The 1970 British Commonwealth Games: Scottish reactions to apartheid and sporting boycotts

Abstract The 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh is widely thought to have been a barnstorming success and an excellent advertisement for Scotland. Recent research by the authors, however, shows that the event was a deeply politicized one: reflective of Scotland’s status as a “stateless nation,” of Westminster politics during the era more generally, and of the politics surrounding apartheid South Africa’s sporting contacts with the outside world. The games managed to avert a mass boycott organized by the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC), in retaliation for the Marylebone Cricket Club’s recent invitation of the South African national cricket team. This article will explore Scotland’s place as a nonstate actor within the 1970 crisis. Attention will be given to the domestic political response from Scottish members of Parliament, members of local Scottish councils (particularly within Edinburgh itself), and Scottish National Party (SNP) activists, angered that Scotland should pay for the crimes perceived to be made by an English sporting body. However, our piece goes beyond these discourses, to examine the broader sporting relationship that Scots had with South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), governed by white supremacist regimes during the period. Policy documents, housed in the National Records of Scotland, express UK Cabinet-level concerns about the actions of individual sporting clubs’ tours of the countries. This article will also look at how cabinet ministers, most notably Labour’s Minister for Sport Denis Howell, intervened to shape Scotland’s devolved sporting councils’ policies on contacts with South Africa and Rhodesia.</jats:p

The History of the North of Scotland Before 1945:As Told By Surfers

This article examines the telling of the north of Scotland’s history by people who participated in surfing. Surfing, as a sport/activity, is likely to have first appeared on the Pentland Firth, and in Caithness and Sutherland, after the 1954-58 arrival of the Dounreay nuclear power facility, and the fledgling Scottish/British and international surfing press was keen to stress the other-worldly qualities of surfing in an incongruous landscape and treacherous weather. History, elements of which were embellished or inaccurately understood, was a key to this. Travelling surfers, including some based in Scotland, emphasised Norse heritage or generic signifiers of Scottish identity, and surfing’s place within a broad arc of history with a heavy accent on adventure. Less discussed (but not altogether absent) were the Sutherland Clearances, a process which accelerated the coming of industry and radical population changes on the north coast. Reflective of these gaps is the (re)telling of the history of Thurso Castle, symbolic as it is of surfing’s tourist gaze and, with regard to international men’s surfing events, the marketing of elements of Scottish history and heritage towards commercial ends

Sport, identities, and politics at the 2023 Island Games, Guernsey

This article discusses the 2023 (NatWest) Island Games in Guernsey, the latest iteration of a sporting tournament held every two years in Atlantic Rim polities since 1985. The event’s participants include UK local authorities, crown dependencies, and British overseas territories. Significantly, non-British and non-Commonwealth polities such as the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland also take part, thus allowing UK and Commonwealth jurisdictions a means of performing national identity and diplomacy alongside non-Commonwealth polities. The author explores the potential and limits of this in an era where the Commonwealth (formerly British Empire) Games is struggling for survival

The Falkland Islands, international sporting competition, and evolving (post-Brexit) paradiplomacy

This article examines the Falkland Islands’ participation in international sport. Argentinean opposition has frustrated the Falklands’ attempts to join bodies such as the IOC and FIFA, but the Islands themselves are nevertheless participants in the Commonwealth Games, Island Games, and other tournaments. First, this article discusses how sport reflects changes in post-1982 Falklands society. It also examines challenges related to personnel and logistics. Next, it interrogates why the Falklands participate in tournaments, including asserting “Britishness” and sovereignty. Finally, this article discusses prospects for new facilities, the likelihood of hosting an Island Games, and Pan-American competition. These developments are driven largely by Falkland Islanders themselves. Aside from the purported health and social benefits of sport, in the era of ‘Brexit’ they represent a means through which paradiplomacy is performed.peer-reviewe