Scotland the Brave?

It’s never been easy, making a living in Scotland. In recent decades, there has been the oil to hold up the economy and before that there were all those UK-based public service jobs (including the army) that provided consistent employment.

Of course, many of the Scots being fine entrepreneurs, historically it was England and the British Empire that provided many with a platform to exploit their talents (including my own ancestors).

Presumably the oil won’t last for ever, so, unhitched from England and Wales – with a YES vote looking more and more likely – their best chance would seem to be in the EU, assuming that the EU keeps them on.

Scotland the Brave? My old boss, Bill Weithas, always used to equate bravery with high risk.

It’s their choice. Roll on September 18.

Don’t know that they don’t know?

So far as I could tell, Bill Weithas had scarcely been out of America when he was appointed worldwide CEO of Lintas.

So, during the lengthy handover, his predecessor in the post, Tim Green, took every opportunity to give Bill the benefit of his long years in international management. Especially the crucial but subtle differences between different ethnic groups. “The Flemish are very xxxx, but the Walloons are totally yyyy”. Ah!

When it came to New Zealand (had Tim actually been there?), he pronounced: “The problem with the Kiwis is that they don’t know that they don’t know.”

By this stage, Bill just looked terminally bored.

Sometime later, walking down Orchard Road in Singapore with him (on his first trip there), he stopped me and pointed at a neon sign.

“What do you see there, Rog?” he asked.

It was a Johnnie Walker logo. “And there… and there… and there…” McDonald’s, Fuji, Coca-Cola.

“It’s a global village,” he opined. “You just don’t need to know all that stuff about cultural difference anymore.”

Well, he certainly didn’t.