“Burns’s glory as a political poet lies in a democratic impulse subtly inflected in ways that are republican and Scottish nationalist. This makes him awkward for the British establishment which has constantly tried to tame him.” ROBERT CRAWFORD
“Here we have a lower-class speaker who is able to lift his eyes from his own material struggles and look to the public good… while his upper class representatives, who are free from the pressures of immediate want, are wholly engrossed in lining their own pockets.” LIAM McILVANNEY
“To himself his politics, like his theology, were crystal clear. To others they had a way of appearing ‘abundantly motley'”. CATHERINE CARSWELL
Robert Burns: Not In My Name 