Hoots, mon! - a nocturne for Burns Night

                                                                         Nocturne no.1 - The Field of Air

The popularity of Robert Burns probably owes more to Sir Walter Scott's championing of him in the 19th century, and the romantic notion of the noble downtrodden Scots standing up for themselves against the Sassenach overlords, than any appreciation of his poetry. Burns was a feisty character, but there was a lot of rationalism as well as nationalism in his work, and I suspect that he would have viewed the stand-off between Alex Salmond and David Cameron with some bemusement. He would have certainly applauded the leader of the Sottish Nationalists winding up an Old Etonian, but being the reluctant exiseman that he was, he would also have known that supping a decent malt with the devil is the only way of avoiding thirst.