It’s time to reclaim the Saltire for every Scot
I’VE never really come round to the idea of emojis, those bulbous, smiley phone faces much beloved of teenagers and people who are just too busy to write out proper words.
I think the tipping point came when former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale conducted an entire interview in emojis. It felt like the end of something. Or perhaps the beginning. Either way, it made my teeth hurt.
Still, emojis are enormously popular, and the big news in this strange, cartoon-like world is that the latest iPhone update includes a symbol for a Saltire. Let joy be unconfined!
I’m only partly joking. While I am a fuddy-duddy when it comes to symbols instead of words (the same goes for abbreviations such as ‘u’, ‘m8’ and ‘lol’ – give me strength ‘plz’) I do like to see the Saltire out there in the world without a politician, a Yes slogan or a bitter Twitter rant about ‘Unionists’ attached to it.
Over the past few years I have watched the slow, insidious politicisation of the Saltire with rising alarm. What was once an apolitical symbol, a flag that stood for all Scots, has now become imbued with Nationalist sentiment – a flag for the few, not the many.
Some of it is subtle, almost subliminal. Like Alex Salmond’s tie collection, much of which features tiny Saltires on it, or Vivienne Westwood, who at London Fashion week four days before the independence referendum sent models down the catwalk wearing Yes badges and waving Saltires (note to Viv: the two are not interchangeable).
Then there was Nicola Sturgeon’s 2015 Christmas card, by illustrator Mairi Hedderwick, which featured her Katie Morag character rushing up the steps of Bute House with a large gift wrapped in a Saltire, and Salmond (him again, I’m afraid) pulling an enormous Saltire from Moira’s handbag to wave at Wimbledon when Andy Murray won the men’s singles title.
Much of it, however, has been more obvious. The commandeering of the Saltire reached its zenith during the referendum campaign, when it became a symbol of the Yes movement and of independence, something that could only be brandished by those supporting The Cause, and frequently was.
For those of us who didn’t support The Cause it felt strangely like a robbery, as though a part of our identity had been whipped away. I felt deeply uncomfortable back then at the loss of my national flag, and I still feel the same way now.
YEARS ago I remember going to some crowded Glasgow pub to watch Scotland play a World Cup qualifier (spoiler alert: we lost) and without guile or forethought painting a Saltire on to my cheek. It pains me to say that I’m not sure I’d be able to do that now, so conscious would I be that anyone would assume I was not so much supporting Scotland, but the SNP.
Meanwhile planting a Saltire flag in the garden is now shorthand for ‘I want an independent Scotland’ and not ‘I love Scotland’, which is what it should be.
The Saltire, or St Andrew’s Cross, was adopted by Scotland back in the 15th century. It has been around for a very long time and to be honest, it’s not going anywhere any time soon, no matter who’s waving it. And so I raise a cri de coeur: it’s time to take the Saltire back. By that I do not mean take it away. Supporters of independence and the SNP have as much right to wave the Saltire as anyone else. But this year, just in time for St Andrew’s Day, can’t we drop the politics?
The Saltire is a flag for all Scots. I might have to break the habit of a lifetime, and use that emoji.