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Euan McColm: Don’t let Brian Cox distract from Nicola Sturgeon’s contempt

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and actor Brian Cox at Edinburgh Book Festival (Photo: Pako Mera/Shutterstock)
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and actor Brian Cox at Edinburgh Book Festival (Photo: Pako Mera/Shutterstock)

Every family has one, doesn’t it?

There you all are, sweating into the second hour of Christmas dinner when, suddenly, Uncle Jim decides to share an opinion.

Your muscles tense. You glance at your cousin Julie and raise an eyebrow. The room falls uneasily silent.

“I’ve got nothing against them, personally…” says Uncle Jim. Your heart sinks.

Which brings me to an event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival a few days back. While we worried about the cost of living crisis and despaired at the sight of growing mountains of rubbish in the streets of our towns and cities, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon took time out of her busy schedule to make her fifth appearance during a month of festivals in the capital.

On this occasion, the dear leader was interviewing the Dundee-born and New York-resident actor, Brian Cox, who also happens to be a great supporter of Scottish independence.

Brian Cox as Logan Roy in TV series, Succession (Photo: HBO/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Cox is, of course, a hugely talented thesp. From his chilling take on cannibalistic psychopath Hannibal Lecter, to his splendid comic turn as Dundee’s leading would-be political leader, Bob Servant, his performances are never less than excellent.

His ongoing depiction of monstrous media mogul Logan Roy in the TV show Succession is the sort of thing critics describe as a tour de force.

Yes, there’s no doubt that, when it comes to saying words written by other people, Cox is a genius. When he uses his own words, however. Well, that’s another story.

Sturgeon’s reaction to Cox tells us plenty

Sitting on stage with Sturgeon in front of an audience of 700 at the book festival, Cox proclaimed the reason a majority of Scots had rejected the SNP’s independence plans was that, “through conditioning”, they had no confidence.

“It shouldn’t be about personalities,” he added, “it should be about country first. Not politics – country first.”

After decades of insisting that hers is a special kind of nationalism – kind and civic, unlike all the other nationalisms – the first minister did nothing to challenge Cox’s fully unreconstructed version

Presumably detecting that Cox’s finger-jabbing-the-air rant sounded dangerously like the sort of blood and soil nationalism she professes to deplore, Sturgeon quickly added: “And democracy.”

Did Cox think, Sturgeon went on to ask, that there was something about living outside Scotland that allowed him to see this much more clearly than people who reside here?

“Absolutely,” replied the great, wise and modest actor.

We can ignore Cox’s condescending nonsense. Actors love nothing more that the sound of their own voices, after all (I don’t mean you, actor friends), but Sturgeon’s words merit our attention.

After decades of insisting that hers is a special kind of nationalism – kind and civic, unlike all the other nationalisms – the first minister did nothing to challenge Cox’s fully unreconstructed version. Instead, she played along, revealing a contempt for those who don’t share her politics.

Batty Uncle Brian Cox’s remarks told us nothing. Nicola Sturgeon’s reaction told us plenty. And none of it is good.


Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers

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