[New-Poetry] We have a Makar! (Cue -- white smoke)

[Robin Hamilton]

                                        Liz Lochhead.

            http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/19/liz-lochhead-makar-scotland-national-poet

Amazingly enough, this means that no Scot need cringe in embarassment, in 
contrast to the appointments of the current and immediately previous English 
plorits, or the fiasco over the last but one Oxford Professorship of Poetry.

Actually, Liz Lochhead seems to me just about an inevitable choice.  They've 
picked from the older generation, over sixty, so no one born after 1950 or 
so is going to be too pissed off.  She's not going to make too many waves, 
and will do the job decently.  Personally, I'd rather it had gone to Tom 
Leonard, but hey, at least Liz Lochhead isn't a *totally* safe choice. 
(They might have picked ... ah, no names, no pack drill.)

Then there's this:

<<
It emerged today that she was selected by all three surviving first 
ministers of Scotland - the current first minister Alex Salmond and his two 
Labour predecessors Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish - in a private meeting 
last week, from a list of suggestions supplied by the Scottish Poetry 
Library and the government's arts advisers.
>>

That it's not *totally implausible that those three would be able, 
unprompted, even though they were chosing from a short list, to conduct a 
resonable and informed discussion as to who to pick ... says something. 
(Think Barak Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.  Hm ...)

So there's hope yet.

Also, *immediately* following the late Edwin Morgan as Makar is going to be 
a hard act at the best.

Tom Leonard will still be under seventy when Liz finishes her stint in five 
years time, so perhaps by then ...

Robin