The downs are the drain on energy and imagination - needed both to get out of political tight corners, and to envision interesting and exciting television. But the ups include a valuable perspective on how Scotland and its problems and possibilities are seen both by our own television audience and that overseas.
My own company produces mainly Gaelic language television and therefore my principal area of interest lies in the past, present and future of the Highlands. And it is how the Highlands are seen that often concerns me.
Rob Roy was a fine film but the image of the tartan bedecked Scot ranging over the heather is not only inspiring, but sometimes poisonous.
Similarly UK Television programmes like "Hamish Macbeth" (which features the fictional story of a West Highland policeman) present an image of wily, cunning but essential cuddly Highlanders that doesn't sit all that well with the reality of a wet Wednesday in Thurso or Inverness.
Modern day Highlanders are more likely to spend their evenings slaving over a hot word processor as cooking bannocks on a peat fire, and as likely to be driving to a rave as listening to a fiddler in a whisky scented pub. Television is in every home and even gaelic television can deal with shiatsu and ten pin bowling (I know, because I've made programmes on both!)
Similarly the political image of Scotland presented both by the English media and sometimes world wide is not always recongisable to those trapped on the inside. Most peoiple will know that this country has a Tory government with John Major as Prime Minister - what they don't know is that Scots have not voted for a Tory government since 1955, although they have had one for all but three parliaments during those 41 years.
And they won't know that the movement for Scottish independence , represented by the SNP, regularly takes 25% of the Scottish vote but is constantly disadvantaged by a rigged electoral system that gives (as it did at the last general election) three times the number of seats to a party with half our vote!
Britain is no longer the "mother of parliaments and democracy". It is a fading and failing country desperately seeking a role, and becoming more and more isolationist. Scotland, as a nation that looks outward and is generous in its desire to be part of the world, needs to have its voice heard and to be able to present itself anew.
Braveheart and Roby Roy are one part of our national life: films such as "Trainspotting" are another. To know the present day truth about Scotland it is necessary to dig behind the headlines and images just as to know the truth about the Highlander you need to do more than listen to the accents at a ceilidh!
If you would like to know more about the SNP and HELP SCOTLAND contact snp.hq@snp.org.uk or visit the official the Scottish National Party web site.
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