Creative writer Hamish McDonald, a native of Clydebank, has been appointed to the two year post of Scots Screivar which is based at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. As a poet and fiction writer, in both Scots and English, he is a founder member of the Dogstar Theatre Company and previously held a Robert Burns Writing Fellowship.

McDonald declared that Scots is held back by not having any official status as
a language. In fact, language status was recognised under the terms of the 2001
Council of Europe Charter, a move further confirmed by its inclusion on the
2011 census, which rendered the dialect/language debate dead. 

But McDonald rightly touches on a problem that lies not with recognition, but with implementation. McDonald also declared his intent to take Scots into schools where national Scots language co-ordinators have already been doing some grand work and will no doubt look forward to his support. McDonald would like to see a beautiful language celebrated and praised the fact that people are writing in Scots quite naturally on Twitter and other places which, he said, was a refreshing change
from the once-a-year Burns.