Our neighbours north of the border are tangling themselves up in knots trying to intellectualise positions that justify writing bad things about the English. Scotland is a colony and England (or Britain) is an Empire. James Kelman is the latest to trump the tartan and declare "I have nothing against the English, but..." Though, Kelman denies we are even a country: just a blind through which the puppet masters manipulate their real colony, Scotland. No doubt the Booker Prize that Kelman (or other non-English writers have won) is just a Machiavellian sense of misdirection.
Kelman argues that English critics just do not recognise the existence of a Scottish tradition, except in the most trite and insulting fashion. Yet, he also gets tired of being typecast as a Scot, or a Glaswegian or a representative of his country.
"Well, it's not supposed to be that at all," says Kelman. "Why would you think that? Why would you think that any Scottish writer has to represent Scottishness? Is Martin Amis supposed to represent Englishness? Or Ian McEwan?
"English writers make that criticism of me but they would never make that criticism of their own. It would never occur to them. When you say that to them they get a glazed look over their faces. They don't know what you're talking about.
James Kelman is moaning about his success as a famous writer from a small country. Moaning about your success is such an English trait that I have to say, Welcome Mr Kelman, you have fully embraced your Englishness!