Susan Boyle And Swine Flu - Is This Modern Scotland?
Last week, before most of us had ever heard of swine flu, a team of experts arrived at Pacific Quay to help us take the temperature of Scotland. These were not, I hasten to add, men and women in decontamination suits. They were audience research bods who have already been working with ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2 and, well, if you look at the success of that station you can see why I'm keen to tap into their know-how.
For this first meeting they had asked me and the station editors to come along with an object which we thought might represent contemporary Scotland. I considered turning up with a packet of shortbread or a tin of haggis. I could have made a legitimate case for both, but decided this was no time for irony. Instead I brought along a copy of the Grand Theft Auto game for the Playstation 3. This, I explained, was indicative of the multi-million pound games software industry in Dundee but also said something about our fascination with crime. A colleague came carrying a huge cardboard cut-out of our tennis champion Andy Murray. Reversing it he showed us a typical street ned wearing a hoodie and carrying a can of lager.
As the meeting progressed, a pattern began to emerge. Every story seemed to have two sides . We talked a lot about Scottish success stories but I'm afraid alcohol and crime were never far from our thoughts. The experts - mainly London-based - expressed surprise at the tone of our discussion. They suggested there was something very Scottish in the way that we seemed to care so much about the flip-side of society and pointed out how often we used the word 'we' instead of 'them'.
I wondered aloud if that was just the mind-set of bleeding heart media types but the experts assured me that our thinking was different from the media folk they has worked with elsewhere.
A few days later I decided to take the experiment a little further. I went onto Facebook and Twitter to ask the same question of my 159 "friends" and 57 "followers". I got about 25 responses and and here's a selection:
Susan Boyle, introspection & random violence, cappucino culture by day and mass drunkenness by night, neds & buckfast, David Tennant & GlasVegas, salt or sauce, STV & Weightwatchers, Celtic & Rangers, Music & Football, the Titian in the National Gallery of Scotland & Big Issue sellers on the street.
So let me extend the challenge to blog readers. Name two things that define contemporary Scotland. Anyone for swine flu?
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