Bannockburn: Apparently its just because we hate the English!

Sorry! turns out we all hate you apparently.

Normally I try to keep this blog reasonably clear of political opinion (no really I do). It has been suggested many times that the big issue with the Bannockburn celebrations has been the fact that we have great significance in the 700th anniversary of a battle that shaped Scotland's sovereign future and that year just also happens to be the year that Scotland decides on whether it will once more be an independent nation or remain as part of the UK. Many have accused the nationalists of using this anniversary for political ends.

Over the last few months the ins and outs of the process of getting to the point of having this actual vote has been debated both in Holyrood and Westminster. The other day the UK house debated what is called 'section 30' This order would permit the Scottish parliament to run the referendum to decide its future. It was during this debate that a Scottish Labour MP made a very curious outburst.

Glasgow MP Ian Davidson claimed that Scots were only celebrating Bannockburn because they were celebrating the murder of hundreds of thousands of English people! Now apart from his rather skewed figures of how many English died at Bannockburn (Estimates range from 4,000 to 11,000 infantry and 700 cavalry) there is also the small fact that in the same year the UK government is spending a vast amount of money organising celebrations to mark the start of World War one. Will we all be toasting the murder of over 7 million Germans and their allies between 1914 and 1918? what a ridiculous thought.

It seems we are not alone in this opinion if the storm of furious Scots on social network sites like Twitter are to be considered. Here are some of the comments:

Labour MP claims Scots celebrate Bannockburn because English were murdered Davidson & Sarwar are beneath contempt.

Ian Davidson MP actually said the referendum was timed to coincide with the 'celebration of slaughter of the english at bannockburn'! Jesus.

Scottish Labour really are a bitter and twisted little party. How negative can they go?

Can @scottishlabour sink any lower? I am ashamed of them.

@Daily_Record Ian Davidson insults Scots abt Bannockburn yet praises Cameron in his wanting to celebrate WW1 startin! U better print abt it!

so does he think these English soldiers came to Bannockburn for a holiday perhaps?-maybe just a quick game of footie ?

@scottishlabour = what a parcel of rogues in a nation IAN Davidson obviously believes wrong side won at Bannockburn

“Scottish Labour MP claims Scots celebrate Bannockburn because English were murdered" TYPICAL UNEDUCATED COMMENT

Ian Davidson MP sez: "Scots who celebrate Bannockburn do so because hundreds of thousands of English people were murdered" #sad #smallminded

@ScottishSun Are u goin to report the insult thrown at Scots by Lab IanDavidson or is it just SNP u love to report on

By this same token I guess that Northumberland and the Scottish borders are mawkishly celebrating the 'murder' of around 10,000 Scots at Flodden this year or that the Culloden visitor centre celebrates 2,000 Jacobites given a 'right stuffing'.

This a ridiculous statement by a fairly ridiculous man who represents a party becoming more ridiculous by the day. His colleague Labour MP Anas Sarwar has described the Scottish Parliament as a 'dictatorship'. maybe he was asleep during that lecture on political science but there is a slight difference between a 'dictatorship' and a'majority government' allow me to draw you a picture Anas. The utter capitulation of the Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative vote in the last Scottish parliamentary election was clearly the SNP's fault; their fault for running a fair campaign with positive messages, it was clearly the SNP's fault that so overwhelming was the defeat that the leaders of all those parties had to resign. Crikey maybe we are celebrating the 'murder' of Scottish Labour!

The simple truth is that the opposition parties have been using 'Bannockburn' as a political excuse since the referendum date was announced. They are the ones using the event for political gain far more than the SNP. If it helps them maybe they can instead say that 2014 is the 400th anniversary of John Napier's publication of Logarithm tables. Something Ian Davidson shouldn't need to refer to in order to calculate the size of his vote in the next election (take one phone box and fill).