April 23, 2012
Hypocricy in Scotland over the return of cultural treasures
Scotland regularly makes demands for the Lewis Chessmen to be returned from the British Museum – to Edinburgh. It tends to take a different approach though to cases that are entirely within the country – it becomes a cases that any location is good enough for the artefact, as long as it is in Scotland.
From:
Shetland News
Treasure hypocrisy
Friday, 20 April 2012 | Written by Shetland NewsSHETLAND MSP Tavish Scott has accused the Scottish government of hypocrisy over the St Ninian’s Isle treasure.
During Parliamentary Question Time at Holyrood, Mr Scott quizzed culture secretary Fiona Hyslop on the SNP government’s call for the Lewis Chessmen to be returned to the western isles from the British Museum.
At the same time the government is blocking the return of the St Ninian’s Isle treasure from being returned to Shetland Museum from the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.“Despite having an award winning museum in Shetland it seems that ‘rules is rules’, except when they’re not,” Mr Scott said.
“It is my view that interesting and important artefacts should be on display all around Scotland, encouraging visitors to travel and explore. We should be lending Edinburgh the treasures found in Shetland, not the other way around.
“It seems that the SNP have one approach when a London Museum has something Scottish, but completely the opposite approach when Edinburgh holds onto Shetland’s treasure.”
- Why aren’t the Lewis Chessmen returning permanently : October 26, 2009
- The Lewis Chessmen visit Stornoway museum : November 29, 2011
- The Lewis Chessmen are reunited temporarily : August 13, 2010
- SNP steps up battle for Lewis Chessmen : August 20, 2010
- Some of the Lewis Chessmen to be reunited temporarily in Scotland : October 1, 2009
- Scots want the Lewis Chessmen reunited in Scotland : August 15, 2010
- Calls for Lewis Chessmen to be returned to Scotland : December 24, 2007
- MPs criticise the removal of Scotland from the story of the Lewis Chessmen : March 8, 2010
Nick Noble said,
04.23.12 at 1:13 pm
It’s just another example of the fact that the scottish national party is anything but. They have no interest in areas of low population density simply because there are too few potential votes for their mis-guided independence campaign. When will they wake up to the fact that they have been entrusted with the governance of the whole of Scotland by the people from all areas of Scotland and start to play fair by us all. Until they do I have a better chance of becoming pope than they do of winning a fair independence referendum.