The Secretary of State for Scotland on
appointment takes an oath of loyalty to the Queen. He never takes an
oath of loyalty to Scotland. That is one way of avoiding perjury.
The Emperor Caligula made his horse a Consul. One Russian Emperor
made a flea Chancellor of Russia. Mr Wilson made Willie Ross Secretary
of State for Scotland.
Tom Johnston was President of the Scottish Amicable Building Society
which got into difficulties and was absorbed by the Co-operative
(English) Building Society. He sold out his famous Forward to the
English (having promised Roland Muirhead not to surrender it) and they
killed it.
He was head of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board whose
further development has been vetoed by his Party’s Government.
I have often heard Scottish Nationalists speaking in praise of him
without ever discovering any reason for the praise. He was the best
Scottish Secretary Scotland ever had, I admit. But what does that
signify?
The brain impulses of the dinosaur travelled such a long way to its
body that it was obliged to develop a secondary brain in the bottom. In
this island "the brain in the bottom" is called St. Andrew’s
House.
The dinosaur disappeared despite its two brains into primaeval mud
because it could not evolve quickly enough.
The Scottish Office or the Plastic Macs.
