Beard Liberation Front
24th January
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
Campaigners call on Humza Yousaf to officially recognise that Burns had a beard
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has called on First Minister Humza Yousaf to use Burns Night as an occasion to both celebrate the poet’s work and acknowledge that the traditional image of him as clean shaven was manufactured by those who wanted to promote his work to a London elite.
The campaigners say that while Burns had employment for some years as an Exciseman and was likely to have been clean shaven at times in reality he probably shaved at best two or three times a week and wore a beard for the remainder of the time.
It is thought that images and paintings of Burns which show him as clean shaven date to a period when the London based political and culture Establishment was determined to claim Burns as what it saw as a ‘cultured Scot’, a supporter of the Union, rather than the hirsute anti-Establishment rebel he clearly was.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it’s time for Humza Yousaf to rectify an historic wrong and recognise that the real Rabbie Burns had a beard. It would be a significant step in reclaiming genuine Scottish culture from the clean shaven focus of Tory Westminster.
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