“Broken clock right twice a day”

On Friday, Norman MacLeod of Bragar, Lewis shared an article from an unlikely source, former Labour MP Brian Wilson.

Norman, a well known supporter of independence on social media said, “I disagree with Brian Wilson on pretty much everything; the Iraq War, his support for Celtic, his increasingly unhinged rants against the SNP and Catalan independence, his support for Nuclear Power and Celtic, his historic support for tolls on the Skye Bridge, his old column in the Free Press (I still have every copy ever printed out in the byre), his links with Vitol’s Ian Taylor and mainly his support for Celtic but as usual he’s hit the sweet spot when talking about the Highland Clearances and Land Reform.”

The article in question which appeared in Edinburgh-based publication the Scotsman, systematically takes apart a recent BBC Radio 4 programme about the Highland Clearances, in which three professors, Tom Devine, Marjory Harper and Murray Pittock, all to varying degrees came up with an analysis of the Highland Clearances that Mr Wilson described as being like “not that big a deal, most of them went voluntarily, nobody really talked about it till the 1960s, get over it…”. Wilson’s taking to task of this “Clearances Denial’ has struck a chord with people on both side of the political divide in the Highlands and Islands, and the article has gone viral.

Norman continued “With Brian, it’s like the other Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, when you cut through all the craziness, at the heart of it are moments of pure joy like this, like the time he described Michael Fry as being like the David Irving of the Clearances. We desperately need a reform of crofting, and for the Scottish Government to deal seriously with the needs of peripheral areas, and we need to ensure that nonsense like Melvyn Bragg’s show isn’t repeated. For the Gaelic voice to be completely absent from this discussion was entirely unforgivable and Brian manages to skewer it concisely.  ”

“A broken clock is right twice a day, as I said in my initial post on social media, and to be fair he can write a cracking obituary. Still, he supports the Celtic.  ‘Mon the Gers.”