Citizen or sir?

Now I have to say at the start of what I see, now that I have finished writing, has turned out to be a bit of a rant, that when I was a teenager, George Reid was one of my political heroes.

As one of the 7 and then 11 MPs in the SNP’s breakthrough in the two 1974 elections he was in the vanguard for Independence, which many of my generation believed was just round the corner.

A generation and a half later in 1999 I was delighted when he was elected to the newly formed Scottish Parliament. And my delight was doubled in 2003 when he was appointed as the Presiding Officer of that body. And superbly well he performed in that role. Always fair. And honourable if that word must be used.

But my feelings this morning when I woke up to discover that he should now be addressed as “Sir” George Reid were altogether different.

I have no problems with an “honours” system to reward publicly those who have contributed to the fabric of our society. I’m sure most countries have one: a modern one.

But the whole concept of an honours system based on some 19^th century long since defunct Imperial power quite frankly leaves me cold.

“Knights Bachelor – Knighthood”, “Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath”, “Companions of the Order of the Bath”, “Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire”....I gave up reading the list at that point in abject disgust.

Apart from a few scattered islands of value simply as bases for our American “allies” in their never ending quest to impose their warped idea of democracy on the rest of the planet there simply ISN’T a British Empire any more. The days that half the globe were coloured pink are long gone!

And even if there was, what on earth is an SNP politician accepting an honour as part of it? Our whole ethos as an Independence movement is surely to break away from the outmoded 19^th century London-centric United Kingdom and all its accompanying layers of patronage and hat tipping etiquette!

There has never been an SNP member of the House of Lords for this reason, and indeed rumour has it Donald Stewart turned down such an offer on more than one occasion being a man of some consistent principle.

When you boil it down to the basics what on earth is the difference?

I mean no personal disrespect to George Reid. As I have said he inspired me and many of my generation to commit ourselves to the Independence cause; a cause that two years away from the 2014 referendum looks like coming to fruition at last.

But to accept this “honour” is to disrespect me and many, if not most, supporters of the Independence cause, striving as we are for a Scotland fit for the 21^st century – a beacon of social democratic, green or socialist (depending on your view point) egalitarianism in a world crying out for such models.

Ex- SSP MSP Rosie Kane put it better than I could ever hope to do this morning when she tweeted:

“The only title I would accept is citizen, and I’d be taking it no being given it”.