The Queen and Scotland – A Platinum Jubilee Tribute

Applause

Sir David Steel, the Presiding Officer of the Parliament, and the late Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first First Minister, both gave her engagingly warm welcomes, using the title ‘Queen of Scots’ which had been in abeyance for nearly 300 years. She in turn received prolonged applause for her speech praising Scotland’s many unique qualities, and for her gift to the Parliament of a new silver mace.

But no national anthem, which greets the Queen at all her ceremonial functions, was played. Instead the 129 members, and the Queen herself, sang that good old Scots Presbyterian hymn ‘All People That On Earth Do Dwell’, and the proceedings closed with a rendition by Scots folksinger Fiona Wellington of ‘A Man’s A Man For A’ That’, the words of Robert Burns ringing down the centuries from the days of the Scottish Enlightenment, speaking of the same rights of man as are enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence.

What could easily have been one of the Queen’s most sensitive engagements turned in the end to triumph, not least because a vast and appreciative crowd lined her processional route, and gathered round giant open-air screens to watch the opening ceremony.

Scotland likes to retain a mind of its own, and a political tradition more firmly rooted in an old brand of socialism. There are those separatists who would like to see the country as a fully independent state within the European Union, probably not with a British monarch at its head. Buckingham Palace met devolution with extra activity at Holyroodhouse, including the building of a new art gallery to display items from the Royal Collection.

They deny that the Royal Family started to undertake a greater number of engagements north of the border, but the royal profile in Scotland did become unquestionably higher, with the Princess Royal deputed to undertake a major share of Scottish duties, including being an active and enthusiastic patron of the national rugby team. But on the day that the nation recovered its own Parliament, the Queen’s love of Scotland was amply reciprocated by her people.

And Scotland’s then most famous living son, who almost stole the show on Parliament Day and who donates generously to the nationalist cause, was more than happy to be knighted by his sovereign, enabling him to style himself Sir Sean Connery. Well, James Bond was a Scot too ■

See also: The Monarchy in the 21st Century – A Platinum Jubilee Tribute