Scotland the brave, Ulster the unsure?

If the United Kingdom was to unravel would it follow in the tragic path of the former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, two multi-ethnic federations which spent nearly 70 years in one political form or another before imploding and transforming into many new nation-states? Probably not, but what effect would it have on the peace process in Northern Ireland?

If Scotland were to gain its independence, questions of its economic viability would obviously be raised. Supporters point to the oil rigs in the North Sea, which would fall within Scottish territorial waters. And not forgetting, of course, tourism and its “boutique Scottishness”.

A clever and award winning Australian journalist Alan Attwood has built a niche industry over the years regaling readers with quirky stories about his “Scottishness”.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Attwood as The Age newspaper’s expert tennis writer would clearly distinguish who was English, and Scottish, as in his own case, even though Scotland has not been an independent nation for over two centuries. There is no separate Scottish passport. Attwood should be applauded for being proud of his Scottish heritage and no one would oppose Scotland regaining its independence in a peaceful manner from London.

Then there is Attwood’s angst about being torn between two cultures, Australian and Scottish:

“Born in Dundee, Scotland but raised in Australia Alan Attwood felt torn between two countries. He went back to Scotland to discover his past but discovered he didn't really belong there either.”

We also have him as a working class hero:

“Alan Attwood was born in Scotland and emigrated to Australia with his family when he was four. He has worked as an abalone packer, a dishwasher and mail sorter, but, since 1978, mainly as a journalist. From 1995 to 1998 he was the New York-based correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, and more recently he has been a columnist for The Age.”

Notice, Scotland is mentioned but not the United Kingdom or Great Britain.

But when it came to tennis players from other disputed regions, such as the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia, Attwood would never go into more detail. Surely, as an expert on all things Scottish and tennis, you would think he would be more precise.

Not all who came from the Soviet Union were Russians: don’t forget the Lithuanians, Ukrainians and so on. Likewise, there was no such thing as Yugoslav, only Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Macedonians, Muslim Bosnians and so on. For many years during the late 1980s and early 90s Attwood refused to listen to those, including myself, who were telling him that Goran Ivanisevic was a Croat, Slobodan Zivojinovic was a Serb; and Monica Seles was an ethnic Hungarian from Serbia.

Regardless of Attwood’s antics, we wish the Scots good luck in their bid for independence and a long term peaceful solution to the troubles in Ulster.