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"Westminster Abbey, spiritual heart of the Commonwealth, lost one of its precious .
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When persons so far unknown forced the door of the King Edward VII’s to reach
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the Coronation Chair and take the Stone of Scone."
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The Stone of is Scotland’s icon. In one of the many invasions by the English
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into Scotland they the symbol of our nation, the Stone of Destiny.
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To bring it was a very, very symbolic gesture.
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It was the Christmas vacation from the University, so we for London on the 23rd December.
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I got three people. Kay Matheson, Alan Stuart, and Gavin Vernon.
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It’s a London in the depth of winter when there were no snowploughs on the
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road, no gritting on the road. The Abbey is a wonderful building, one of
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my favourite buildings. But if you it at night it is desperately dark. So dark,
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you can almost cut the air in squares and with you.
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We had a small torch with us. We Poets’ Corner. Round the sacred bit, and
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into where the Coronation Chair sat, with the Stone of Destiny in a cavity .
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We had to prize the Stone of that, and it fell with a clunk the Abbey floor.
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"Dragging the ancient Stone of Destiny, they the night through this door."
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"Orders for a strict search
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on roads, ports, and airfields."
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"The search centred particularly on
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routes leading to ."
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Three months. They were us for
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three months.
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We were searched for all over the country.
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The story was beginning to .
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Because all this time the Stone had remained hidden,
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the Scottish people were beginning to say, well, where is it? Is it gone forever?
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So we decided that it was time to bring the Stone .
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"In Arbroath Abbey the Stone was deposited by the three men unknown.
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Here 631 years ago the Declaration of Scottish Independence was signed.
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I was never arrested. I was for questioning.
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The Home Secretary made a statement to the House of Commons:
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'It was known who had done it, but it was not in the public interest
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to prosecute the vulgar vandals'.
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That’s been a phrase that I’ve always
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enjoyed all my life.
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To do something for your country,
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not a drop of blood, is I think something to .