The 1986 Commonwealth Games: Scotland, South Africa, sporting boycotts, and the former British Empire

Abstract

Pre-publication print of: Matthew L. McDowell and Fiona Skillen, 'The 1986 Commonwealth Games: Scotland, South Africa, sporting boycotts, and the former British Empire', Sport in Society (forthcoming 2016). There may be small textual differences between this version and the published version. Any reference made to this paper should refer to the published version. AbstractThis article examines Scottish reactions to African, Asian, Caribbean and other nations' boycotts of the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. These boycotts occurred over the UK Government's support of trade with apartheid South Africa, and over the inclusion in the England team of South African-born Zola Budd and Annette Cowley. This piece focuses in part on the political reaction, both by Scotland's Westminster MPs, and also by Edinburgh District Council -the latter led by the Labour Party, and keen to show their opposition to apartheid. However, it also focuses on the press reaction to these boycotts, which was rarely supportive of boycotting nations, with some of the more left-liberal outlets largely defensive over Scotland's participation in anti-apartheid politics. The highly mediated public reaction is additionally gauged through letters to newspaper editors. Whilst some displayed anger over the position of the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, and others consternation over the impotent political position of Scotland within the wider UK, most letters were overwhelmingly hostile to the boycotters, and linked their disgust to a nostalgia for the British Empire (some of it racially tinged), and accordingly an inability of athletes and sporting authorities to keep politics out of sport.

“Més Que Un Joc?”: Sport and Contemporary Political Nationalism in Scotland and Catalonia

“…Furthermore, Sharp also explicitly identified her support for a “No” vote on the day of the Scottish independence referendum, releasing a tweet with the message “#Scottish #British #bettertogether” in conjunction with two different images of her holding the Scottish flag and the British flag aloft after competition (https://twitter.com/LynseySharp; September 18, 2014). The symbolism of the Sharp’s message thus illustrated the dualism of Scottish and British identity shared by a number of Scots in the sporting world and the general public, as has been commented upon elsewhere (Iorwerth et al, 2014; Jarvie & Reid, 1999; McDowell & Skillen, 2015). However, the reaction to Sharp’s tweet was as equally vitriolic as the response to Murray’s intervention.…”

The 1970 British Commonwealth Games: Scottish Reactions to Apartheid and Sporting Boycotts

“…35 However, the UK and New Zealand never fully signed up to this; and, consequently by far the most damaging event of all was the mass boycott of the 1986 Commonwealth Games, also held in Edinburgh. 36 By hosting the 1970 and 1986 events, Scotland briefly became the focus of international debate around sporting interactions with South Africa.…”

Records, language and discourses: new histories of Scottish sport. An introduction and historiography

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