First Gaelic now Scots.. SNP bid tae boost lingo
IT is the language of Robert Burns and Hugh MacDiarmid – and while celebrated by supporters, it is often dismissed as slang by critics.
But Scots could be given a major boost, with the SNP set to debate creating a quango to promote it in a similar way to Gaelic.
It is understood a motion, pencilled in for the party’s autumn conference, will demand the language plays a bigger part in public life and education.
It will also argue the minority language must be ‘more widely taught, learned and promoted as part of Scottish public life’.
This would be spearheaded by a new quango, similar to the Bòrd na Gàidhlig, which promotes Gaelic and costs the Scottish Government more than £5 million a year.
Almost a third of the population speak a form of Scots, compared with 1 per cent who speak Gaelic, according to the latest census.
However, some critics argue it is a dialect, not a language, and therefore should not receive special status.
The provisional conference motion – signed by MSPs Alasdair Allan, Stuart McMillan and Richard Lyle, as well as MP Martin Docherty-Hughes – insists the party ‘recognises the importance of the Scots language’. Last night, supporters of Scots claimed the SNP had failed to back it in the way it has supported Gaelic.
Writer and broadcaster Billy Kay said: ‘I took part in the Ministerial Working Group for Scots when Mike Russell was culture secretary about things that should be done to promote Scots. A lot of work went into that – but very little came out. Anything that makes the Government fulfil its responsibilities to a crucial part of Scottish culture is to be welcomed.’
But there will be concern about diverting resources to Scots, when Scotland has slipped down international league tables for reading, maths and science under the SNP’s Curriculum for Excellence.
James Roberts, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘SNP politicians seem determined to fritter money away on their pet projects.’
The Scottish Government said: ‘We take the promotion and preservation of the Scots language seriously and our ambition is for Scots to be recognised, valued and used in public life.’