Friends like these
Posted on
February 01, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The UK’s respect agenda, from last night’s Question Time on nuclear waste:
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Thank you BBC for bringing that to our screens – another few thousand votes in the bag
I can imagine my no voting parents laughing along uncomfortably to that – got to have a sense of humour, you know?
What is most interesting, is that NOBODY on the panel challenged such an odious, offensive statement.
The main point however, is that this a a classic example of the mindset which pervades some (not all) in England, and which hides just below the surface.
Why would anybody ever not want independence after watching it. We do not need ‘friends’ like these, in England or anywhere else for that matter.
It was a “stupid” remark, but what was interesting is that behind ‘humour’ there is usually a bit of real feeling. The latent idea in the man and the audience reaction was: “It’s ONLY Scotland, we can do what WE want”. I am sure the speaker would claim it was a joke and that Scots should “lighten up” But behind the ‘joke’ is the REAL issue.
It just confirms even more of what we already knew. Sad, really.
Naebd,
Yes, you make a good point. There will be some in Scotland who will ‘laugh’ along at it.
‘must laugh along…it’s just a joke you know, god you Scots are so chippy, etc…etc…ad infinitum.
The guy should have said to put the waste below Westminster, certainly mein host should have, that woud have got a bigger laugh. Lighten up, satire is OK. And I laugh at incorrect stuff sometimes too.
I am sure the NO cmapaign shuddered at it. It would make a good 15 second ad in the campaign. Called who’s laughing now?
Like all jokes, its funny because its true:
link to robedwards.com
Check this out – a Scottish LGBT magazine setting out the case for staying in the UK. Anyone who has read the Better No Dae That leaflets will recognise the arguments.
link to mosaicscotland.com
Pathetic stuff.
Comedy gold.
Give them independence was the worst part of his comment, as if it was theirs to give!
“give them their independence”
Guid tae ken some folk still think it’s in their gift.
Naw, the pompous anus piece meant it, “if you say you think it”. The rest of the audience nearly orgasmed on the statement. As yesterday ‘socialist newspaper’ leaning guardian cartoon and the PM expliciitley stated this portray’s the general view of our good neighbours down south quite clear. So f**k them and their radioactive material, we will have our Independence without their overcrowded polluted shit from cumbria or westminster.
For those of us who don’t do TV could someone give a quick precise, please
@doug daniel
Elegant deconstruction of that poor guys better together brainwashing over on that Mosaic site
Replace Scotland with Africa or Pakistan etc, well you get the idea. This is probably one of the Tory ideas in the pipeline. While labour laugh and have got more important things to do than stick up for Scotland. Many people in Scotland will get angry the majority will shrug there shoulders and be thankfull for supposed English largesse to this shitty country they are so proud of. Couldn’t make it up.
@Boorach
A member of the audience re. storage of radioactive waste, said ‘Can’t we export it to Scotland and then give them their independence?’
Cue gales of laughter.
In fairness, David Dimbleby did say ‘On that chauvinistic point’ before swiftly moving on so he got his dig in at the stupidity of the remark although he did move it on rather quickly so no one else could say anything. I don’t know if that was to prevent the panel commenting or because he did not want any other stupid comments from the audience.
You just have to have read the comments sections in the London based newspapers over the past year or so to see real deep seated hate against Scots and Scotland from a sizeable number of respondents.
This hatred has its origins in Labour’s crass attempts to kill the independence movement by claiming that Scotland was being subsidised by England. It was further developed by unscupulous unionist politicians on both sides of the border exploiting the RBS collapse to further their agenda claim that Scotland is too poor, too stupid, and too wee, to go it alone.
The recent Section 30 hatefest at Westminster demonstrates just how far these people have plunged in their desperate attempts to paint Scotland and its elected government as something to be hated and despised.
Question Time has form when it comes to discussions on anything pertaining to Scotland. The arch unionist Dimbelby abuses his position by frequently showing his contempt for anyone espousing the independence cause on the programme and allowing comments to be made against Scotland that would be headline news if they were made by Scots against England.
Complaining to the BBC is a waste of time as most of us have found out and so the only way left open for us to protest is to stop paying the licence fee.
I see the voting on that Mosaic site is 35/6 in favour of YES.
You might want to help boost the numbers.
I’m from the Galloway area and for years throughout the 1980s (when we got Ian Lang as an MP) there was the threat of nuclear dumping among the Galloway Hills, I wouldn’t be surprised if that report is lying in the vaults somewhere ready to be put back on the agenda.
They can’t help the Victorian imperialistic mindset of the “Give them their independence” attitude. This is exactly what this Tory government wants to achieve, the re-establishment of New Jerusalem in this green and pleasant land, and a gratitude/servitude society where the generosity of the rich at their whim elevates their pompous egos. Hence the sustained attacks on benefits, welfare and universalism, not only financially but psychologically too. This why there will never be House of Lords reform because they all aspire to be there and exploit that position for all its worth.
Scotland after a NO vote will be a very grim place and these Unionists at Westminster will rubber stamp it.
I have a friend in Canada whose friend in Brazil has invited us to stay over for the World Cup in 2014. I remember saying to her that I hoped we weren’t staying anywhere near where England were based, as by that time in 2014 there will be a lot of anti-Scottish racism. Even as I said it, I felt a bit silly: surely such an assertion is just being a bit paranoid and melodramatic? Now when I see this, I really wish I had just been being silly.
To be fair on the mosaic website, there is another piece putting forward the case for Independence, plus the vote mentioned above… Which Better Together are losing.
I would’ve read the Yes article but none of it would load.
The split in the LBGT community re. independence v. Union seems to me to match wider society.
Dom Joly embodies a certain type of English comedian (Cf Michael McIntyre, James Corden) who can best be described as a bit of an arse. Thought experiment time. Would a clip of a Jerry Sadowitz show illustrate Scotland’s respect agenda?
The numptie who was spouting anti-Scottish diatribes on QT last night is a well known hater of all things Scottish from the inbred bandit land of cumbria, he is well named.
Talks a lot of Gash dont you Stephen.
Poll’s down.
Thank goodness QT is produced in Glasgow, eh!
I think that there is an underlying contempt for Scotland among a good few folk in England. It seems to me that they think we are being ungrateful in ‘asking’ to be independent. I’m pretty sure it is a relic of the colonial mentality very evident in Britain, when Commonwealth countries were demanding/’asking’ for independence in the forties, fifties and sixties.
@highlander
Indeed the poll seems to have stopped accepting new votes. YES: 46 NO: 6 and total meltdown!
The poll seems to be working now. I just voted on it. It’s sitting at Yes 55 / No 7
Can’t believe I’m about to defend the Question Time crowd here, but Dom Joly made an identical joke a few minutes earlier about Weston Super Mare. I think we need to dial down the outrage at every little slight, lest we lend any credence to the stereotype of snarling, humourless Cybernats.
“I think we need to dial down the outrage at every little slight”
I agree we shouldn’t play the outrage card. It’s enough just to point out what happened and let it stand by itself.
Thanks Iain, theeForsakenOne
Just tried to get to referendum….Site seems to be down, probably a surfeit of Yes votes
@David Lee
I understand your point. Getting annoyed by these things and chatting about them may be seen to make those of us who support independence appear humourless. However jokes at the expense of any minority have rightly become judged as unacceptable and Scotland is a minority in the UK. Admittedly a big one, but one nonetheless.
Then again jokes about the French, the Germans and… well, pretty much every country in Europe have long been acceptable in the UK media. For me those and the media’s anti-Scottish bias, a bias I have been aware of my whole life, are part of what brought me to independence. I’m sick of it all.
From England: please remember this kn*bhead doesn’t speak for all of us, or reflect popular opinion. Neither does Steve Bell, and nor do the comments linked in that ‘Missing You Already’ post a while back.
A ‘them-vs-us’ mindset isn’t helpful.
“please remember this kn*bhead doesn’t speak for all of us, or reflect popular opinion”
He seemed to be doing the latter last night, judging by the audience reaction.
“He seemed to be doing the latter last night, judging by the audience reaction.”
I’d guess at about half the audience clapping, and the roving mic exaggerates the laughter coming from those closest to him perhaps?
Living in that ‘inbred bandit country’, I do hear those sentiments aired on occasion. But by the same token, I hear the same xenophobic, unimaginative, tedious pish spouted about the French, the Germans, the Welsh, the EU and any other nation/race you care to mention. I just ignore it for the most part, not wishing to dignify it with a reply. Although I once warned one bloke to back off or I’d return in the night to steal his livestock.
@ Adam,
We realise he was “joking”, and that his views are not representative of English people generally. What he said doesn’t really bother me – what bothers me is that Nirex planned to do exactly that (dump the entirety of the UK’s nuclear waste in Scotland, under an island near Barra).
link to robedwards.com
In Scotland there is the possibility of hearing anti-English sentiment expressed in the pub, or the street, the schoolyard, the factory. You’ll rarely hear it from “educated” people though. In England, unfortunately, anti-Scottish sentiment seems to go right to the top – you will hear it in the Commons, the Lords, the boardroom of some non-taxpaying mega-corporation, the newspaper office (and in the newspaper’s pages, and on TV). It’s quite worrying. From Paxman talking about a “Scottish Raj” controlling England, to Peter Cruddas and other top Tories’ calling Alex Salmond “the mad Scotsman” in private, I’m not sure what it’s all about. What are they afraid of?
Is…
Is that fucking Dom Jolly? I liked Trigger Happy TV and all, but what on earth is he doing on Question Time? What’s next, Harry Hill on the Daily Politics?
In response to an earlier comment highlighting the fact that a similar joke had been made about weston super mare, compare the audience response and you will hear sharp intakes of breath and people cringing all through the audience, nowhere near as much overwhelmingly rapturous and simultaneous agreement as when the scottish joke had been made.
The joke itself shouldn’t be considered offensive, and although its delivery was a little blunt, the guy was only trying to drum up interest ahead of next weeks programme in Stirling, and, I appreciate the respect from one guy you can see in the background sitting with his arms folded refusing to join in.
@DavidLee