sir Colin. If needs be, we'll do that." (Campbell's relationship with his men was almost family-like.) Campbell formed the 93rd into a line two deep — the "thin red line". Convention dictated that the line should be four deep. However, Campbell, a veteran of 41 years military service, had such a low opinion of the Russian cavalry that he did not bother to form four lines, let alone a square, but met the charge head on with the 2-deep firing line.
As the Russian cavalry approached, the 93rd discharged three volleys: at 600, 350 and 150 yards respectively."

The Scots got very wealthy out of Empire- you only have to look at the architecture of Glasgow to see how rich- but we paid for it in blood.

I seem to recall you once saying that the Scots hated Redcoats just as much as Americans did. You're not doing much to garner sympathy from fellow victims of imperialist oppression.

We hated the Red Coats before the Act of Union, then they were the enemy- after that the English made it illegal to speak Gaelic, wear a clan tartan or play the pipes (but even the English weren't crazy enough to ban the buckie!), the only exception to these rules were if you joined one of the new Highland Regiments fighting for the new Union.
They wore the same red jackets, more or less, as the rest of the British Army, but they got their kilts, their language and their pipes back.
Thats why recruitment for the Highlands was so large from the start.
After that it became pride in your Regiment, fighting alongside your fellow Scots, the old sense of clan loyalty was transferred to the Regiments. And they became the fighting force of choice for the British Army throughout Empire- and of course it was no small matter for the English that better Scots blood be spilled than their own.

I found this small interesting factoid whilst browsing about-

"Historians are fond of pointing out that today there are probably more descendants of the Highland clans in North America than in Scotland."

So the Highlanders were glorified Hessians?

The Highlanders fought the Hessians when the English hired them to help put down the Jacobite Revolution under Bonnie Prince Charlie. Hessains were just glorified mercenaries. The Highlanders fought for a reason, not for the money.

And many of the Hessians were just poor German farmers who enlisted because they needed a job. During the American Revolution many of them took the opportunity to desert, head west and go back to farming.