johnmc (19th Decr) must be very glad that there's still more debate arising from the original query; and, Jim McLean, it would probably have been in Stenhouse that I read the alternative way of the first line. Wish I'd been in the pub to which Van refers on the occasion, though I do have some reservations about the way this song has been appropriated by (that phrase again) the "Powers that be" for this occasion; for heaven's sake, don't the MSPs have to swear allegiance to the Queen? There was, nevertheless, something amusing in seeing Prince Charles listening to Burns's contempt for "tinsel show and aa that", for those who strut, and stare, and aa that, or how a Prince (i.e. a monarch generally) can dispense titles and dignities and aa that, marquises and dukes and knights and aa that and aa that - but "a honest man's aboon his might..." -- And all without a trace of comprehension on his lang-nebbit Norman face as line succeeded line, rattling in their ranks like sans-culottes!

But, to really set baudrons amang the doos, what about the question of a National Anthem, raised by Van earlier? Scots, wha hae a name for being practical, might reflect that only "when this country takes her place among the free nations of this Earth, then, and not till then", let a decision be made.