The nation is being asked to vote on the top 10 pivotal moments in Scottish history. Over three programmes, beginning on November 10, these people, events or things will be presented by their champions, and a fourth programme on November 30 – that’s St Andrew’s Day, in case you hadn’t noticed – will announce the top 10 in time-honoured fashion: reverse order. Ahead of the launch of the series, Barry Didcock selects 10 of the frontrunners, before Ian Bell examines the place of history in contemporary Scotland; questions a nation’s ignorance of its own past; casts his personal vote and asks whether historical ranking makes any sense.

Treaty of Union

The treaty between England and Scotland which paved the way for the twin Acts of Union in 1707. Once enacted, these dissolved the English and Scottish parliaments and established one for the newly-formed Kingdom of Great Britain.

Why you should vote for this: Scotland and its people prospered; Britain became great; the union brought security.

Why you shouldn’t: All of the above came at a price – the loss of nationhood and Scottish self-respect.

Football

Football is a game of two halves, 22 players and – thanks mostly to BBC Radio Scotland – innumerable examples of syntactical terrorism. But it also has an unerring capacity to reflect any aspect of the national character you care to hold up to it.

Why you should vote for this: It’s our national sport, stupid.

Why you shouldn’t: We aren’t as good as we used to be; worse, we’ll never be as good as Tam Cowan thinks we should be – which is a better reason to leave it (and him) on the bench.

The Jacobites

Named for the followers of James II and VII, the Stuart king deposed by the Glorious Revolution of 1689, the Jacobite cause reached its apogee in 1746 when Charles Edward Stuart was defeated at Culloden.

Why you should vote for this: Rightly or wrongly, the Jacobite warrior has been parlayed into a potent symbol of nationhood.

Why you shouldn’t: Jacobitism in Scotland was as much an expression of clan dissaffection as it was allegiance to “the king over the water” and its relevance in 21st century Scotland is minimal.

Irish Immigration

Scotland “welcomed” large numbers of economic migrants from Ireland during the 19th and early 20th centuries, though the warmth of welcome was not always what it might have been.

Why you should vote for this: The presence in Scottish cities of significant numbers of Irish immigrants was ultimately a force for good.

Why you shouldn’t: It spawned a poisonous legacy of sectarianism and division, particularly in the west of Scotland.

The Enlightenment

Scotland’s day in the sun actually lasted for some 60 years, between 1740 and 1800, and saw Edinburgh become an intellectual hotspot where, as one visitor noted: “I stand at what is called the Cross of Edinburgh and can, in a few minutes, take 50 men of genius by the hand.”

Why you should vote for this: Many of the social, economic and political ideals still current in the 21st century were birthed in this period.

Why you shouldn’t: Scotland needs to stop trading on past glories.

Margaret Thatcher

Prime minister from 1979 to 1990, she remains a hate figure north of the Border partly because of the poll tax, which was levied in Scotland before being rolled out across the rest of the UK.

Why you should vote for this: It was out of opposition to Margaret Thatcher and her government in the 1980s that the seeds of self-determination finally took root in Scotland.

Why you shouldn’t: Thatcher’s perceived anti-Scottishness will become but a footnote in history. Let’s rise above it and move on.

Robert Burns

A poet and lyricist who wrote in Scots, Burns became celebrated in the 1780s and the spirit of radicalism and liberalism which suffuses his work has given his reputation a global reach.

Why you should vote for this: Promiscuous, rebellious, mischievious – Burns was everything we expect in a poet. He has never been bettered.

Why you shouldn’t: He’s entirely responsible for the preservation of haggis as our national dish.

Declaration of Arbroath

A letter to Pope John XXII, dated April 6, 1320, in which 51 Scottish nobles asserted the independence of their crown and their country.

Why you should vote for this: “As long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”

Why you shouldn’t: It is said to have influenced America’s Declaration of Independence, and look at the trouble that led to.

Drink

Our other national sport. Whisky is the pre-eminent tipple but Scotland’s brewing industry is rightly famous too, as are the pubs, howfs and taverns where both products are imbibed.

Why you should vote for this: Whisky is Scotland’s most famous product and is enjoyed the world over. It is also a multi-million pound industry and draws tourists galore to our shores.

Why you shouldn’t: Alcoholism and alcohol-related crime continue to take a miserable toll on civic and family life. A just cause for celebration?

Highland Clearances

A semi-official form of ethnic cleansing which began in the 18th century and which, combined with crop failures and recession, saw swathes of the Scottish Highlands cleared of people.

Why you should vote for this: It was a disaster with serious and long-lasting consequences for the language, culture and financial viability of the Scottish Highlands – consequences which are still playing out today.

Why you shouldn’t: The spectre of the Clearances is too often invoked by those determined to stamp the Scots with the bitter badge of victimhood. We’re bigger than that.