Chipping off the old block

The obituary of Kay Matheson, who was one of four Scottish nationalists to steal (or as they would see it re-appropriate) the Stone of Scone in 1950 from Westminster Abbey, sums up my feeling about this chippy political organisation.  As a stunt, it may have some merit (certainly more than Alex Salmond unfurling the Scottish saltire from his wife’s handbag only after Andy Murray had won) as it is an emotive slab.  But in their zeal in prising it loose, about a quarter of the stone was split off from the bulk of it.  Worse still, when Matheson was transporting the smaller piece the car boot swung open and the smaller piece fell out, which can’t have done it any good.  So, in trying to bolster Scottish nationalism, they engage in cultural vandalism of an ancient relic that belongs to both England and Scotland.  To compound it, Matheson had no regrets about the raid except for the two broken toes she suffered when the larger part had fallen on her foot and she was fine about that in the grand scheme of things.  No regrets about damaging national heritage?  I see.  No charges were brought as it was returned eventually (via the altar of Abroath Abbey, draped in, what else, a saltire) and the authorities probably viewed as youthful high jinks but I am not so carefree.  Cultural relics are destroyed, descrated or damaged every year by fanatics or natural disaster and Matheson exposes herself as just such a fanatic, possibly a force of nature.  But both phenomena are unthinking about what their action may wring.