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Drive to bring home Scots set to net country £40 million

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Published Date: 06 March 2008
By brian ferguson
A YEAR-LONG drive to attract "affinity Scots" to the country in 2009 is forecast to deliver a £40 million boost to the economy.
More than 100 events are expected to be held as part of the Homecoming Scotland initiative.

Just £5 million is being provided by the Scottish Government to fund programming and marketing, but organisers say they are confident the huge econo
mic windfall will be delivered.

At least six "iconic" celebrations are envisaged, along with a major programme of themed events, all to be spread around the country.

Homecoming Scotland, organised to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, will see campaigns organised to bring "home" Scots who have moved abroad as well as those with Scottish ancestry.

Just two major events have been confirmed – a massive clan gathering in Edinburgh's Holyrood Park and a revival of the Outsider festival, near Aviemore.

However, EventScotland's chief executive, Paul Bush, insisted details of a string of other high-profile events are expected to be confirmed within the next month.

He revealed there had been huge demand for funding from event organisers, with more than 180 applications for a £1 million cash pot.

Mr Bush told The Scotsman: "There are five main pillars at the heart of Homecoming Scotland – Burns, golf, whisky, the Enlightenment and innovation – and these will obviously be reflected in the programme of events."





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  • Last Updated: 05 March 2008 10:44 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Scotland's population
 
1

,

06/03/2008 02:00:59
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
2

Snuffy Ivy,

Aberdeen 06/03/2008 02:01:22
A likely story! Do you seriously think exPats will want to spend 2 dollars to the UK pound? Another pipe dream.
The reasons are always about the financial windfall er ripoff. Stay at home Yanks!
3

Toots - Sheila,

Canada 06/03/2008 02:08:43
I have waited 30 years for the nation to stir. Finally you get it that the Labour Party has done nothing for Scotland. Hallelujah!
If it weren't for the fact that I have life-long firends in Scotland I would NEVER set foot in the country and here's why!
As long as you permit Scotland's financial insitutions to cream billions from its clients (the "endowment debacle") to put this into the pockets of management and staff occupational plans for which I and millions of other Sots around the globe are paying with debts on our homes for life I will be ashamed to call myself a Scot.
This is NOT the free Scotland of which I dreamed. It is a carbon copy of the thieving leaching scumballs in the south of England!
SORT IT OUT ALEX!!!!!
4

Toots - Sheila,

Canada 06/03/2008 02:10:43
I have waited 30 years for the nation to stir. Finally you get it that the Labour Party has done nothing for Scotland. Hallelujah!
If it weren't for the fact that I have life-long firends in Scotland I would NEVER set foot in the country and here's why!
As long as you permit Scotland's financial insitutions to cream billions from its clients (the "endowment debacle") to put this into the pockets of management and staff occupational plans for which I and millions of other Sots around the globe are paying with debts on our homes for life I will be ashamed to call myself a Scot.
This is NOT the free Scotland of which I dreamed. It is a carbon copy of "business" as per the thieving leaching sc-mballs in the south of England!
SORT IT OUT ALEX!!!!!
5

subrosa,

06/03/2008 02:19:35
There are Scots all over the world doing sterling work to organise this event and make it happen - all for no financial reward. So my congratulations go to them, particularly the few I know such as Val and Rex. Hope you read this you two!
6

subrosa,

06/03/2008 02:23:44
# 4

I appreciate your anger. I too lost a great deal of money through endowments I took out in the 80s. Unfortunately I will now have a mortgage until I die and have to work until I'm unable to do so. Then I shall give up the home I worked 40 years to have for my retirement and move to a council property I expect.

Don't think I'm accepting of this, I've tried and shouted and screamed at anyone who would listen but all I've met is brick walls. It's a total disgrace and one which seemed to be buried by politicians of every hue.
7

Navvy,

singapore 06/03/2008 03:38:44
#1 "insular ostracisation " you have it in a nutshell.

One of our worst characheristics closely associated with our cringe and chip about England.

It Scots who left home, taking many of our best values with them, which helped build the Empire - now commonwealth and USA, Australia NZ and all the rest. Japan owes much of its industrial prowess to Scots who helped them with lighthouses shipbuilding caol mining and more. It was a Scot which founded the Bank of England. we have colonised England and many other countries
8

KampungHighlander,

Jakarta 06/03/2008 05:15:42
Homecoming Scotland? Is that about the Scottish Diaspora coming home for a holiday or to return permanently? If it is about them coming back to make their lives in Scotland, your going to need much more than a few parties to tempt them back. They reason they left was they had ambition. Ambition to create a better life for their families. Unless Scotland has had a dramatic change in culture, from a place that despises success and revels in mediocrity. I think they'll just come for the party and when its done get on the plane and go home. If you want them back permanently try changing tax policies that punish the successful and reward the lazy.
9

yockel,

06/03/2008 06:43:48
So we have 12 months in which to teach our catering industry that the deep fat fryer is not the only item of cooking equipment available to the modern chef.
As a regular expat visitor I can assure you the greatest pleasure on leaving the country to go home at the end of the week is the prospect of a decent meal, even if I do take quite a few of the ingredients with me.
10

nabodican,

Rural Scotland 06/03/2008 07:07:32
With the tax regime in this country and about to get worse with LIT why should anyone want to come back?
11

Kate,

Zurich 06/03/2008 07:42:16
Now why would I give up 9.25% income tax, excellent public transport, services, restaurants, hotels, and so on (the list is too big!) for up to 50% income tax, shoddy service, rip off hotels, disgraceful public transport?

Think I'll stay in Switzerland, thanks!
12

OscarMacApfel,

Dumfries 06/03/2008 08:02:18
#12

Good luck with the dullness and neighbours, Kate.
13

Tommy Trout,

Alicante, Spain 06/03/2008 08:11:44
Left in 1979 and like the majority of the previous comments it will take more than a few "parties" to entice me back permanently. You'll need to change the whole mindset of the past and present generations away from the concept of "Him, I knew his faither, who dis he think he is", along with a more realistic cost of living that is not designed to see how much you can bleed out off people while avoiding giving them anything in return.
No, I'd have to think long and hard (about 5 seconds) before I returned!!
14

Melly,

Sussex 06/03/2008 09:32:48
Our daughter and her family moved back to Scotland 5 years ago ofter 15 years in London, our son and family moved back last year afer 12 years in Sussex. They love the better quality of life and better schooling. We are moving back later this year after eight years down here. I know or know of at least 6 English families who have or are to be moving to Scotland in the past year.

We feel the buzz even down here and more so when visiting our family and friends. Lookng forward to it.
15

Jock Tamson,

Scotland, Caledonia, Alba 06/03/2008 09:45:46
The clans should be gathering at Glenfinnan before taking over Edinburgh. That would be a historical pillar of course.

One for Hamish MacDonnell to organise as his clan, along with the Camerons and MacDonalds, met Charlie there.
16

GP,

06/03/2008 11:30:47
18# got beat so that says it all really.
Most of those that left did not so because of some heroic rose tinted spec view of the shambolic jacobite failure.
They left for a better life in a new place where land was free.
no brainer really.
17

subrosa,

06/03/2008 11:31:32
# 16

Yes think you are Grushka. I'm staying because where I live it isn't as bad as most areas but this small place has its influx of eastern Europeans, catered for at every turn too.

I have to admire them in some ways, they are so organised, know about every benefit and entitlement. Scotland is no longer the land of my birth, Scots will soon be the minority.

Will be interesting to hear what the diaspora think after their shindig though. Many are interested in the political scene here at the moment but I doubt if many would consider moving back to Scotland. The grass isn't greener anymore.
18

bill-alba,

Fife 06/03/2008 12:17:20
Left in 68 returned to vote SNP very happy to be back home the country is changing for the better because of the can do attitude of the Scottish Government unfortunately we will not be able to follow Irelands successfull return to your homeland as we still do not have the levers of power on immigration but it is only a matter of time. really looking forward to 2009 to welcome everyone back.
19

Allan(handofgod137),

06/03/2008 12:19:56
Unfortunately it will take more than the whiskey and shortie sindigs to bring our people back home. The government should start by lowering personal and business taxes, and tackling the giro culture.
20

P Rayner.,

London . 06/03/2008 12:45:33
This narrow minded bigotry does nothing other than make you a laughing stock . Luckily you are in a complete minority in Scotland . I can go along with what MELLY 17 had to say . The quality of life in areas of Scotland is attractive and I would be happy to live there too , especially Aberdeenshire . But the idea that you lovable Scots are all going to get together eating your haggis in your skirts reading burns is horrific . Those Scots and English who left for the world ain´t coming back , no way .
21

P Rayner.,

London . 06/03/2008 12:48:50
Oh , I forgot that bufoon , Milks Connery , he´s coming back . So too that great actor Mel Gibson since he can´t work anymore . Still perhaps buffy Connery can get him a job as a milkman .
22

subrosa,

06/03/2008 13:20:20
# 23/24

What makes me suspect you're English?
23

Geomac 1,

Kinross 06/03/2008 13:33:59
Yet more piffle! Who dream up these incredible numbers relating to "boost to the economy"? Crystal ball?
I wonder how many "fact finding" trips by politicians this £5 million will provide??
24

P Rayner.,

London . 06/03/2008 13:59:51
SUBROSA . Yes of course English , but British too . I love Scotland and am fond of Scottish people . Visiting Aberdeenshire , as I often do , I find people there , as in any rural place in the UK , kind , friendly and nice to talk to , the countryside breathtaking . I don´t like bigotry , be it English or Scottish . I find all this kilt , Burns , Haggis , biscuits , Whisky , diaspora bit an almost unendurable nonsense. And if you think others admire it of you , especially those in the south and Europe , you seriously delude yourself .On the contrary all that tripe makes the unwary afraid for Scotland , except that , thankfully , it comes from a minority voice . Don´t destroy goodwill .
25

yockel,

06/03/2008 15:50:26
#17 Melly, now moving back from England that is understandable but I think we are talking about those who left for civilized parts of the world.
26

Highland Mighty,

06/03/2008 16:03:52
1. Maybe you can give some proof to back up these wild claims that "Scotland's independence is all but inevitable".

I've been asking for days and not one molecule of evidence to back it up has surfaced from any one of that nats.

Anyway, back to this party! I'm going to drink myself sober again and again!
27

John Blackley,

Winter Garden, FL 06/03/2008 17:27:32
Can Event Scotland please use another tagline? When I read 'homecoming' I infer a permanent return. However, when I read Event Scotland's plans, I'm seeing nothing but a tourism event. In other words, "We think you're making a lot of money 'over there' so please come and spend it 'over here' and then bog off back to where you came from."

Return home permanently? Yes, when global warming makes the climate tolerable, when Scotland boasts an economy that rewards me for my effort and when the miseryguts attitude displayed by so many Scotsman commenters is made illegal.
28

Over the Top,

06/03/2008 18:02:39
I returned to Scotland a number of years ago after living in a 5 countries over a 20 year period.

In many ways things are better but oh goodness the Scots I left behind have all changed. The older generation have passed away and the younger ones are so like the English in England that it makes one wonder how this could have happened.

So few Scots have any understanding of who they are and why they are who they are.
Next to nothing has been kept. Indeed it is much easier to find real Scottish (non-Victorian) outside Scotland that is from unbroken tradition than in Scotland. I laugh so often at Scots who say they are Scots and give the most stupid of replies you ever heard.
They range from not being as fat as the English to being able to drink more than the English, being more sociable than the English, having more people with red hair than the English and so on in this vein.

How can the Scots not look at who they are and not who they are not.
Many times recently I have suggested to Canadians in the Maritime Provinces not to come here as they have far more genuine Scottish Culture and traditios there than here. The traffic should be away from Scotland rather than in this direction.

29

Jock Tamson,

Scotland, Caledonia, Alba 06/03/2008 18:50:14
I think GP@19 has failed to gather what I was was saying in my post@18.

People who are coming to Scotland for this event are going back to their homes again. A historical pillar would give them an experience which would end up back at their homes of today. Doh. Bit of truth where it actually happened, get it?

It is a no brainer in the other sense as it would allow the descendants of the clans to follow the Jacobite trail all the way from Glenfinnan to Culloden.

The aftermath of Culloden was what brought about the systematic exportation of the Highland people through differnt means over decades.
30

The Fly Fifer,

Fife 06/03/2008 21:02:58
Jock, ..........

You talk of Glenfinnan, have you no knowledge about yon Italian born, french speaking catholic Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Severino Maria Stuart, if he had been succesful vous et moi wud be spekin dans le Franco lingo and going to chapel twice a day. Trithfully Scotland woul dalso not exist as it does today.

31

An English Voice,

07/03/2008 00:29:44
33. Is that any reason to deny history? Does it all have to be glory and victory? Teach the truth, and let the remainder decide what is good and what is bad.

French then, German fron the 1940's. You speak English now. How long till it took that language to be ingrained in you? A country without its own language should keep quiet about the words you have spoken.
32

Royster,

07/03/2008 05:39:08
Biologically, I don't think this is a very good idea. Doesn't it make more sense to bring in fresh genes as opposed to recycling the old ones?

 

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