Race watchdog rebukes Finnie

"ENGLISH prat? No-one ever calls you English prat. English b****** maybe, but never English prat."

That was the view - informed by personal experience - of one English person living in Scotland responding to the furore surrounding the now infamous insult directed at Britain’s senior business leader, Digby Jones, by a Scottish Cabinet minister.

That anonymous Englishman was more direct and less diplomatic than many of his countrymen living north of the Border but his experience is shared by many thousands of others.

Ross Finnie, the rural affairs minister who started the debate over anti-English racism, had hoped that the affair would now be over - after all, it is now four days since he directed his "English prat" comment at Mr Jones, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry.

But the debate has not just rumbled on, it has grown and developed and focused attention on the whole thorny issue of anti-English racism.

Sir Timothy Clifford, the director of the National Galleries of Scotland, was born and grew up in England, but he has been in Scotland for 18 years.

He has experienced anti-English racism on many occasions, indeed he once had to involve the police in an attempt to stop a stream of hate mail directed at him because of his origins.

Sir Timothy stressed that the incidents of racial abuse did not even come close to the warmth and affection he had been shown by most Scots. He did, though, admit he had experienced "masses" of anti-English racism during the time he has lived in Scotland.

Sir Timothy said: "About 16 years ago I did receive unpleasant letters, from Scot Nat extremists, but we passed them on to Special Branch and the letters stopped."

However, he stressed: "Having lived in Scotland for so long people know me and know that I fight Scotland’s corner, and that, after all, is the important thing."

Johnny Haynes is one of two former England international football captains living in Scotland - the other is Motherwell manager Terry Butcher.

Mr Haynes, who captained his country at the World Cup in 1962, has been living in Edinburgh for nearly two decades now.

But he insisted that he had never experienced any anti-English prejudice in Scotland.

He conceded that some of the comments from the terraces at Hampden during his playing days were definitely on the prejudicial side but said that he hardly noticed them.

Mr Haynes said: "I have been here for 18 years and I have never really experienced anything like that.

"I am sure there were comments from the crowd when I played in internationals up here but I didn’t really pay attention and I have never been worried about things like that."

Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles, who was born in South Shields in 1956, moved to Aberdeenshire eight years ago.

He was adamant that he had never experienced anti-English feeling, determined to stress that his constituency of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine is a wonderful place to live.

He said: "This is a beautiful constituency and I would not expect to find any racism here."

The Commission for Racial Equality was quick to enter the fray, pointing out that one in every 20 appeals for help it receives in Scotland comes from English people suffering at the hands of the native population.

A statement from the CRE added: "It is not for the CRE to decide which words may or may not cause offence. However, public figures need to provide leadership and should recognise that there are certain phrases that are very emotive and can provoke a negative reaction."

Mr Jones himself was more guarded but equally damning, particularly of the tendency of Scots to believe it is all right to insult the English in a way that would not be acceptable to other nationalities.

He said: "I just think it’s symptomatic of the fact that he probably would not have referred to someone with a different coloured skin, different religion, or from a different part of the world, in that way, but for some reason it seems as if you can say it about the English.

"That is the thing that I think is important. Perhaps it does highlight that Scotland has to look far more globally."

But Mr Jones said that such attitudes were not endemic in Scotland: "It doesn’t happen everywhere. I visit Scotland about six times a year, I visit businesses, I meet politicians, I talk to the media. I’m always made to feel very welcome."