Brian Cox wasnt exactly boldly going against public opinion in Scotland when he declared Liz Truss the “wrong person for the job” on Question Time.
He genuinely and deeply cares about this place.
It comes across in his appearances and interviews.
It also comes across in his presence in the city.
Me and my partner were in the DCA when Brian was in visiting the other day.
He chatted to a few staff, remembered them from his last visit, asked how various projects were going.
He wasnae giving it the Billy Big Baws, he was interested.
Yet there were plenty of people who raged against the Dundonian legend for even daring to have an opinion on Scottish and UK politics.
He doesnae live here, runs the argument in the comments and the feeds, so he should shut his pus.
As one commentator put it: “When Cox comes back to live over here, his opinions might carry some relevance. As it is, his views shouldn’t be given the time of day by media outlets.”
Brian Cox isn’t the only star with opinions on our politics
My pro-independence side of the argument have been a bitty guilty of the same behaviour.
I mind distinctly being raging when Kate Moss and Eddie Izzard stuck their oar in during the first independence referendum.
Eddie was giving it the “I am a British person, so I thought I wanted to come up and say ‘please don’t go’” at a little press conference he organised in 2014 in Edinburgh.
Kate Moss at the time pleaded “Scotland, stay with us” when she accepted a Brit Award on behalf of David Bowie.
Which would be a lame line if she wasnae so outlandishly glamorous.
Even thinking back to the blow-ins that got involved in the first referendum – Sir David Attenborough, for example, and Olympic diver Tom Daley – makes my mind boggle a bit.
For all the criticism of Brian Cox having an opinion whilst biding elsewhere, at least the man truly, deeply cares about Dundee and Scotland.
Brian Cox.
Alan Cumming.
Irvine Welsh.All support Scottish independence.
All love Scotland so much they live in the USA.Do they think they are John Paul Jones?
— Malcolm Tucker (@gorbalsgoebbels) August 7, 2022
Throughout Covid, I attended several online Scottish political and cultural events where Brian was present.
He contributed poetry. He listened. And he took an active part in our modern Scottish conversation.
I do wonder how many online Burns Suppers Eddie Izzard volunteered in over lockdown.
How invested are the other interlopers in our continuing political and cultural life, I wonder?
Does ageing nature hero Attenborough lug in to his regular Stooshie Scottish Politics podcast?
Does Kate Moss spit out her cereal of a morning when she sees Yes ahead in the polls?
Or did this whole ragtag bunch get involved in our business for half a second to say something saccharine before swanning straight back south?
Well, in truth, it doesn’t matter.
Scotland is secure enough to see ourselves as others see us
Scotland is not a closed shop.
We are not doomed to speak in circles only to ourselves.
We have a massive global presence.
And they talk about Scotland whether or not we listen.
My old granny is fae Crail originally but for many decades she has been living in Paraparaumu in New Zealand.
She still has thoughts on Scottish independence (she is well keen on it).
Her kids, a generation removed, have thoughts too, which they’re happy to voice.
Brian Cox is just one of the many Scots whose careers take them abroad.
Maybe they want to go, maybe they have to.
Regardless, many of the brightest and best that Scotland produces leave.
We would be mad to block out their thoughts and input, and madder still to dingy their genuine passion for this place where we live.
Scotland is not an island.
We live in a constant dialogue with the outside world.
It enriches us.
Give us your views – wherever you’re from
All the London Scots that live away but populate the regular massive ceilidh dances, stow out the members’ clubs for Burns Nights or network at the Scotland House to bring more business north.
📣 Ceilidh Club spotlight this week: @ainsleyhamill 🎤
Mix Heather Small and Julie Fowlis, and you've got English & Scottish Gaelic singer-songwriter Ainsley Hamill…'Not Just Ship Land' is out on all streaming platforms 💽 https://t.co/Ij9Iwa8aOh#ainsleyhamill pic.twitter.com/rD6nYthFLO
— Ceilidh Club (@ceilidhclub) October 19, 2022
They add to Scotland even from afar.
And we are, for the present – and forever – part of this wider island of peoples.
The Welsh, the Yorkshireish, the Cornish, the Manx, they all have their own relationships with people in Scotland, and Scotland as a notion and an idea.
If people want to express opinions about life and politics here, good.
We should be grateful of all this honest good feeling towards this place.
Lord knows those of us who live here can get negative enough about it at times.
So a fair wind blowing fae outside it can freshen things up a bit.
It might be galling for me when your likes of Izzard stick their neb in – because I disagree with him.
It clearly ripped the knitting of many whenever old Sean Connory pontificated about Scotland from his Carribean abode, because they did not accord with his words.
But whatever Scotland we’re in the process of making and remaking, surely it is one where the genuine voices from people that care for it are welcome, and to be heard?
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