Vicious jokes about our dear English cousins in this year of the 300th anniversary of the Acts of Union? Heaven forfend! Anti-Scottish vitriol from said dear cousins? Lawks a mussy! Robert Burns summed up the feelings of the great majority of the people of Scotland with regard to 1707 in his song 'Fareweel tae a' our Scottish Fame', more commonly known today as 'Parcel o' Rogues', the last lines of which are: But pith and power, till my last hour I'll mak this declaration, We're bought and sold for English gold: Such a parcel o rogues in a nation! This book is an anniversary celebration, especially as we are possibly within sight of our own Act of Disunion, of three centuries of jibes, insults, diatribes and rants, some of it in a kind of 'going for the jugular' vein, as in: 'Why do the call it a kilt?' To which the answer is: 'Because a lot of English people get kilt when the call it a skirt', but there is also gentle good humour and a lot of giggles, like: 'What goes putt-putt-putt-putt?' The answer being: 'An English golfer at St Andrews.' And of course in fairness the Sassenachs get their wee say. Old Scottish Proverb: 'If thy neighbour offend thee, give each of his children bagpipes.' You will laugh, you will fall about, you will vote for independence for both nations.
