UK Covid Lockdown as 4 January 2020

(As BBC website)  "England is going into lockdown to try to prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed by a surge in coronavirus cases.

Primary and secondary schools will close to almost all pupils, and people will be instructed to stay at home.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are also under lockdown, with schools in Scotland closed until at least the end of January.

What are England's new rules?

People in England will have to stay at home and only go out for essential reasons. Primary and secondary schools will move to online learning for all pupils apart from vulnerable and keyworker children, while those who are clinically extremely vulnerable will be advised to shield.

Activities still allowed include:

• Unlimited exercise outdoors
• Meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
• You can leave home for work, education, training, childcare and for medical appointments and emergencies
• Communal religious worship
• Support bubbles are still allowed and children can move between separated parents

What are the restrictions in Scotland?

Scotland has its own restriction levels - from zero to four.

On Boxing Day, mainland Scotland went into a level four restrictions, while Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles and other island communities are in level three.

From midnight on 4 January, the mainland will move to "enhanced level four restrictions" until at least the end of the month. During this time, schools will be closed to almost all pupils, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says. The islands will stay in tier three.

"Enhanced" level four rules

From midnight on 4 January, all of mainland Scotland is under enhanced level four, or lockdown:

• Nursery, primary and secondary schools will close to all but vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers until February. Learning will move online
• People should only leave home for essential reasons such as caring responsibilities, essential shopping, exercise or seeing their extended household
• Those who are shielding should not go into work, even if they cannot work from home
• A maximum of two people from up to two households can meet outdoors (under-11s are not included in the limit and can play together outside)
• Places of worship will close except for weddings (up to five people) and funeral services (up to 20 people). Wakes are not allowed.
• The definition of an essential business will be tightened with premises such as ski centres, large retail showrooms, and cosmetic clinics required to close

Level four rules

Indoors:

• No household mixing
• Exceptions include providing care to a "vulnerable person", or "extended households" to reduce loneliness
• Children can move between homes of separated parents

Outdoors:

• Up to two households - no more than six adults - can meet in a private garden or a public place like a park
• Children under 12 are not counted and don't need to social distance
• Young people aged 12 to 17 can meet in groups of up to six outdoors - they're not subject to the two-household limit, but need to be physically distanced

Pubs, cafes & holiday accommodation:

• Restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars must close - but takeaways can operate as normal
• Holiday accommodation must close - but hotels, B&Bs and self-catering can open for essential customers (such as people staying for work)
• Hotels and other accommodation providers can serve food up to 10pm to guests

Supermarkets, clothes shops & markets:

• Only essential shops can open, and must follow Covid-safe guidelines.
• Homeware stores and garden centres must close
• Click and collect, online services can open
• Hairdressers, nail salons and other close contact services must close

Sport, leisure & entertainment:

• Indoor sports facilities, including gyms, must close
• You can meet others outdoors for informal exercise or sport - outdoor gyms can remain open
• Outdoor non-contact sports are permitted
• Leisure and entertainment premises, including cinemas, must close
• Film and TV production can continue
• Public buildings, such as libraries, must close - but libraries can operate click and collect

Places of worship:

• Places of worship can open with social distancing and a maximum 20 people
• Wedding ceremonies and civil partnerships, are allowed with social distancing and a maximum 20 people
• Wedding receptions are not allowed
• Funerals and wakes can take place with a maximum of 20 guests

Education:

• Schools, colleges and universities can remain open
• Early learning and childcare can remain open
• Informal childcare is only allowed for parents or guardians employed in essential services

Level three (very high) rules

• Pubs and restaurants can open until 18:00, but alcohol can't be served
• Leisure and entertainment venues must close
• Non-essential travel in or out of the area is not allowed
• Indoor gym use is restricted to individuals
• Hairdressers and barbers can open

Levels two, one and zero

There are three further levels - two, one zero. However, none of these levels currently apply to any area in Scotland.

What are Northern Ireland's rules?

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

A six-week lockdown began in Northern Ireland on Boxing Day.

The new rules include:

• Closure of all non-essential shops, including garden centres and homeware shops
• No click-and-collect services
• Closure of hair and beauty salons
• Hospitality businesses open only for takeaway and delivery
• Leisure and entertainment venues must close
• Off-licences must close by 20:00
• Car washes must close
• Weddings, civil partnership ceremonies and funerals limited to 25 people - wedding receptions not allowed
• Churches can open, but with measures such as compulsory face masks
• Elite sport allowed behind closed doors

Read Northern Ireland's official guidance.

What are the rules in Wales?

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

Wales has a national lockdown. The new level four measures mean that:

• You must stay at home, except for very limited purposes
• You must not visit other households, or meet other people you do not live with, unless they are in your support bubble
• Many types of businesses are required to close
• Wedding receptions and wakes are not allowed

You should also:

• Work from home if you can
• Not travel without reasonable excuse
• Not travel internationally without reasonable excuse

The following must close:

• Venues for events and conferences
• Entertainment venues including theatres and concert halls
• Indoor and outdoor visitor attractions
• Sport courts, golf courses, leisure and fitness facilities
• Holiday accommodation
• Pubs, bars and cafes (except for takeaway and delivery)
• Hairdressers and nail salons
• Non-essential shops (click and collect allowed)
• Libraries (click and collect only)" 

Democratising pensions

Excellent article by my Scottish UNISON NEC Colleague, Stephen Smellie in yesterday's Morning Star. While the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is slightly different in Scotland than England and Wales (stronger trade union rights for example), I would support pretty much all his points for south of the border. 

Our pay, our pensions

Many pension funds end up invested in shares of fracking companies or those supporting the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and other unethical practices. But union reps are leading the way in questioning where pension funds are invested. STEPHEN SMELLIE reports

WOULD you give your boss 20 per cent of your wages every pay day to look after for you?

Would you be happy for them to use that money to speculate on the stock exchange, putting your money into arming dodgy regimes, harming the health of children and destroying virgin forests in the Amazon?

Sounds like some dodgy racket but that is what many workers who are in occupational pension schemes do every pay day.

In the Scottish Local Government Pension Scheme, which I am a member of, between 5 and 8 per cent of our wages goes into our pension fund.

The council employers put in between 13 and 20 per cent of the value of our wages.

Both the employee and employer contributions are deferred wages that otherwise should be in our wage each month.

The money goes to the pension fund which is managed by a pension fund manager overseen by a committee of councillors and shadowed by a pension board made up of employers’ representatives and trade union nominees.

The pension fund manager, in the vast majority of cases, commissions external investment managers to invest my deferred wages with the intent of making a profit so that when I retire I will have a healthy pension.

These external investors take a commission on every bundle of millions they are asked to “look after” and a further commission on every transaction they undertake with my pension pot and rarely actually reveal how much all this management of my deferred wages is costing the pension fund, that is, costing me, who hasn’t had a decent pay rise in many years, and my cash-strapped council employer. Now that does sound like a dodgy racket.

I have no say over where the investments go. Currently they go to buy shares in companies that are investing in fracking and the destruction of indigenous people’s homes in the Amazon to allow access to climate destroying coal reserves; making money out of companies supporting the illegal occupation of Palestinian land; tobacco companies that market their product to children in the developing world.

While most investments are in less dubious areas of capitalist speculation, including a relatively small amount in infrastructure, renewable energy and social housing, it is still true that millions are in highly unethical investments and that I, as a pension fund member, have no say in this.

Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of trade unions, led by my own union Unison, and allies in civic society campaigning around ethical investments, this is beginning to change.

Pension fund managers, some very unwillingly, are being forced to address these issues.

The advent, in the past few years, of trade union members on pension fund boards has allowed for challenges to be made to the previous arrangements where pension managers were given almost free rein to do what they wanted as the council committees nodded through annual reports that were opaque.

After years of campaigning the trade unions have secured agreements that pension funds will only engage external managers who agree to sign and adhere to a transparency code which requires them to give a full account of all the costs that they are charging to the pension funds.

This will allow pension funds to compare the costs they are being charged with what other funds are charged.

Remarkably, and predictably, this has led reductions in the fees being charged to pension funds.

The trade union reps are leading in questioning where pension funds are invested. Unison, supported by a number of environmental campaign groups, launched a campaign last year for disinvestment from fossil fuels.

Millions are invested in companies that continue to trade on the exploitation of more and more fossil fuels when government policy across the world is moving away from the high-carbon economies and accepting that fossil resources should mostly be left in the ground.

Investments in fossil fuels is not only encouraging more damage to our climate but also risks our pension funds being left with “stranded assets” as the value of these companies declines as the world moves to a low-carbon economy.

In Scotland, Unison is launching a campaign to argue that the 11 local government pension funds, run by 11 different managers and supervised by 11 different committees and boards, should be merged into one Scottish fund.

This would create a significant fund that would be able to make huge savings in the cost of the external investment management.

Instead of 11 funds employing the same companies and all being charged separately there would be one contract negotiated and subject to the most transparent accountability.

A Scottish fund would have the advantage of larger sums to invest, making it a major player, able to get better investment returns and have greater influence over ethical investments.

There would be greater potential to invest in infrastructure projects that can provide benefits to the community as well as good returns for the pension fund members.

Importantly it would also mean that greater use of in-house investment managers rather than relying on the external Maserati-driving investment managers who profit at our expense.

In-house teams in Lothians and elsewhere have proved successful and cheaper and all of Scotland should be able to benefit from this.

Research shows that hundreds of millions of improved returns and savings in costs could be achieved if the 11 Scottish funds were merged.

That is hundreds of millions of pounds that could both improve the pensions of local government workers and reduce the costs to the employers, and ultimately the council tax payers, of pension contributions. Savings that could then be used for better pay rises and protecting local services.

Unison will be targeting Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay who is considering options for the pension funds. One fund makes sense and we hope to persuade him that one fund is the best option.

Trade unions have in the past only got active around pensions when proposals to increase members’ contributions or cut benefits have been proposed. That is changing.

Pensions are our deferred wages and we are entitled to have a say in how they are managed for our future.

Unison and our sister unions are leading a movement for decent, sustainable and ethical pensions. These are our pensions. Why shouldn’t we have greater control over them?

Stephen Smellie is deputy convener of Unison Scotland.

Claims of ‘permanent Conservative rule’ after Scottish independence don’t stand up to history

For some reason I didn't get around to posting this before the referendum on Scottish Independence.  At the Labour Party conference last week I heard the "myth" still being repeated.

"It’s common to hear claims like this about the effect of Scottish independence on future UK elections. The argument goes that since Scotland has predominantly Labour MPs, then without Scotland the UK would have a permanent Conservative majority in the House of Commons.

This reasoning doesn’t stand up to past experience. Since 1918, only four UK general election outcomes would have been affected had Scottish MPs been taken out of the equation.

Election	Winner	Winner (no Scotland)
1918	CON	CON
1922	CON	CON
1923	Hung – CON largest	Hung – CON largest
1924	CON	CON
1929	Hung – LAB largest	Hung – LAB largest
1931	CON	CON
1935	CON	CON
1945	LAB	LAB
1950	LAB	LAB
1951	CON	CON
1955	CON	CON
1959	CON	CON
1964	LAB	Hung – CON largest
1966	LAB	LAB
1970	CON	CON
1974 Feb	Hung – LAB largest	Hung – CON largest
1974 Oct	LAB	Hung – LAB largest
1979	CON	CON
1983	CON	CON
1987	CON	CON
1992	CON	CON
1997	LAB	LAB
2001	LAB	LAB
2005	LAB	LAB
2010	Hung – CON largest	CON

In 1964 Labour won a slim majority; without Scottish MPs it would have been a hung parliament with the Conservatives as the largest party. In the October 1974 election (the second that year), Labour again secured a wafer-thin majority, but without Scotland it would have fallen short with the Conservatives as the largest party. Most recently, in 2010 the Conservative party would have had a majority if Scotland were taken out; in reality of course it fell short.

That’s not to say it wouldn’t be more difficult for Labour: a majority of Scottish MPs have been Labour at every election since 1955, and Labour remains dominant by historical standards. Hence the ‘advantage’ to the Conservatives in Scotland’s absence is getting bigger

Gordon saves the Union, Scotland says No...time now to move on

To be clear I am so relieved with the result today, yet people I know and respect are utterly desolate and devastated.  Democracy is noble and uplifting but it also can be very cruel and personal.

I don't care what the vile trolls of both camps think or say but I do think that everyone now needs to move on and do what is best for Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

While my preferred option at this moment would be a Federal Britain of democratic regions and nations, I want us all to decide it by "the Scottish way" - that is - openly argue and passionately debate our common future.  England and Wales please note!

Solidarity with Scotland: Vote No since We are all Better Together

This beautiful illustration by the 19th Century socialist artist, Walter Crane, is about international Labour solidarity (not the UK Labour Party). However it symbolises to me why I believe that it will be a defeat for working people and wider progressive politics, if Scotland votes for separation. Nationalism is incompatible with such solidarity in my view. No matter how well intentioned

To be clear, this will not be the end of the world for Scotland or the rest of the UK if there is a Yes Vote today. While I would be personally heart broken if it happens, I will get over it and life will move on. Despite the myths, the Labour Party can win general elections without the Scottish vote (only twice in 100 years have they been needed). Neither will Scotland become immediately bankrupt nor descend into some rabid extreme nationalist state. This will not happen.

Yet these are some of my fears: -

I do think that the biggest beneficiaries of separation will be big business who will use our internal divisions for a race to the bottom and further drive down fair taxation, decent wages and employment rights.

I don't actually believe that any country can really be independent if it has no meaningful control or influence over its currency.

Jobs in the Scottish financial services industry will be hard hit. Tonight by co-incidence I was at a London Pension committee and three of our fund managers/advisers had flown in from Scotland to give presentations. I wonder how many we will see if there is independence and relocation to England?

I suspect that if there was independence, that the SNP will fall apart since they are a messy coalition who would have achieved their raison d'etre.  The Scottish Tories could then gradually reclaim their political dominance in Scotland. Read your history books. It is no coincidence in my view that the Tories use to have majority support in Scotland before the rise of the SNP.

As someone who has lived in Scotland and experienced middle class "Morningside Edinburgh", I don't think that the Scottish Establishment will be that much better than London if they have full powers.

You are not going to do very much about getting rid of nuclear weapons either if they (and I have my doubts this would happen in practice) are simply relocated to Northern England or Wales.

Being Scots/Welsh I am deeply worried that the genie of English nationalism will be let loose and 54 million English will dominate the 5.3 million in Scotland and the 3.1 million in Wales without the checks and balances of an union.

Finally, I think this quote is important even though he has decided not to participate in this referendum. "I grew up in the shipyards and docks and have always remembered that I have much more in common with a welder from Liverpool than I do with an agricultural guy from the highlands.... I have never been a nationalist" Billy Connolly.  Nuff said?

Let's Stay Together - 'Scotland, you're my best friend'

"This is the campaign for everyone in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who doesn't have a vote in The Scottish Referendum, but wants to have voice in saying #letsstaytogether
Take a closer look and sign up here: http://www.letsstaytogether.org.uk"

"Breaking the LGPS out of its pre-Maxwell time warp"

Check out UNISON Dave Watson post "I was speaking in a panel debate on governance at a well-attended Scottish Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) conference in Edinburgh today.

The LGPS is facing some major changes to governance structures and pension funds are focused on what this means for the existing funds. The essence of my argument was that the LGPS is stuck in a pre-Maxwell time warp.

For those not familiar with the history of pensions governance, Robert Maxwell committed a massive fraud by plundering his employees' pension funds in order to shore up his companies. As a result, pensions law changed to include better member representation on pension funds and a legal separation from the employer.

This has been followed through in European law through the provisions of the IORP Directive. The LGPS is probably the last pension fund to operate with limited member representation and there is no separation from the administering authority.

The pensions committee of Scotland's eleven funds are simply council sub-committees with councillors making the decisions. UNISON believes the current structures are unlawful, but they have to change anyway to comply with the UK Public Service Pensions Act.

A consultation paper that sets out the issues will be published this week. Even more challenging for the current funds is the concept of scheme merger or at least shared services. UNISON has commissioned expert evidence that leads us to believe that larger funds perform better and reduce investment costs.

Paying £millions to the same 'masters of the universe' who created the financial crash, is a particular concern to our members who are suffering the consequences with pay and job cuts.

Interestingly, another presentation at the conference came to a similar conclusion on external fund management costs. In the current financial environment, paying too much to fund managers means even bigger cuts in services.

The same applies to poor investment performance. In addition, we could use the £24bn of assets in the Scottish funds for useful local investment, rather than investing almost half of it abroad.

Strengthening LGPS scheme governance is long overdue and members have a right to have a meaningful say in the decision making process".

A Man's a Man for A' That

Tonight (January 25) is the anniversary of the birth of Scottish Baird, Rabbie Burns and is the traditional time to mark his life with poetry, haggis and a glass (or three) of whisky. However, like many people I will be celebrating his life over the weekend. My Father was born and bred in Scotland and he loved to read Burns and recite out loud. While I must admit to being at times somewhat linguistically challenged at some of the poetry, I don't think anyone with any social conscious cannot fail to be moved at the simple beauty and meaning of his language in A Man's a Man for A'That and not understand its message of liberty, equality and universal human rights.

(It helps of course if you have a 18th Century Scots/ 21st Century English dictionary)

Hat tip "The Macalmans" check Youtube version for some "Notes for the Sasunnach and other strange folks" i.e dictionary of some of the more unusual words.

Burns Night? - so what's all that about then?

I couldn't do it today but I will be cooking this week some of the Haggis (with traditional Neeps and Tatties) that I captured during the hunt the other weekend, washed down with a wee dram (or three) for my very lucky fellow housing officers. They cannot wait! (honest)!

Hat-tip UNISONactive. 

On a visit to a hospital the Prince of Wales goes up to a bed and asks the patient how he’s doing. The patient whispers “We sleekit cowerin, timourous beastie”. At the next bed, the patient answers, “A man’s a man for a’ that”. Puzzled, the Prince of Wales moves on to the next bed and the patient says, “My luve is like a red red rose”.

The royal visitor then asks the nurse “What’s going on? - “It’s the Burns unit sir”, she says.

Such is the fame of Robert Burns that people get that joke all across the English speaking world – and further.

In 2008, the Independent newspaper said that Burns Night “is the night that the Scots behave oddly. They put on their tartan, stuff themselves with haggis, neeps and tatties, "sit bousing at the nappy getting an' getting fou and unco happy".

Odd it may be to the suits and cravats at the Independent, but it is a unique part of Scotland’s traditions.
Only we have a supper dedicated to a poet and it is only to Burns.  You don’t hear of a Shakespeare Supper, a Dickens Dinner, a Tolstoy Tea, a Balzac Barbecue or a McGonagall Munch, so why is Burns so special?

In 1796 on the 21st July Robert Burns died. Why did his friends organise a supper in 1802 so that they could gather, read out his poems, sing his songs, have a meal of haggis and drink to his memory? And why will people around the world this week still be celebrating Burns?  Does the fact that, in the 1700s, an amazing 75% of Scots were literate have anything to do with it?

Had Robert Burns lived today, his earnings from one song alone -- Auld Lang Syne -- would have made him a multi-millionaire on a par with writers like Paul McCartney. Yet, when he died, aged thirty-seven, he was a poor man – partly due to the same injustices he so brilliantly observed in many of his works.   He was a proud and generous man, who dared to dream of a society where neither rank nor wealth mattered - Burns the revolutionary.

He also loved Scotland and dared to write Scots Wha Hae only 40 years or so after the 1745 rebellion – combining patriotism and a hate of oppression.

Wha for Scotland's King and Law, Freedom's sword will strongly draw,

Freeman stand or freeman fa', Let him follow me!

By oppression's woes and pains, By your sons in servile chains,

We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!

The man of passion and tenderness. Ex First Minister Jack McConnell once said, “The spirit of Robert Burns is the spirit of Scotland, - a country of passion, one always open to new ideas and a place where people of all backgrounds and cultures can flourish together”.

That passion, tenderness, empathy for the living being – and closeness to the earth - also manifested itself in the few lines almost all of the population can recite 200 years later – the lines written by Burns when he is horrified he may have destroyed a field mouse’s home:

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou needna start awa sae hasty, Wi bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, Wi' murdering pattle.

I'm truly sorry man's dominion, Has broken Nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion, Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor, earth born companion, An' fellow mortal!

The man of humour. The fun shines through from Tam O’Shanter, to the wicked portraits of establishment figures, to the lyrical ‘To a Louse- On seeing one on a lady's bonnet at church’.

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner, Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,

How daur ye set your fit upon her -- Sae fine a lady!

Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner, On some poor body.

But even then, Burns’ piercing insight finishes the poem with lines often used to this day to underline self-awareness and slam self-importance or pomposity …

O wad some Power the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!

It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An' foolish notion:

What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

And the other man of passion. The man who had a fair attraction for the lassies – but more of that later.  There’s no doubt Burns was a revolutionary of his time. A supporter of the French Revolution, the man who dreamed of a society where neither rank nor wealth mattered.

Unlike Byron and Shelley, who were members of quite wealthy families, Burns was the son of a working gardener. Burns didn’t identify with the people from the outside like Shelley. He knew the people, because he was one of them.

He started work at the plough when he was 14. In his own words, his life consisted of "combining the gloom of a hermit with the toil of a galley slave." His first poem, Handsome Nell, was written at the age of 16.

We’re having Burns Suppers in a year when we’ll have a general election. That led Colin Fox to recently write of the message in ‘Ballad of Mr Heron’s Election’ where Burns’ supports a Whig standing for parliament. Burns’ vision of a truly representative House of Commons written more than 200 years ago still has something to say today.

We are no tae be bought and sold, Like nowte and nags, and a that

Then let us drink: ‘The Stewartry, Kerroughtree’s laird, and a’ that

Our representative to be: For weel he’s worthy a’ that

For a’ that and a’ that Here’s Heron yet for a’ that!

A House of Commons such as he, They wad be blest that saw that.

And in the face of the prevailing views about slavery at the time Burns lived, he wrote a short poem in 1792 called The Slave’s Lament, showing that empathy again, about the homesickness of a man snatched from Senegal and put to work on a Virginia plantation. Burns gets inside the person. He humanises and challenges. It is possibly the first in the English language from the perspective of a slave.

It is a poem the famous African American author and activist Maya Angelou has said used to inspire her students.

It was in sweet Senegal, That my foes did me enthral

For the lands of Virginia, -ginia, O Torn from that lovely shore

And must never see it more, And alas! I am weary, weary, O!

All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost, Like the lands of Virginia,—ginia, O:

There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, And alas! I am weary, weary O:

There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, And alas! I am weary, weary O:

The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear, In the lands of Virginia,—ginia, O;

And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear, And alas! I am weary, weary O:

And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear, And alas! I am weary, weary O:

Less than half a century after Scottish clans had risen against the English Crown, the establishment was edgy, with many people accused of sedition, treason, or sympathising with the reform movement.

The enlightenment was well under way and the concepts of liberty, brotherhood and equality – the Rights of Man -had already been espoused in Scotland, by Voltaire in France and Paine in the new America, making the British establishment even more edgy.

Yet, amidst all this, Burns cast caution to the wind, and greeted the French Revolution. In Why Should we idly waste our Prime - Repeating our oppressions? He writes the potentially dangerous lines:

"Proud Priests and Bishops we'll translate, And canonise as Martyrs;

The guillotine on Peers shall wait; And Knights shall hang in garters.

Those Despots long have trod us down, And judges are their engines;

Such wretched minions of a Crown < Demand the People's vengeance!

Today tis theirs. Tomorrow we Shall don the Cap of Libertie!"

Burns revolted against all forms of oppression and hypocrisy. Brought up as a Presbyterian, he had little time for the clergy, as we see from the poem "Holy Willy's Prayer” poking fun at the self-important and hypocritical church elder.

O Lord, Thou kens what zeal I bear, When drinkers drink, an' swearers swear,

An' singing here, an' dancin there, Wi' great and sma';

For I am keepit by Thy fear Free frae them a'.

But yet, O Lord! confess I must, At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust:

An' sometimes, too, in worldly trust, Vile self gets in;

But Thou remembers we are dust, Defil'd wi' sin.

O Lord! yestreen, Thou kens, wi' Meg Thy pardon I sincerely beg;

O may't ne'er be a livin' plague To my dishonour,

An' I'll ne'er lift a lawless leg Again upon her.

And the list of folk he had no time for was reasonably long.

It extended to lawyers, wealthy landowners, aristocrats, politicians and kings. In Tam O' Shanter, the climax is a witches' Sabbath with all kinds of gruesome sights. And pride of place is given to lawyers and priests:

"Three Lawyers' tongues, turned inside out, Wi' lies seamed like a beggar's clout;

Three Priests' hearts, rotten, black as muck, Lay stinking, vile, in every neuk."

Burns could indeed be reckless. When he was hoping for support from the local gentry for the first edition of his poems, he didn’t spare the landlord and their ladies in the Twa Dogs, where he uses a laird's pet and a working collie to discuss how their masters live.

Their days insipid, dull and tasteless, Their nichts unquiet, lang an’ restless,

The men cast out in party-matches, Then sowther a’ in deep debauches

Ae nicht they’re mad wi’ drink and whoring .

Niest day their life is past enduring. His address to George the Third in A Dream takes even more risks but makes the point powerfully:

Far be’t from me that I aspire, To blame your legislation

Or say ye wisdom want, or fire < To rule this mighty nation.

But faith I muckle doubt, my Sire, Ye’ve trusted ministration

To chaps, wha in a barn or byre Wad better fill their station

Than courts yon day.

But the establishment got its revenge in other ways. In 1789, the year the Bastille fell, he was working in the excise office. In 1791 he was able to give up farming as a full time port officer. But further promotion was hindered by his outspoken views.

But the words he wrote still inspire those across the world today who resist oppression and who cherish freedom and equality.  And let’s finish by looking at Burns and the lassies.  Burns loved people - especially women and quite a few of them in his lifetime.

He had a total of twelve children by four women, including four by Jean Armour before they married and five after.  All this was often used to criticise Burns, but in those days such things were by no means unusual. What was unusual is that Burns looked upon all the children he fathered as his own, and not just the mother's, responsibility.

The tenderness of his love poems resonates today as much as it must have done 200 years ago.  The beauty, the sentiments, the warmth, the naturalness and the rhythms of poems which were often meant to be sung do not go out of date and have not gone out of date.

Ae Fond Kiss must be one of the most beautiful. After meeting Agnes McLehose in Edinburgh, they carried on a correspondence as Clarinda and Sylvander. The relationship suffered after he left Edinburgh and took up with Jean Armour again, not to mention an affair with Agnes’s maid before that. 
But when Burns heard Agnes (Nancy) was heading to the West Indies, he wrote Ae Fond Kiss – a masterpiece of love, despair and hopelessness - and sent it to her.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy, Naething could resist my Nancy:

But to see her was to love her; Love but her, and love for ever.

Had we never lov'd sae kindly, Had we never lov'd sae blindly,

Never met-or never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

In 1790, Burns wrote ‘John Anderson My Jo’ one of his most touching lyrics, written from a wife to her husband in old age, celebrating enduring love.

John Anderson, my jo, John, We clamb the hill thegither;

And monie a canty day, John, We've had wi' ane anither:

Now we maun totter down, John But hand in hand we'll go,

And sleep thegither at the foot John Anderson, my jo

A Red Red Rose is probably Burns’ most famous love song and has been quoted by Bob Dylan as an inspiration in his writing.

It is written to someone he has parted from – and who he hopes to meet again one day. People read a lot into the complex images in this song. Did Burns’ mean the interpretation that the rose ‘newly sprung in June’ would of course wither in time?

Did Burns even write it, or was it one of the 600 songs and poems he collected? Was it in fact another poem to Nancy, three years later?  For me it is pure Burns, reflecting about the love of falling in love and a beautiful passionate declaration of that love.

O my Luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June:

O my Luve's like the melodie, < That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun;

And I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve! And fare-thee-weel, a while!

And I will come again, my Luve, Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

So who was Burns and why do we celebrate him?  There are people that will argue all day about that and he has been seen as different things at different times.  He was a man of great complexity – yet great simplicity.  A man who loved the lassies but didn’t forget his responsibilities. A man who loved to love.  A man who saw through the frills and front of society and told it how it was.  A man with faults but who knew his faults better than anyone else.  A patriot, but also an internationalist. A lover of Scotland but a man who knew Scotland’s faults and knew the kind of Scotland he wanted to live in.

And a man with a deep belief in equality. A democrat and a man with no truck for privilege and oppression. A man who could sit inside the feelings of a slave. 
No better words sum that up than the ones that opened the new Scottish Parliament and will be repeated around the world this week. Words that have inspired many who have striven for equality over the years.  Simple words with an optimistic – but I hope an inevitable prediction.

For a' that and a' that, It's coming yet for a' that

That man tae man the world o'er, Shall brithers be for a' that.

I give you Scotland's unique and special toast - the immortal memory of Robert Burns.
John Stevenson

With grateful thanks to those I borrowed from