One of the strongest echoes of his situation is that the persecution of the Radicals as they are known – convicted in a series of show trials as blatant as anything Joe Stalin ever managed – was directed by one man.


Henry Dundas, Lord Melville, whose statue looms over St Andrew’s Square in Edinburgh to this day, was Secretary of State in the 1790s. Such was his command of Scotland he was known as Henry the Ninth. Dundas was a close colleague of Pit the Younger the then Prime Minister, till forced from office in 1806 due to charges of having had his hands too deep in the funds of the Royal Navy as First Lord of the Admiralty.


The position of Dundas in Scotland was paramount, as was that of generations of Secretaries of State for Scotland. It was a role that in its absolute control over government spending and patronage in Scotland was much like that of the Governors-General of the colonies of the British Empire. Even though we now have Holyrood, we still have David Mundell in the position. Though


limited by the existence of the Scotish Parliament, he still wields an obscene amount of power over an electorate who, years ago, showed their abhorrence of the ideas he represents by limiting his party’s presence in Scotland to a single seat. In that they are not alone as the Labour Party has at last paid the price for cosying up to the British Establishment and losing the support of the people it claimed to represent for so long. Of the Lib Dems litle need be said.


But why does history mater in a time of such great political change when old certainties ‘slide awa’ like snaw aff a dyke?’ Well, apart from the fact that it was only in 2009 that teaching Scotish history became an official part of the curriculum in our schools, much of what are seen as the cornerstones of Scotish history do not stand up to much scrutiny. The idea has been allowed to develop that essentially we are just a wee country far from the important centres of human life and activity. Recent discoveries at Ness of Brodgar in Orkney show that what was possibly the largest stone building in the world at that time, was de-commissioned around 5,000 years ago with a feast for as many as 10,000 people. It now seems that 20th


century suggestions that the Megalithic


The site of the Batlefield of Culloden near Inverness 44 July 2015


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