The marking of heritage and anniversaries has always had merit but really should we be letting some of our MSP's near the planning process?
Here's the point in question....
A proposal has been put forward to designate 2011 as The Year of Sir Walter Scott. A great idea you may think; wonderful Scot, world reknowned literary genius with titles such as Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor.
So what is the venerable MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale MSP Jeremy Purvis suggesting we mark?
He is suggesting (in all seriousness) that 2011 should will mark the 200th anniversary of him starting to build his Borders home, Abbotsford House.
That's it 2011 will be The Year of the Homebuilding.
He has been quoted as saying that, "Without Scott there would not be the tourism sector we have today. Before Scott tourism was the pastime for the landed super rich on grand tours. However, with Scott came unprecedented mass tourism, a genuine Scottish invention."
I think appreciating Scott's works, Burns' birth even the 150th anniversary of The Open Championship (1860 - 2010) is laudable but really the starting of building a home?
Dear Mr Purvis, contrived events often fail to work for the very reason that they are contrived. Let's celebrate and commemorate and promote and be proud of the history and heritage but let's do so in a manner that is realistic and genuinely means something and not simply try to pull a quick one - or as Walter may have put it...
"Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!"
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