The Scottish government has issued medical advice that headbutting could cause serious injury and should be limited to once per day. The advice based on a recommendation from the Scottish Chief Medical Officer, following a year-long study of the effects of headbutting, is likely to cause dismay in parts of Glasgow, where headbutting is quite common.
The Scots have an impressive history of headbutting. Tartan hero, Sir William Wallace, headbutted his way to Northumbria in the Thirteenth Century and Sir Robert the Bruce once headbutted English King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn. Each year, tens of thousands of Scots football fans practise headbutting each other and rival fans on and off the great football fields of the United Kingdom, Europe and further beyond. Headbutting is also very popular in the Gorbals, a densely populated part of Scotland’s Second City, where cutpurses use it as a method to disarm victims and steal their wallets.
However, medical evidence shows that headbutting can cause intracranial fractures and subdural haemorrhages, sometimes with fatal results, and sometimes madness. A recent study of over a thousand Scots who have headbutted people show that those who headbutt more often are at greater risk of injuring themselves. Where headbutting is limited to once a day, it is relatively harmless, though it occasionally causes a slight headache or contusions to the forehead.
Some Scots are angry at the Government’s advice. Willy McDonald said: “My uncle Donald has been headbutting grannies for decades, and he’s perfectly fine.”
