The 5th Opening of The Scottish Parliament took place on Saturday 2nd July 2016.

Prior to the event, the crown of Scotland was escorted from Edinburgh Castle under the watchful eye of The Duke of Hamilton and 3 Scots The Black Watch or The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

HM Queen Elizabeth was accompanied by her late husband Prince Philip The Duke of Edinburgh. They arrived from Holyrood Palace in the Daimler Benz limo.

Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. [ Ссылка ]

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Holyrood needs a democratic and diverse royal opening ceremony for a democratic parliament:

On 10 occasions since the formal opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 the Queen has attended to deliver a speech and meet and greet MSPs.

Presumably, in order to formally mark the opening of the 2021-26 Scottish Parliament, the Queen will soon be once again making the short journey from Holyrood Palace, seat of the ancient Scots monarchy, to the Holyrood parliament building, seat of the modern Scots democracy.

The presence of the Queen at Holyrood is surrounded, as usual on these occasions, by some pomp and circumstance. While there is a lingering covenanting dourness about the ceremonial in some parts of Scotland, most people enjoy this occasional bit of traditional theatre with the dash of colour and romance which it adds to the day.

Humans need ceremony to mark big days in our lives. This is why occasions such as university graduations and large weddings remain popular, even in the secular, dressed down 21st century.

A person is just as much a graduate if they receive their degree certificate through the post as if they attend a ceremony in hood and gown and are capped by a chancellor reciting Latin phrases over their head. A couple are just as much married in T-shirt and jeans in a registry office before two strangers as they would be in a church or castle wearing long dresses and kilts.

Yet few people chose to forgo the festal aspects of these occasions; rather most people embrace the dressing up and ritual with gusto.

So it is appropriate that the renewal of democracy given effect by each new election to the Scottish Parliament should be marked by a ceremonial visit of the Queen. But it should be the right sort of ceremony: a celebration of Scotland’s future as well as of its past. A celebration of democracy as well as of monarchy.

What is good about the present ceremony is the presence of the Queen and also of the ancient crown of Scotland. The Scots crown is a physical embodiment of Scotland’s long history. This beautiful crown of gemstones and freshwater pearls was refashioned for James V in 1540 and may well even include gold from the circlet which graced the head of Robert the Bruce in the 14th century.

The presence of the Lord Lyon and the other heralds in their colourful tabards displaying the arms of Scotland, England and Ireland is also to be welcomed as living embodiments of Scots tradition.

But while the present ceremony is good at representing the history of Scotland it is much less effective in representing Scotland’s present.

There are far too many toffs involved and not nearly enough ordinary Scots. The crown is carried into the chamber by the Duke of Hamilton in his capacity as “hereditary bearer of the Scots crown”. With all due respect to Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, 16th Duke of Hamilton, it is time someone else from the five million strong population of Scotland had a shot at carrying the crown.

A democratic bearer of the crown could be an outstanding charity worker, or perhaps a film or sports star. If, for example, Sir Andy Murray – a man distinguished for his personal achievements, rather than a duke distinguished for the achievements of his ancestors – were to carry the Scots crown before the Queen, it would be a powerful modern image that would resonate deeply within Scotland and around the world.

The other deeply undemocratic aspect of the current ceremonial is the presence of the so called “honour guard”,

Unlike the English Yeoman of the Guard with whom they are often compared, the archers have never been a real bodyguard of anything except their own self-importance.
Despite their grand sounding title, they are simply an especially socially exclusive gentleman’s club. It is true that the archers insist of “close Scottish connections” but that seems to consist mainly of owning large chunks of Scotland, holding a Scots title or being a member of the law or banking professions.

To have an all-male private archery club (which in reality does little archery) act an honour guard for a democratic parliament in the 21st century is as ludicrous as asking the equally grand sounding Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers of Muirfield to do the same.

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