The enemy within
The Steve Bell cartoon in yesterday’s Guardian caused a fairly predictable reaction. SNP supporters and Yes voters were offended, some Guardian journalists drew ludicrous defensive comparisons citing Charlie Hebdo – as if people had called for Bell to be beheaded, rather than just expressed the opinion that the cartoon was nasty and racist – and lovers of comedy went off scratching their heads after fruitless attempts to understand what the joke was supposed to be.
(“It’s a quote!”, shouted quite a few people, naming about a dozen different historical figures as the alleged source of a line about trying everything once, but none of them offering anything by way of explanation on how that was connected to any comment or policy of Nicola Sturgeon’s or the SNP’s.)
Anyone naively thinking that the publication of the cartoon was just an unfortunate lapse or oversight will have been disappointed by today’s paper, which carries another painfully unfunny and incomprehensible Nat-bashing effort from Bell, although this time the offence is limited to the portrayal of Sturgeon and Alex Salmond as a pair of stereotypical kilt-wearing Jocks.
(The caption explains the strip as being purportedly about “Salmond and Sturgeon’s Highland fling”, but we haven’t a clue what that’s supposed to mean. We’re not aware of them having visited the Highlands recently and we can’t think of any characteristic of full fiscal autonomy that resembles a traditional dance.)
Unionists, meanwhile, indignantly pointed out to some complainants that attacking the SNP isn’t the same thing as attacking Scots as a whole. But as media hysteria about the apparently-unconscionable prospect of Scottish MPs influencing a UK government reaches fever pitch, that distinction is getting less and less meaninfgul.
45% of Scots voted Yes in the independence referendum, and most opinion polls show a higher percentage than that planning to vote for the SNP at this May’s general election. Those two groups are not identical – a sizeable minority (typically 15-20%) of SNP supporters oppose independence, and a significant number of supporters of other parties voted Yes last September.
The most recent Lord Ashcroft polls – conducted in areas which voted No in the referendum – found that only 42% of respondents said they definitely wouldn’t vote for the SNP (page 8). His previous poll, of largely Yes-supporting areas, found just 33% saying they definitely wouldn’t back the Nats (also page 8).
What we can deduce from all the above data is that a clear majority of Scots either already do vote for the SNP or are prepared to consider doing so. And what that in turn means, by an inevitable process of arithmetic, is that crass, insulting depictions of the SNP in fact are attacks on most – though not all – Scots.
So when the likes of Bell suggest, as he did last November, that Sturgeon leads a party that’s akin to the Nazis, that’s a much wider jibe than it seems.
(Again we’re left bemused by the “joke”. We get the first frame – mocking the SNP’s relentless positivity – and also the second frame about ludicrous political language, but we can’t for the life of us work out how that then leads to the “National Socialism” punchline. The Nazis weren’t exactly known for their sunny, upbeat rhetoric.)
The message blaring out of England all this year has been that Scots have no right to exert democratic political influence in the UK Parliament by voting for the parties they like. The right-wing media shrieks in outrage about “Tartan Stalinism” being imposed on the English if SNP votes let Ed Miliband in, while Labour clubs Scots over the head about how voting SNP will let the Tories in.
The tone results in demented headlines like this one in today’s Mirror:
Both sides of the media and all the Westminster parties chip in with similar words – menace, destruction, danger, terrifying, doomsday – to refer to a peaceful democratic process by which voters and parties pursue legitimate political aims.
The whole of Scotland is “othered”, turned from UK citizens into a sinister insurgency, an invading force, the barbarians at the gates. Scots are stupid savages, an inferior species of beasts which cannot be reasoned with:
Iain Macwhirter in today’s Herald calls it a “vile witch-hunt”, and he’s not overstating it. All sides, for their own reasons, are desperately trying to portray a vote for the SNP as a reckless, borderline terrorist act, for no other reason than that neither Labour nor the Tories can command enough support to secure a majority, even under a First Past The Post electoral system that grants absolute power on 35% of the vote.
In 2013 Steve Bell had suggested that Scotland – expressly the whole country, not the SNP – should “go and [—-] itself”, with nobody left in any doubt as to which word was being obscured.
The rest of the UK – the country which just months ago was begging Scotland to stay – has now joined in, because Scots foolishly heeded the pleas that they should remain in the United Kingdom and play a full part in its governance. Yet the moment they showed the slightest sign of doing so, they’ve been drowned in vitriol.
We suspect that if there’s a second independence referendum – and that event seems closer with every passing day – a “lovebombing” strategy will be rather less effective. And for that, if not for his services to comedy, we’ll owe Steve Bell a debt of gratitude. So we urge angry readers not to demand his silencing by the Guardian – censorship is wrong. Je suis Stevie.
And to Bell himself we say only this: keep ’em coming, champ.
This inclusion of ‘safe word’ in Bell’s latest offering couldn’t be any more obvious, I think we can all work out what he’s suggesting with that.
The portrayal of all Scots as Highlanders reminds me of Franco’s use of Andalusian Gypsy culture as a brand for Spain-as-a-whole.
Keep ’em coming CHUMP.
Great stuff, Stu, and several points well made.
Came across that quote about Scots joining Greeks and French in having ‘irrational expectations’ a few days ago. It really, of course, means that the people in those other fine countries as well as here are not unanimously accepting that There Is No Alternative. The lot of us have to be demonised in case others start to agree that there very much is an alternative.
There’s ALWAYS another way to do things.
Rev. Stu
You are totally correct
Its seems to me the establishment of the UK has long being engaged in digging a great big hole for their beloved “union”, and that they have been going on this way before during and after the referendum. The current Scot bashing south of the border looks a lot like electioneering posturing and attempted point scoring, but they completely ignore the consequences of such behaviour on Scottish public opinion and that this will turn it totally against the UK
But then again, who are we to stop them, it only makes our case easier……
Seems like they need a new Marshal Wade. this from 1745
“Lord, grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King.”
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was!
They cited Charlie Hebdo, but Bell [end] wasn’t brave enough to stand up for his principles and replicate Charlie Hebdo.
Do you agree that Britain should go and f*** itself?
YES/NO?
The establishment and the Brit patriots have been trying a few pretty transparent campaigns in the run up to the elections: vote SNP get Tory – get Tory, NHS is under threat; and ooh, look at the terrible SNP policies in Holyrood, vote against them in Westminster.
I think the emerging theme right now is: Left wingers, distance yourself from the SNP. They are not left wing, they are nationalists. How is that related to Bell’s cartoon? Well, he and his apologists will say he’s attacking the SNP (fair game). If Scots want to identify themselves with one political party, what does that say about them? Loyal Germans, support the NAZI’s … Soon, they hope, liberal and left wing Scots will find that the well has been poisoned (or perhaps the more appropriate fallacy is the ‘guilt by association’ one) and need to distance themselves.
I personally know many green voters who are tempted to vote SNP but very much turned off by the nationalist associations. In terms of left of centre policies, they are tempted by the SNP as the only mainstream option. In the referendum I personally don’t think one thing lost it for yes, it was death by a thousand cuts. Same here. If this tactic only works on some students and the ‘intelligentsia’, it’s another few votes knocked of the ‘nats’
Feel the fear. Hammond says the Russians are coming. The UK absolutely must have Trident.(the contracts are locked in and we can’t risk upsetting the Americans).
Meanwhile, based on media reports of a hostile takeover by the Scots, The Englanders will desert the Cons, Dems and Labour and surge to UKIP.
A flank of SNP will not be enough to form even a case by case basis support with a bloodied Labour Party, so Labour won’t form a Government, so it’ll be ConKip.
Well done Steve Bell.
You really are thick.
Couldn’t agree more.
The media and their party political chain holders reveal more of what a great deal a no vote bought into every single day. If a picture paints a thousand words then cartoonists, commentators and journos the length and breadth of these islands have made it abundantly clear exactly where they believe Scottish votes and democracy should lie in the order of things. They’ve repaid a narrow no vote with lies, alienation, a denial of democratic mandate and outright racism. I certainly can’t think of any other way to describe the likes of the Mail’s contributions especially, but all of the titles including the ‘right on’ Guardian have had their turn.
The reason? They are terrified of the SNPs influence in HoC.
Why? Because they cannot govern and legislate for the whole of the UK without committed willing legislators (MPs). Minority governments rely on the support of like minded parties to support their legislation, geddit?
So both parties are working overtime along with their media attack dogs to other the SNP and the thought of Scottish influence as a whole having any say in the Commons. Or in other words, not only would mass SNP representation command enough influence to protect Scotland’s interests, they would control enough to win concessions.
Now when was the last time Scottish representation did that in Westminster?
Stuart – here’s my contribution written last night:
link to wp.me
I’m off to work, admin completed for now.
Racism,pure and simple.
” So we urge angry readers not to demand his silencing by the Guardian. And to Bell himself we say only this: keep ‘em coming, champ.”
small spelling error there.?
“So we urge angry readers not to demand his silencing by the Guardian. And to Bell himself we say only this: keep ‘em coming, chump.”
There you go.
More seriously I think there is not one “tipping point,” in political, military, medical, business and social campaigns, There are many within each.
The propaganda one beasted out by the BBC and London based inky fingered press, the avalanche of lies, smears, deception and the ability to by the Scots to listen to the regurgitation of promises, and vows all have their individual point for individuals and groups.
Eventually the whole lots of the come together like an unstoppable avalanche of realisation and rejection.
That is damn near now for Labour.
Just thank Bell, Blair, Brown, Miliband and Murphy and their ilk for getting us there.
In fact pick any of Murphy’s predecessors and ponder would they, even Jola have taken the their pretendy branch so far down the gutter and into the sewer.
Those the Gods wish to destroy, first they make them mad.
Fukem, they started it and we don’t need bayonets to finished them off.
We can proudly take our place among the wops, spics, kykes, frogs, krauts, bog-trotters, slants, gypos, goons etc (have I missed any out?) representing everyone who isn’t Establishment UK.
We need a new badge!
Yup, with constant onslaught of the English media, even before the indyref, you cannot say he’s only attacking the SNP.
Ps. Meaninfgul 🙂
I originally posted this on Wee Ginger Dug and I’m sticking by it;
What would you do if someone called your Mother a Whore? Your Mum, the one that gave birth to you, brought you up, tucked you in at night, loved you? Would you accept it? Would you meekly roll over and take that insult? I certainly wouldn’t. But I’ll bet that there are many Scots that would.
Steve Bell, The Guardian, The London Establishment. The Labour Party, The LibDems, The Tories; they might just as well have said that Your Mother’s a Whore! Scots are Incestuous, Kilt wearing Barbarians. “Fuck you Jock and Jockess! We can get away with saying anything. Any insult goes, you spineless, haggis eating gits! Who’s going to stand up for you? Labour? Don’t make me fucking laugh, Jock!”
Who are those Scots who will willing take this insult?
They are called Unionists. Labour supporters. Dyed in the wool LibDems. Tories.
Who are the people churning out the insults?
You see Steve Bell and the Guardian; Jim Murphy, Douglas Alexander and the Labour Party; Danny Alexander, the Guardian and the LibDems. David Mundell, Steve Bell and the Guardian.
There are all one and the same.
They represent and serve the London Establishment. They are the London Establishment. Murphy, Mundell and Alexander might have funny accents to the ears of your Established, London Establishment, but they are welcomed with open arms as long a they are prepared to play by their (Londons’s) rules.
One of those rules is to accept the insult. Know your place, Jock. Keep your mouth shut. Do as we tell you to do. In return you’ll get a cushy job, career advancement, a big house, a big salary, a big expense account and when it’s your time, a shoe in to the big House (of Lords) upstairs.
Your Mother’s a Whore Jock. Jim. Douglas. Danny. What? You’re not going to react, do nothing? Just as I thought and expected. Your Mother’s a Whore and you’re a conniving, spineless, money grabbing, two faced bastard and we love you for it.
Vote Labour. Vote LibDem, vote Murphy. Vote Alexander. Vote for the insult and take it laying down like the spineless, supine Jock that we know and expect you to be.
Jim, Danny, Douglas, Magrit, You, what’s-your-name from Orkney! Here’s some cash, here’s some ermine. Now get your spineless selfs up there to Jockland and fucking well make sure that those haggis eating, Mother shagging morons up north know they’re bloody place and continue to vote vote Labour, LibDem and Tory. Clear enough? Got your orders and instructions?
You can go along with this.
Or……
Or you could show some dignity, some self belief, gallons of self esteem and on polling day you can show London Labour, London LibDem, London Tory where they can get off.
Your Mother’s better than them. Than that.
Just looked up the definition of cartoon. FYI Mr Bell they are supposed to be humorous or funny. Big fail on both points.
By the way, has no one noticed Bell’s cartoons are usually badly drawn?
Posted earlier: Last time I saw Steve Bell he was grossly overweight, inactive, sedentary, an unkempt boozer troubled by chronic flatulence. He should get out more.
Well said Rev. Intelligent analysis of the actual state of affairs, take note so called ‘journalists’; This is what real journalism looks like.
Vote SNP: For Your Sanity.
Oh, just aimed at the SNP was it, Steve? – HE PUT THEM IN KILTS DOING A HIGHLAND FLING – It’s racial profiling. These are racist cartoons feeding into and reinforcing the racist memes which after 20 years of repetition, are now firmly embedded in the English psyche.
It is conditioning that absolutely will foster further and more egregious racial abuse. It’s so much part of the southern zeitgeist that they cannot recognise it as anything but a bit of harmless fun. It dehumanises us.
It will get worse and worse because unchecked, that’s the way these things roll.
Bell seems to think it’s witty to put Mc infront of every second noun too. McAsda, McVote, McOld, McOil… Again, nothing to do with a satirical attack on the SNP and everything to do with stereotyping the Scots and Scotland. Dull, trite racism. Yawn.
don’t know why you bothered giving space to more of the a/hols scribblings looks like a bored kids effort on a wet day without the humor i couldn’t be bothered after glancing at the first bit
It’s been said before but get Chris Cairns to do one with Thatcher and Cameron Morris dancing with the words Paedophile enablers and see what happens.
I used to like Steve Bell, but now it’s clear that he’s just another ****ing patronising ****ish ****hole.
Arrogance and ignorance towards Scotland was once a singularly Tory trait; it is now a Labour trait, especially imbedded in such supposedly enlightened newspapers as the Guardian.
I don’t believe in censorship, but over the past 35 years I’ve been slowly moving the other way. We don’t have a free press, we have a press dominated by right wing billionaires who pursue their own disreputable agenda contemptuous of the truth.
We have a press free to lie, cheat, steal, slander, defame, destroy, hound and when that doesn’t work they just make it up. They are a blight on our society contaminating everything they touch.
And it isn’t just politicians and celebrities who they try to destroy, it’s ordinary people too. And there’s no comeback. They are out of control and can do what they want.
Their attacks on the SNP/Independence through preposterous lies, innuendo, half-truths and outrageous predictions have an insidious effect in the long-run.
It’s simple: tell a lie big enough and often enough and eventually people will begin to believe it. This is the state of Britain today.
Oh and as for Mr Bell?
Racism is racism, doesn’t matter whether you are sugar coating it in obscure references to quotes the rest of us unwashed have never heard of. Mr Bell uses a visual medium to communicate so you’d think it not beyond his talent to communicate subtle references more effectively across the spectrum of readership. Unless of course WYSIWYG.
One of the commenters on the Guardian website (near the end of the thread on yesterday’s “If..” strip) said that he had had a look at the paper edition of the Guardian in the newsagent’s and hadn’t found the cartoon. The implication was that the Guardian were putting material in their English editions which they didn’t want seen in Scotland, much as the Mail and Sun do. Does anyone have a copy of yesterday’s paper to check?
Store all this abuse away carefully Rev, it will be getting an airing sooner than they think.
This abuse against the Scots Race, by the English Establishment/Media, is of the highest order.
This is out and out RACISM!
How any Scots Unionist MP can sit back and accept this abuse is beyond me. FFS grow a pair!
Better Together? Better off away from that cabal of crooks and nonces in englandshire/wastemonster. It cant come quick enough for me!
They’re frightened but why? If polls are accurate, The SNP have never said they’d dictate to England the way England does to Scotland. This style of racist hate just shows how much of historic fraud THE VOW actually is and how determined they are to stop Scotland from running the Scottish economy, by hook or by crook or racist hate attack.
or
Why not let the scrounger Scots run their economy, taxation, huge oil and renewable energy industry, whisky, our vast seas and ocean etc in the UKOK union, if only to end their scrounger Scot feeding off of England problem. It’s another extremely creepy teamGB mystery.
Charlie Hebdo – I suggest that the UK print and broadcast media are doing more to destroy what passes for free speech than any other terrorist group, by making it unreadable/unwatchable by any but their well trained die- hards.
Yes, the entire nation of Scotland is thick, drunk, incestuous, Nazi; whatever. Everybody in the entire world knows this by now, because they hang on your every word, except for those sad souls who don’t even read/watch you anymore.
We are also the most politically aware and energised nation in the world, have natural resources most countries would give their back teeth for, people in our country who will work for our future, as they always have done and a future worth working for.
So, who’s smiling now?
At least todays effort is just not funny and alludes to something offensive as opposed to yesterdays mince.
What’s not to like? It seems that everybody these days is campaigning for independence.
Aren’t we hoping that the growth of a confident nationalism IS a danger to Britain? I am. At least that’s what I voted for.
I’m sort of offended by all this anti-Scottish hysteria, but mostly I’m amused and happy that the British establishment and their puppets are so terrified of us again so soon after the referendum.
Let them keep it up, they’re helping to destroy the “union” that they care so much about, and which I despise even more with every passing day. “United Kingdom commits slow suicide”
So- “engaging” “practices” and “safe words” Bell’s suggesting Scots are deviants who take part in depraved sexual acts. It’s as simple and blatant as that.
How about a cartoon of Jim Murphy getting royally rogered by Tony Blair with the caption, “£1000 allows you to target a Labour candidate’s seat”
We should crowd-fund a booklet of this stuff, and delivery it to every home. I am past the point of getting angry. Have another £100 on Indiegogo, Rev.
AYE raise the level of debate to where you can hear it
“Nearest the gutter”
That’s the Union of Englandshire way
Every conflict, every war they’ve ever been involved in Demonize and belittle the opponent, Ridicule as a weapon
Trouble with that strategy is “This is SPARTA” I mean Scotland, so ridicule the Scots at your peril
As a nation we collectively say “Oh is that right, oh dear oh my” just before you lose your kneecaps (not advocating literal meaning)
These Numpties are talking about the Nation who invented everything else that the Romans didn’t, so in terms of Strategy we can do way more than compete
Some of our Press Scribblers might have a wee look at how that’s gone in the past
.uck Scotland too much we’ll make you pay a heavy price
We dont have to win, but the Unionists may find the price of Scotlands defeat too heavy to pay
Ahm awa tae clean ma sword noo
It’s covered in glour fae the last time
Maybe Bell and the Guardian should look closer to home for racist sexual deviants and pederasts-try Westminster and the House of Lords!!! Though i doubt Bell would have the conscience or guts to have a go at his paymasters but Scots are fair game it would seem.
Hateful stuff, he’s a cartoonist… really?
I wonder if Mr Bell is a member of ukip.
@Giving Goose, well said pal.
Whether they like it or not, they are creating a,
“them against us” mentality,
If there is an ‘irrational expectation’ here it is in expecting us to get back in our box. 🙂
O/T (apologies) but speaking to family recently and they are terrified of Vladimir Putin. Where did that come from??
It’s the casual sexism as well as the racism that astonishes me. From the Guardian of all papers to have published that the day after International Women’s Day, and then to follow it up today with implications of a fling and and 50 shades…
It beggars belief
The thing is, there isn’t much distance between Scottish people and our politicians, on the whole they are not a class apart, they’re one of us, they represent us and they’re accessible to us. We know them, they’re our neighbours, our colleagues, our friends – well kent faces. When the establishment and the media insult our representatives they insult all of us.
This is a big difference I think between attitudes to politicians in Scotland and RUK – we don’t see our politicians as aloof and elite and therefore targets for easy ridicule. The SNP are not removed from us, they are of us.
We yes should alter yesterday’s propaganda newsletter from ukok to our needs and use the best part of Bell’s racist cartoons to make leaflets to distribute to all the households in Scotland to show Scots what they really think of us.
I think part of the confusion / anger is that the claims made in the incest cartoon are patently impossible.
How could every single man in Scotland be related to Steve Bell’s maw?
Yeah, I remember Steve Bell’s cartoon telling Scotland to go and fuck itself. That one lingered, I have to say.
What a wit.
The thing is, Steve Bell genuinely hates the SNP, Salmond and probably Scotland at a visceral level. Did you see the post on Bella yesterday from John Robertson? John sent Steve a mildly remonstrating email almost a year ago asking him to tone down the anti-Scottish stuff, and this is the reply he received.
That’s not normal, or even entirely sane.
This level of blind, emotional hatred is not a good foundation for doing your job. All shame to the Guardian that it’s encouraging him rather than suggesting he go and seek help.
Bell and his like are too pathetic to care about – point out the racism and let it go. Our and (their) day will come.
A booklet with all the anti Scottish crap/shadow racism they keep throwing at us would be most welcome, this what our Better Together chums in South Britain really think of us, not all i grant you but quite a lot in real terms.
I would call it racism, but it is definitely bigotry. The cartoons aren’t funny or clever, so the only humour that remains is in puerile abuse and crude stereotypes.
It just shows how worried they are that Scots might give themselves some power for once.
Racist and bigoted pure and simple!
Not much to add to this, it seems funny that they are terrified of us. They keep telling us we are only a small proportion of the country but we seem to have power well above our size.
I would say to Westminster and those who run the country, be afraid, very afraid if you work up the English you could start a Civil War, well they have had a few. Wars of the Roses, the English civil war and not forgetting Magna Carta when they rebelled against their King.
Three centuries of the English controlling our affairs and being our overlord and we are only getting a sniff of some power now which might not even happen and look what happens. Barry eh?
From the production of the sketches ,they are not cartoons, they have no wit,
My view has changed relating to these people, I wish them no harm, I certainly wish them no good, should they drop dead tomorrow, that is only Karma biting back
I note the one used previously by OBE in the Herald, which according to the moderators is neither Trollism nor offensive,But to complain gets you banned
@ Capella says:
10 March, 2015 at 11:22 am
“We can proudly take our place among the wops, spics, kykes, frogs, krauts, bog-trotters, slants, gypos, goons etc (have I missed any out?) representing everyone who isn’t Establishment UK.
We need a new badge!”
Panda?
and we can breed, unlike the slapheads and bluerises of the unionist parties.
Aye, you’d think they’d have realised by now that when we and I mean We the Scots decide to rout a party from our country we do it and stick to it. Do they forget there is only one elected Westminster Tory in Scotland?
We did it once and we are going to do it again.
We’re taking no prisoners this time, if one Labour MP is left in Scotland, we have’t done our job. Let’s Finish It this time people and remove the Tory too.
Never in my life have I felt such resolve over any matter political as I have done over this past few months since the referendum.
All this shit does is strengthen it day by day, hour by hour minute by minute. Fuck them.
The small penis one has all the hallmarks of a satirical genius. What tabloid did these come from? I haven’t seen them before.
As one of many many people engaged in getting out SNP election material to my own neighbourhood, I know how hard it is. (Right now I’m hors de combat with the flu, and unable to help, but just as I was typing this I saw someone wave at my window and it’s a friend with the leaflets doing this street for me.) Anyway, it’s a huge logistical exercise involving a large number of people, planning, designing, printing, distribution, maps, route allocation, counting leaflets. The commitment required is immense.
The effort required to get the WBB out before the referendum was little short of heroic, and yet we probably only hit about a tenth of Scottish households. With all the centralised resources of the SNP we’ll still not get every house this time, though we’re bloody well going to try.
I suppose this is just a frustrated rant to note that if I see one more post saying “We should get this made up as a leaflet and distribute it to all Scottish households” as if this was a wee thing that could be done with a wave of the hand, I’ll probably scream.
/rant
I live in England and can tell you not one englander of my aquaintance thinks of scots anywhere near the way Bell and the mail portray us. Also, bear in mind the guardian sells only about 8000 copies in scotland – so who cares? it’s effect on public opinion in scotland (the real battlefield) is negligible.
There is a very significant date comming up on the 8th April. Might be worthwhile using it to crank things up just a tad.
Bell, Broon, Smurf, Kezza, Baws, Massie, Hastings… you name ’em are the best recruiting sergeants for SNP votes in May. Thing is, they’re so thick they don’t realise it.
Keep up the good work chaps (and chapess)!
Stu’s quite correct – the dividing line between attacking a political party and attacking a whole nation is now being crossed.
It’s worse now than during the referendum, I reckon, because then there was a veneer of love bombing. I sense no ‘positive’ side to their propaganda now. It is being made clear that the issue is Scots, any Scots, the nation of Scotland, daring to interfere in their parliament and their political system.
We aren’t going back in our wee box. So we must assume this assault will continue, on and on …..
Their Union is doomed. How can anyone, of any political persuasion, now believe it can survive?
Just a thought, would he have dared produce a cartoon mocking, blacks, Muslims, Aussies, Irish etc, etc. You bet he wouldn’t, he’d be in court. Come to think of it does he has produced not fall into the category of ‘Aggravated Racial Abuse’ under the Race Relations Act?
Auld Rock
Ooh – what with safe words and all, is Steve Bell portraying
’50 Shades of Tartan’. 😉
These strips aren’t offensive, but they are some of the most terminally unfunny excuses for humour I’ve ever seen published. Half of them don’t even make sense.
I couldn’t really give a stuff about Mr Bells take on things.One thing,though.Amongst the tartan clad butt of his joke,where are the Redcoats with their bayonets?
There have been several attempts to liken Sturgeon or Salmond’s ‘engagement with the people’ to Nuremberg style rallies.
However, a few folk other than Hitler did this sort of thing and perhaps remembering Ghandi or JFK also makes sense. Or even Churchill!
I cannot see what GB sees regarding the quality of the draughtmanship of today cartovomit as compared to yesterday. Sorry but not up to that level of perception or experience.
What I do see is a belaboured attempt to try and get a strip out as a two fingered riposte to yesterday’s kicking. That is all.
It was even less funny than yesterday’s and totally uninteresting for me. I am not even interested in pelting with half-chewed bamboo spears today. He is yesterday’s fish supper wrapper.
He was in the sewer yesterday and will need to be round the bend into the sewage works to plumb that one.
He will try though, because he is going slowly unhinged and his moments of lucidity are shrinking in number and length.
Those the Gods wish to destroy etc.
Next!
Just listening to BBC Politics with JoCo and they’re discussing when Ireland went Nationalist they became a
“Sore in the side of British Politics”
Once again another unconscious reference to England is Britain, and vice versa
Thing is they’re so used to being racist and the ruling classes they don’t know the difference anymore
It all sounds quite reasonable to them
What? What? Me? Us? Racist? all in a high voice
You Jocks are so touchy
The Taffs and the Micks are just the same, don’t know what’s wrong with you people, we give you everything and you’re still whingeing
“We English are a generous people”
Eh……………….
Answers on a postcard
I think Steve Bell has a problem with Scotland.As I said in my post yesterday his Book signing talk I went to was funny until he got to the Salmond cartoons.
Then on he went ranting about what a Braveheart Salmond was and how he will ruin Scotland.I wasnt a member of the SNP then but when he put his ‘Scotland can go F*** its self’ (which i hadnt seen before)I was a bit annoyed at the applause he got (mainly from Scots by the way,but in Shetland!)
I got the impression then he was against independence,and also that he saw the SNP as a threat to HIS Britain.
This the same man who worked with my favourite band the CLASH in the eighties,and who I saw as a radical cartoonist thoughout that time.
Sadly he has lost many fans in the last couple of years, and seems to have joined the mainstream.
Well if we want independence, we should expect this. To extend the Gandhi quote, “..and then we win. Then they continue to laugh at us”.
I remember still hearing Englishman Scotsman & Irishman jokes fifty years after Irish independence.
Mr Bell? Ho hum, give me Greg Moodie any day
[…] The enemy within […]
Morag,
Couldn’t agree more.Except about the WBB.Getting it out wasn’t so much a heroic effort as an absolute honour and privelige and something I’ll be proud to tell my grandchildren about in an independent Scotland.
A speedy recovery to you.Take your time.Be ready for the big push.
@ BtP
Pandas! I like it.
How could I have forgotten towel-heads! We have one special shared characteritic – oil – as does Mr Putin who is also being satirised ruthlessly in the MSM. We only need to ask ourselves what it is we have that they want. By “they” I don’t mean the English who are just as ripped off as the rest of us except they don’t realise it.The racism isn’t well colour coded in the UK.
I mean the elite in Westminster.
“In 2013 Steve Bell had suggested that Scotland – expressly the whole country, not the SNP – should “go and [—-] itself”, with nobody left in any doubt as to which word was being obscured
“The rest of the UK – the country which just months ago was begging Scotland to stay – has now joined in”
Not sure this is right. It seems to be saying the rest of the UK has now joined in with Bell-style bile toward Scotland. This simply isn’t true.
Many idiots have indeed joined in, but far from “the rest of the UK”. There are many sensible English, Welsh and Northern Irish people who will be appalled at the anti-Scottish nonsense currently pouring out of the London MSM.
Other than that, an unarguable demolition of the Bell person, though IMO he’s still not in the same league as the likes of Massie, Cochrane, and Hastings. A fun aspect of this campaign is the attempts by London papers to keep their anti-Scottish pieces hidden from Scottish voters by the genius tactic of not publishing them in their Scottish editions, only to see them distributed within seconds via social media, making them look not just offensively anti-Scottish but cowardly and deceitful too. Hard to see this process doing anything other than bolstering SNP support.
As you say, keep it up, champs.
Stu is right – we should not be in the least concerned about this stuff. It shines a light on the not very well hidden xenophobia of sections of the media who are reflecting the attitudes of significant numbers of people in England.
Those who have these attitudes might lap this up and no doubt will be amused by it. But lets think about the impact on the voters. Will an undecided voter in Scotland be more or less likely to vote SNP if he or she sees this stuff? I would suggest it would make it more likely. Will an increase in xenophobic behaviour South of the border make it more or less likely that Scotland will become independent? For example if they rig the rules so that Scottish MPs have reduced rights compared to English MPs? I would think that would hasten independence for Scotland.
So our reaction to these cartoons should be to welcome them as they are moving things nicely in the direction we want. We should laugh at them, not because they are funny (they are not) but because they are pathetic and doing our job for us.
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Maya Angelou
The British establishment are clearly trying to goad us into a reaction with these hate articles and cartoons in the MSM. The best reaction is to laugh because they view the electorate in Scotland as a threat. As the saying goes: keep calm and carry on.
All this propaganda cannot now win back those who have moved to Yes/SNP because each and every one of us has been verbally assaulted and vilified by the BBC/STV and the print media to the point of no return.
They can perhaps keep a percentage of waverers who voted NO.
They are, of course, trying to exhaust those who write to blogs and the press and those who would go out and canvass. Don’t let them do that to you.
Remember despite being driven to exhaustion, come the 7th May it will take the simplest of actions, to put a cross in a box for the SNP to get rid of this ugliness that is currently blighting our beautiful and friendly country. I look forward with growing enthusiasm to that day.
Woosh O/T sorry to go O/T but was listening to some General or other on the tranny this morning and at one point he said “….. blah blah blah…… make no mistake britain will be at war with Russia….. ”
It got me thinking, is this all being ramped up to give Westminster good “excuse” for a tory/lab coalition….. “need must, blah blah….good of our country blah blah”
By the time the dust has settled the SNP has been marginalised !
Just a thought, wonder how many of our young people will have to die to keep them in power ?
Cartoon today may not be hilarious but it is considerably less provocative than yesterday’s.
Not sure it adds much to the sum of human enlightenment though 🙂
Re the “greatest rally since Nuremberg” slur, here’s a clip form a truly great rally post Nuremberg – “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King. Good antidote!
link to youtube.com
Just got the pile of crud that is Scotland’s Changing. Is it a parody? “Uk’s large and diversified economy will continue to shield Scotland from sudden shocks like the fall in oil prices, or the need to rescue banks…”
That got me VERY ANGRY. When HM Government sends out a leaflet I expect facts since I am a taxpayer – not smears that can be easily unpicked.
Scotland pays more into the pot and gets less out, so I expect to see this reflected by a bit of humility from Westminster, not brash bullshite bravado.
Could you do a breakdown of the claims in this leaflet, Stu? It really is just a load of generalisations suggesting that Scots should be grateful and shut up.
Have tweeted extensively to @ScotlandOffice Her Majesty’s Official Purveyor Of Half Truths, Lies, Scare Stories And SmokeScreens…
Did I say I was VERY ANGRY?
Labour leaflet delivered this morning along with HM govt. propaganda. They are taking the piss now.
Yea mr bells attempt at humour has now just become boring
Dr Jim @ 11.49, and this is the country that the greatest conquering Romans, could only make as far as Cumbernauld! 2 walls to try and keep us in, so you’ve got to laugh at this prodding with pointy sticks.
Personally, and I’m agreeing with Morag here, reading his response to Prof. Robertson last year, and just these recent drawings, I feel like a queasy voyeur witnessing some kind of mental breakdown, or at the very least peeking into a sick mind, and I’d rather turn away.
I have submitted a complaint to IPSO, based on finding incest, and all of its implications, suitable for a cheap laugh. Incest, sexual assault are the last things this country should be using as fodder, to somehow demean the victims, or how serious the work is. I find that part abhorrent.
With all of the issues and subjects to make fun of, you turn to incest? I think it speaks volumes of this mind at work.
Kevin Maguire routinely manages to somehow make Andrew Pierce appear lucid when they review the papers on Sky News.
Maguire is usually all over the place and can’t seem to make a simple point. His Mirror column headline does not surprise me.
OT. Is everyone receiving their HM Gov ‘Scotland’s Changing’ propaganda wrapped in SLab bumph? Delivered together, by Royal Mail.
Cosy. Better together, even.
Please may we run Scotland’s economy? They never mention Scotland much at all, other Libby Carrell’s miserable Project Fear routine.
Red tories dragged hysterically out of their loss making upper middle class English Establishment England comfort zone by Scottish democracy, shock.
Its not hard to picture shills like Bell and Toynbee rage at the incestuous sweaties at the office, now into S&M too.
Whatever next from our pet thugs at the Graun?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
“That’s the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee on this afternoon’s Sunday Politics London during a discussion on Nick Clegg’s leadership of the Lib Dems, telling presenter Andrew Neil that even were Scotland to vote No in September’s independence referendum, it would be unthinkable for any Scot to ever again lead a UK political party, or hold any of the great offices of state.”
Lets face it, they’re no less neo fascist than any other reprobate at the Daily Heil, SUN, Mirror… Its England rules the waves from Lands End to Carlisle, soon enough.
Well said giving goose but you missed out paedophilia as one of the Westminster perks.
The only explanation I can come up with is that there’s a “craziest man in England” competition that I haven’t heard about? It doesn’t appear to be running in Scotland. Prize must be huge though eh? I mean really effing huge, like oilfield huge, because they’re all at it. That’s it! It’s the general election, “the craziest man in England” competition. Roll up roll up, free oilfield to whoever can keep the union together.
Must be tough for our Scottish brothers and sisters who live down there though.
You should have your own views……….and learn from others.
Pirocka, my barn-veldt, has just laid two eggs and is now sun-bathing. What a wonderful contrast to all that poison yesterday and today. At least, the establishment racism is well out in the open now. Keep it coming.
Ah, so was this “all the vile abuse” that that wee sad man Ian Davidson was blurbing on about last night before saying the SNP cant be trusted, with his henchman Frank McAveety at his side looking like he was about to explode at any moment?
Oh Davidson meant cybernat abuse was everywhere…..silly me…
Talking of racial tension…
link to mohkohn.wordpress.com
I’d be interested to know the questions asked in the BBC Scotland poll in which they say 49% of Scots don’t like immigration and 15% want it stopped altogether
Given that we paid for the poll in some of us paying our licence fee i want to know what happened to my Fellow Scots that have suddenly had this change of mind
I certainly haven’t, without immigration Scotland wouldn’t be the place it is
I posted on this last week when i realised the BBC were going to try to Undermine the Scottish Government with yet another scare attack on how we don’t like the Nasty Furriners
Just had my Lib Dem we’ve saved the world leaflet
“SNP is bad for your health” it screams loudly, and then goes into great detail about (Potholes)
That’s Jo Swinson for you..with lots of pictures
She likes that…Bless
@ Nana 12.54
Now them’s lyrics. 🙂
With Bell it’s hard to associate laugh with his work in any context except, “…he who laughs last”.
Only a few short months ago I’ve never felt so loved & so wanted. Now i feel hated & mistrusted. It’s like being married to a bipolar thug
Just got a Lib Dems card through the door, remember them? Anyhow it appears that “Tory election blunder reveals ‘no hope’ candidates.” In huge letters it proclaims, PUBLICATION MAKES IT OFFICIAL – CONSERVATIVES CAN’T WIN IN SCOTLAND. Well slap my arse with haddock, who would have thunk it?
And, of course, they are the only ones who can stop the SNP’s independence obsession! Funnier than any Bell cartoon.
I wonder if this anti-Scottish attitude will backfire. It is all over twitter and facebook, and it is just getting peoples backs up.
During the referendum, the media tried to smear the Yes side as a bigoted mob. Now it looks like unionists are the nasty side.
So much for an equal union where Scots votes count too.
I post here on “Wings” in a fairly regular basis, I donate to Wings and SNP, and in light of the way these dregs of delusional colonialism degrade and incite the hand that feeds them, I am now out there knocking on doors for SNP.
We all find the money and spare time difficult to find, but if you consider the consequences of having to endure the rest of our lives under the heel of corrupt Westminster politicians, their elitist masters and their media servants, the time must be found!
We all must do more than just write, if we are to grab this once in a life time momentum and make a difference that just might free us, and our future from these debilitating shackles.
How many of you could spend just 2 hours delivery leaflets
or canvasing in a local area with the help of your local party?
Think how angry you would be with yourself, if we came up just short again, and if you could have made that difference??
My Guardian comment on today’s cartoon was “Boring!” and it was removed by a Moderator ……
So now you know an effective way to respond to Steve Bell’s efforts.
Fellow wingers.A lifetime of helping people deal with their problems tells me one thing in particular.We are winning.The fear you see expressed in these drawings and articles is the awakening realisation that everything they have known during their life is under threat, and they are shit scared of the pace of change.
The only weapon they can utilise to fight back against this fear are words and pictures.It is self expression shovelled out hoping to gain public appreciation of your own bigotry.It is their own fear put to paper,.in the hope of finding common ground among others.
I have seen the same phenomena developing on facebook and twitter,with unionist supporters sticking to totally irrational points of view, as Murphy or Milliband has said it was so
Keep up the pressure Rev.You are driving them to act more and more irrationally, as they are now adopting a machine gun approach to all Scots, no matter how they voted in the referendum .Serves us well in the end.
O/T
After the ‘donations’ made by Blair to hard up labour candidates.
this response from Ivan McKee…
link to twitter.com
How many owners, editors and extremist writers,
of leading newspapers are there in England –
two hundred, maybe.
Another two hundred at the top end of the TV channels –
those who set the agenda and the tone,
like McQuarrie and Boothroyd at BBC Scotland.
So that’s four hundred.
Add in 50 from each of the Unionist parties,
people of the calibre of ‘Tory’ McTernan
and other sewer dwellers,
and including members of the British Cabinet.
That makes 550 in total out of a population of 55,000,000.
This small group is responsible for designing and implementing
their vile propaganda war against Scotland every day.
Let’s not imagine that we are faced with a vast army
of hate-filled racist extremists living in England.
My second point. Unless there has been a dramatic change
in global sentiment toward the English,
I retain the impression that the English are not at all liked
in many parts of the world, including in Europe.
The legacy of the British Empire is a bitter one for many.
My last point. Shouting foul-mouthed abuse through the
media at the Scots, together with cruel and heartless austerity,
can, and will, have only one effect –
to fill Scotland with a sure and firm resolve to divorce England.
And no one on earth will blame us for that.
Bell probably fancies himself as fighting the good fight, in a similar vein to Boris Yefimov, Stalin’s favourite, cartoonist/propagandist. Like Yefimov, Bell appears to have sold his soul, in furtherance of his perverse brand of ‘socialism’ – defend the status guo by denying equality and stoking racial bigotry.
What a disappointment.
A major problem highlighted by Ian MacWhirter in The Herald today, is the Scottish editions of these papers spouting vile down south do not print it in their Scottish editions and if they did, there would be an immediate outcry.
We could do worse than reprint some of them and try to deliver them with other campaign material.
These cartoons remind me of a child doing something stupid, then laughing, but wondering why none of the grown ups see it as funny. ‘Acting the goat’, my granny would have described it. A sense of humour others appreciate clearly develops with maturity.
HOWEVER, these cartoons are just little cogs in a big propaganda machine. They are part of something much more sinister. Along with the politicians’ rhetoric, news articles, and editorial comment, something much nastier is developing.
Do you know something, I’m getting pretty pig sick of all of this.It is racism, regardless of what they try to say. It’s like way back in the fifties when they used to call black folk nignogs and coons. How could you find that offensive, you have no sense of humour. But it was very very offensive and it still is, you just cannot say these words anymore. So why are we Scots being treated like this?
Are we really a sub species, only here to amuse our beloved patrons? Aye right! as far as I’m concerned I’m a rational human being, getting on a bit, aye, but I’m still quite compis mentis.Why is it no longer my right to vote for any MP that I wish to, instead of which one THEY want me to vote for.
They are crapping their breeks, and throwing everything to get Labour elected in Scotland, so that they can carry on as usual. I’m sorry, but it does not work like that anymore. Labour are a busted flush, by their own doing. The killer blow for many was Labour standing side by side with Tories, running down their own country and citizens in such a derogetary manner. The bile and opprobruim heaped on us was unreal. Hear we are in a UK GE and it’s all happening again, because Labour are going to receive an almighty kicking. Richly deserved I might add.
What the bloody hell gives them the right to denigrate the people of a country, that is just trying to use it’s democratic right, to have our country represented by people who actually care.
Silly question, we have to get back in our box and dae whit we’re telt. Absolutely nae chance o’ that.
Oh and by the way Mr Hammond, if you want to keep trident that’s fine with me. Just move it to the Thames, preferably tied up outside Westminster Palace.
@Macart
Just the best from Maya Angelou. My personal favourite is
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
When you see them all laid out like that you realise how utterly clueless Steve Bell is about Scotland.
Good satire starts with an understanding of who your are trying to satarise.
He doesn’t.
Spend your media pennies elsewhere.
Don’t react in kind they will only use it against us.
I really like England just not MSM/establishment.
Thank god for Twitter, Internet and Wings
Peace
Would it not be a great time for Nicola to call for another Referendum? It would expose the irony and send the far right msm into orbit not knowing how to respond!
I’ve had enough of my so called countrymen after the last couple of days-they have disgusted me more than I could ever have believed.
If someone can help me out with a spare room somewhere, I’ll take a couple of weeks off & drive around Scotland delivering WBB2 to local hubs & do it with pleasure. That will be my personal share of payback to both WM & Labour.
Rev-this is a serious offer.Please bear it in mind when you get closer to production/distribution date.
Well Manandboy, I try very hard not to imagine a country full of hatred for one of their closest neighbours, but the trouble is that many of them have. I know and realise that this is not everyone but a sizeable chunk certainly are happy to believe we are sponging non tax paying benefit junkies.
If I saw Mr Bell, I would say to him – “Bell,end this carry on”. Bell end, Bellend !?!?
The Editor of the Guardian takes responsibility for publishing these cartoons.
The Editor could choose not to and instead decides that they should be published.
So what does this say about the political stance of the Guardian?
Well it places the Guardian firmly in the Right Wing camp.
But wait a minute, isn’t The Guardian traditionally seen to be on the left?
Well, not exactly.
It did support the LibDems in the 2010 general election but that fact doesn’t make it of the left because the LibDems are clearly of the Right.
But if you took away the political associations, then what are we to make of the Guardian’s view of the world?
On the present evidence it is a very narrow view, a London Centric view. I imagine that the Guardian and it’s staff see themselves as pillars of the London Establishment.
But that very fact reveals the Guardian as an extremely sub standard publication.
And if you take the wider view and look at who are the stable mates of the Guardian within the Establishment then it tells a very revealing story.
So who’s who in the stable?
Let’s list some of them and see what it tells us;
The Labour Party
The Conservative Party
The Liberal Democrats
All members of the House of Lords
The Daily Mail
The Telegraph
The Times
A very Right Wing cabal
And what do they have in common?
Strangely enough the Guardian is no stranger to writing about the Establishment
link to tinyurl.com
To answer my question I’ll borrow a phrase from the end of the Guardian’s own article;
It’s all about money; the amassing of wealth and aggressively annexing power in a way that has no precedent in modern times.
The Guardian sees events in Scotland as a threat to it’s own position with the Establishment and it will do whatever it takes to ensure that position is not threatened by the Democratic process.
Welcome to Undemocratic, Totalitarian Britain everyone; a one system state in everything but name.
Lollysmum, I have a spare room. A very nice spare room, en suite, it’s own sitting room too. I’m in the constituency the SNP is struggling to take from the Tories. I’d love a bit of company. I had three Plaid Cymru guys for the last two weeks of the referendum campaign.
If you’re interested, we can figure out how to get in touch.
What Indigo and Morag say:
The reference to BD/SM practices – 50 Shades of Gray – on the days after IWD, following the incest reference (and while it may have derived from the words of a witty 20th Centurier it was twisted as to remove the “don’t try”), deliberately offensive, still does nothing but imply sexism and sexual “deviance”.
In fact to draw this the day after is really just rubbing salt in a wound, and reactivate the previous day’s cartoon.
It may be little more than a few bars of the Dashing White Sargent to see how this connects to the cartoons demonising the Germans in 1914, or the Jews in Germany (or France at certain times). There is an air of Franco’s Spain or Sá-Lazar’s Portugal.
What is genuinely worrying is that this air of the 30s extends to silencing those who would challenge the dominant regime: the challenges against Church Leaders or individuals speaking out against Austerity. And we have the Scots as emerging scape goat being forced on to the stage.
In terms of what Morag said about distribution (and Morag I got my iScot – and v. impressed I am), we need to reach the headline readers who tune halfheartedly into Scotland Tonight or Echo and the Bunnyman sings Labour. We need to find a way to reach those voters – beyond leaving our National, or our iScot in the Vet’s waiting room (sorry M!).
Erk, its. The submit key is the best proofreader.
Isn’t it strange how the question of Scottish independence brings out the truth in the so called “anti establishment” crowd? George Galloway, Dennis Skinner (the Westminster court jester) and the Guardian, which claims to be progressive but is even more racist then the Daily Mail.
What next from Bell? Enda Kenny as a leprechaun? Francois Hollande as an onion seller? Angela Merkel as a member of the Waffen SS?
The irony is the only person he is really parodying is himself. Way past his sell by date.
“Oor relationship’s a rip-roarin’ success, Cos she aye says ‘No’ but she really means ‘Yes'”
………
Wow, just…WOW.
Wonder what Bell’s views are on rape and Consent ??
Nana Smith says:
“After the ‘donations’ made by Blair to hard up labour candidates.”
#BlairMatchProject
…. what a brilliant idea! Is there a list of where Blair’s donations went in Scotland?
Could we crowd fund to match each of those?
@Dr Jim
According to Jackie Bird the other night,the questions asked where:should we have more immigration,less immigration or none at all.
When I heard them I wondered why ‘should stay the same’,wasnt one of the choices too?
BBC bias perhaps?
@ Graham 11:32
I understand what you’re saying.
Freedom of speech is a really difficult right to apply universally without allowing objectionable and potentially damaging ideas to have a voice. I personally don’t think we can ever try to curb it, because if we do, we take away our own voice too.
However, where the media is concerned, it’s NOT just about freedom of speech, it’s also about social responsibility.
If I choose to stand on the street corner and shout rubbish at people walking past, they can decide whether to stop and listen or shout back at me to go home and stop talking rubbish. I’m not in the public eye, I’m not in a position of power, there is no expectation from passers by that I’m an authority on what I’m saying.
Newspapers and TV channels on the other hand reach vast numbers of people and have a tangible influence on people’s knowledge and beliefs about the world. The media have to accept that there IS an expectation from the public that they are an authority on current events. They set themselves up with an explicit purpose to inform, to provide facts and a reasoned opinion to the public. They can have a view, a slant, even a bias, but they must use their reach into the public consciousness responsibly.
When the media induces views in their audience which are not justified by the facts (using words like ‘rampaging’, ‘ threat’, ‘storming’ to imply that there is some kind of underlying violence or aggression in people’s voting intentions), they are effectively abusing their power, lying to the public by creating an impression of something which doesn’t exist.
Charlie Hebdo is a niche publication which has always been open about its purpose (to push the boundaries, to shock, to challenge ideas). They are not dressed up as respectable, balanced, everyday journalism. The reader knows what to expect and understands the context.
The mainstream media (by definition anything which has a large readership) has a clear-cut responsibility to keep to the truth. (Ironically, that’s one of the cornerstones of freedom of speech, the right of people to know the truth, even though in applying it universally you allow people the right to twist the truth.)
Freedom of speech is not the same thing as freedom to spread propaganda. The examples in the article above, are verging on propaganda, the choice of words, the derogatory images and the repetition of certain negative associations (aggression, naziism, invasion, zealotry) all seep into the subconscious of the readers and the media know that.
To go back to the example of me shouting on a street corner. Suppose I knew that the man in the house opposite had been on trial for murder but had been acquitted because it was self defence. If I decided to shout out in public that the man was murderer, I would be being socially irresponsible, I would be knowingly causing damage to someone with no justification. That’s not freedom of speech, that’s being a bas*&rd.
When the mainstream media twist the truth in this way, they are not exercising their right to freedom of speech, they are abusing their power and influence (and being bas*&rds).
I voted to leave the UK.
I have no feelings for it whatsoever, and it can do what it likes. There`s nothing there for Team GB, Auntie Beeb or God save the Queen.
It`s over.
Just waiting for the right time to move out.
So Mr Bell-end is up to his usual cowardly tricks, and trying to hide behind so-called “free speech” to get off with it.
He certainly appears to be a contriving, overblown conceited dickhead, that I for one will be glad to see disappear up his own severely reemed earsehole after the election.
I think I made my point.
@galamcennalath
Here is the 106 seats targeted
link to labourlist.org
De Valera says:
10 March, 2015 at 2:04 pm
Isn’t it strange how the question of Scottish independence brings out the truth in the so called “anti establishment” crowd?
Aye, quite a few ringers have been outed during the past two years. Those so-called “champions” turned out to be nothing more than self-promoting, selfish little cowards. Nothing like a good old constitutional referendum to smoke out the vermin, eh?
The Scottish National Party is “screwing” David Cameron and Nick Clegg out of more for Edinburgh than it deserves given the party lost the independence referendum, Lib Dem Baroness Williams has warned.
feel the love
link to archive.today
RE: the recent MSM attention directed toward immigration. I note they are starting to stir things again. When all else fails, play the race/immigrant card. You just know what’s coming, don’t you:
“Invasion of nasty foreigners expected following an SNP-LABOUR agreement”
I have thought that the Bell cartoons are obviously part of a set and that pre-ordained set we are going to get regardless of how offensive they might be. Perhaps six weeks worth of anti-Scottishness without any editorial intervention. Just makes you wonder who the Guardian was supposed to guard?
It does make me wonder if the establishment now sees all Scots as a “threat” given the language of “insurgency” and similar terms during and after the referendum. The democratic choice to vote for a party seems to be a subversive act.
It makes me wonder how UKIP is considered to be a democratic choice and indeed presumably fine to take part in government (with their one or so swivelling headed MP) but the mass choice of Scotland is unacceptable and according to the more rabid political commentators akin to Sinn Fein. I think Nicola should up the ante and promise that if the Labour party will vote to abolish the House of Lords then the SNP will support them. That would make their bums squeeky.
It just makes people even more angry and aids support for the SNP. Westminster and the Press crooks are so out of touch, and in bed together. An incestuous relationship. Keep it coming. Scotland will be going.
Can’t wait for Alex and Co to kick Cameron/Osbourne out of Downing Street. It will be great revenge for the lies and deceit of Westminster.
OT Apologies Stu.
Have just watched episode six of ‘Outlander’ last night,
courtesy of BitTorrent on a Nexus Android tablet.
Better via Chromecast on HD TV.
Set in the Highlands around Inverness, before the Jacobite uprising of 1745,
each hour long episode is set against
the political background of the Clan system,
and of the English occupation of Scotland in that period.
When did it ever end, merely changing with the times.
Episode six brings the viewer face to face with the army
of King George II, the infamous Redcoats.
It is only really at this point, for the first time in the series so far,
that one is presented with the attitudes and actions
of the English army toward the Highlanders.
The flogging scene is not for the faint-hearted
and it certainly stirs Scottish blood.
Of interest also are the verbal exchanges
between one side and the other,
depicting, as they do, some of the notorious colonial attitudes
of the English toward the Scots ‘savages’.
It is this ‘colonial attitude’ which I find interesting,
more so than any individual act of brutality
such as a flogging.
And of course, these are only significant ,
in so far as they accurately reflect historical fact.
Does this series have a role to play
in the contemporary political story of Scotland.
Who can tell without it being widely seen.
Watching the series hasn’t affected either my thinking
or my vote.
It might affect some No voters.
One thing is certain, it doesn’t do much for the English.
Morag
Thanks for the very kind & rapid offer. If we can organise anticipated delivery dates with Stu, then it looks as though I’ll be taking you up on it.
Personally, I can’t think of a better use for some of my annual leave :-)I usually have to take most of December (end of leave year) off because I’ve just forgotten about taking most of it.
Thank you again. We can pass on contact details via Stu.
Blair the murderer is funding the Labour Party with stolen blood money, to stay out of jail. The Labour/Unionists are protecting Blair/Brown for stolen, blood money. Thry have no concience and no shame. They are beneath contempt and so are the Trade Unionist leaders who support them. The greedy, lying elite.
@Luigi
Yes, the Liberal establishment in the UK have outed themselves as being raging Brit nats in the last few years. Will Hutton, Nick Cohen, Steve Bell, Shirley Williams and co. All part of the British establishment, and always willing to parrot the establishment line on Scotland.
O/T
Former leader of the Scottish National Party Gordon Wilson said that Scotland should declare independence if the UK would vote in favour of leaving the European Union.
link to sputniknews.com
more troubles for labour…
Co-operative members want an economy based on democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.
So it makes sense for The Co-operative to support political parties that share those values.
But no single political party should be able to take our financial support for granted. And every party should be challenged to make sure that they support our Co-operative values.
link to realcoop.net
Stu has my email address. Or if you’re on Twitter, I’m @DrMoragKerr and if we follow each other I can send it to you directly.
I don’t know what Stu’s “Project Red” entails or if there’s any delivering involved (we got out several thousand WBBs round here in August/September), but there’s plenty to do.
The other side of the coin.
I laughed all the way through reading this. I thought you’d like a laugh too. Problem is he believes what he is saying.
link to bruceonpolitics.com
It is getting to the stage where this type of attack will just galvanise more support for Scottish input to Westminster.
While Labour are the main opposition in Scotland must not forget the Berkshire Cameronian Hoodies in England.
Must recommend Independent site ad, You’re So Tory Supermarket featuring Photoshopped head of Cameron on original model with the big bum.
I’m beginning to agree that Labour candidates ‘refusing’ Blair’s blood money then being ‘forced’ to take it is a big con.
The candidates are trying to give the impression that they are distancing Blair – nonsense.
Steve Bell is an anti-Scottish racist, but since we Scots are not a race, that’s all fine.
The number of times, as we all know, during the indy ref we were called Anglophobic for the mere choice of wishing to rule our own country but this is deemed acceptable?
The indy ref campaign exposed the so called free democracy we live in and it’s not a pretty sight.
@ manandboy says:
You have just outlined why Outlander will never be shown by the BBC or ITV but we are subjected to 1000s of hours a year on English historical dramas and the Great British everything.
The British broadcasters won’t even commission threatening Scottish Drama such as Walter Scott’s Heart of Midlothian which would make for great action period drama.
Good old auntie,commission a poll on immigration, get the prof on to discuss and then the Herald cherry picks suitable bits and gets Arthur Misty Thackeray from UKIP to comment.
Relax and have a coffee job done!
link to archive.today
Q. Is immigration a devolved matter? Thought not!
The Tories have ruined the Scottish Oil sector for sheer spite just because they could. Just like lying Thatcher did. In order to spite the SNP and the people in Scotland. The Unionists have wasted £Billions of public money and created £Billions of debt, unnecessarily, just because they could. The sooner the Unionists politicians are gone the better. They are useless liars. All they ever do is hold Scotland back, to line their own pockets. Just like the bankers, they are never bought to account. Unionist Politicians, the thieving Bankers and the lying Press. All in it together.
Morag
I’m @LollysMum1 on Twitter & I’ve followed you
@gillie at 11:44.
“How about a cartoon of Jim Murphy getting royally rogered by Tony Blair with the caption, “£1000 allows you to target a Labour candidate’s seat””
Ya belter! worth a repetition.
What happened to “better together” it is really quite simple SET US FREE and bankrupt yourselves.
Oh it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside being part of this wonderful ‘family of nations’ doesn’t it. I mean you can just feel the love pouring over the border from the English press, they can barely contain their sense of joy and excitement at the prospect of us Scots finally having our voices heard in this oh so glorious of unions.
Well Mr Bell you and your colleagues in the English press need not fret for much longer as a large contingent of our SNP representatives are dusting down their bagpipes and donning full highland dress as we speak, so dig out your dancing shoes Mr Bell as the Scots are about to lead your lot and the Westminster establishment on a merry jig. See ya soon!
The only affect it will have is to bolster the SNP in May if anything. The disturbing thing about it is that when we do send a large number of SNP reps down to Westminster, what do they intend to do about it? Will they try to prevent us entering Parliament? As Peter Thompson is never tired saying ‘It is the settled will of the people of Scotland’. This is written into The Act of Union and they can’t mess about with that. Independence may come sooner than we think.
call me dave
Arthur Misty Thackeray from UKIP
check him out @linkiden
Christ…even the Cheltenham coverage in the bookies has a prominent butchers apron constantly on display on the telly screen. WTF??
I’ve just had a response from the Guardian’s Reader’s editor to my complaint of yesterday.
It is, of course, generic, unrepentant and insufficient. I expect many others received an identical response.
Regarding Outlander – It’s important to remember that Redcoats were not necessarily English. It was the British army that carried out these disgraceful acts in the Highlands, not the English army, and many companies were comprised of Scottish Lowland troops. Even some Highland troops were involved, mainly settling old scores. The UK government has apologised to other countries for much less, and they should apologise to the Highlands for centuries of cultural cleansing, and a brief interlude of actual ethnic cleansing.
Steve Bowers says:
10 March, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Woosh O/T sorry to go O/T but was listening to some General or other on the tranny this morning and at one point he said “….. blah blah blah…… make no mistake britain will be at war with Russia….. ”
Is this not how all failing dictators have always reacted?
If there is a perceived political threat from their own populations, failing dictators nearly always go to war to try to get the “nation” to support them again. Trouble is it rarely succeeds.
The Argentine leadership tried that in the Falklands, Putin is trying that in the Ukraine. There are plenty of other examples of it but as I’m not an historian I can’t recall them at the moment.
It is nothing less than another sign of another crumbling empire.
Bell-end’s cartoon tells folk nothing about the perceived Scottish threat at Westminster and everything about the mentality of this prick himself. He sees the SNP as stealing the Labour vote in Scotland and and his difficulty lies in attacking a party which is demonstrably fairer & more progressive than that which he supports. He’s tied to backing the same auld careerist, blood-stained, ermine-clad, corrupt tossers who have a pish-poor record of running the British economy and are franticaly trying to appeal to the Tory/Ukip vote.
In England he has no alternative, a party of the left are un-electable and Chardonay socialists like himself are left preaching to themselves. They’re fucked and he knows it, hence the stupidity of the cartoon.
Bell is easy enough to respond to. Just refer to him as Guardian cartoonist Jim Davidson or Daily Mail editor Steve Bell. That gets the point across nicely. 😉
I wonder where Bell got his hatred of Scots? Maybe he was rogered by Cyril of the Smith wearing a kilt. Was his nanny Scottish? Did the big yin stick one on him at some point? Is he envious of the Broons and Oor Wullie cartoonists because they are better artists? It’s surely not contrived, not just for the shilling. Something’s tickled his sporran that’s for sure.
As a simple country cheil I cannot understand why everyone on here shortens his name to Steve Bell rather than his real name of Steven Bell-End.
Even Rev Stu can beat him as a cartoonist from what I have seen from Stu’s Lowery-esk activities.
I see the BBC is keeping the nasty furriner poll high on their text service
Folk dying in motorway crashes and such is much less of a concern obviously
[…] The Steve Bell cartoon in yesterday’s Guardian caused a fairly predictable reaction. SNP supporters and Yes voters were offended, some Guardian journalists drew ludicrous defensive comparisons citing Charlie Hebdo – as if people had called for Bell to be beheaded, rather than just expressed the opinion that the cartoon was nasty and racist – and lovers of comedy went off scratching their heads after fruitless attempts to understand what the joke was supposed to be. […]
David S Briggs says:
10 March, 2015 at 3:26 pm
The disturbing thing about it is that when we do send a large number of SNP reps down to Westminster, what do they intend to do about it?
It all depends on the arithmetic. For example, I can see a minority Labour government offering some additional powers in return for the SNP not supporting a VoC against them. But not Trident – they will agree to differ on that, Labour safe in the knowledge that the Tories won’t vote against that one. With regard to Trident 2, an unofficial Tory-Labour alliance is likely. In other words, Labour/Tory votes for it, SNP against (no harm done, they think). After Trident, it’s back to business as usual (supply and confidence or whatever).
If it’s a Tory government, then the same (almost) in reverse, Tories vote for Trident, SNP against and Labour abstains to let it pass.
Almanny
Are not one of Bell’s parents Scottish?
He could be a “Proud Scot Butt”
If you call someone a murderer who has been acquitted then it’s slander. Worse though is the sly implication of guilt just because someone is under investigation. Worse still is if the investigator deliberately delays their decision on whether there’s a case to answer for propoganda purposes.
Wee Ginger Dug skewering the bell cartoon:
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
Just received a reply from some prick called Chris Elliot. Says Bell is half Scottish so it’s ok. He is very popular with Guardian readers so if I can’t take a joke, tough shit basically.
“His intention was to examine the irrational antavistic urges at the root of Scottish nationalism.”
As Stu says, we are lucky to have him, this is getting too easy.
The fundraiser is creeping towards the £96,000 mark. Let’s go for 6 figures.
link to indiegogo.com
Some of youse may remember that last year lots of nice people made extra donations that were clubbed together to buy a gold badge for Ronnie Anderson.
Well, this year Ronnie has nominated the famous, glamorous, unparalleled Paula Rose, for a crowd-funded gold badge.
Paula Rose has walked the streets and tottered around many a muddy and fishy venue, in her stilletos, to promote Wings over Scotland. Bringing Wings to places others might not reach.
If you want to contribute to this amazingly deserving cause. Just make another wee (or not so wee) donation to the fundraiser and put a post on the off-topic thread saying how much you sent.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Poor Steve, he’s obviously not very well and seems to have some rather unhealthy sexual preoccupations. Perhaps he is drinking too much because of his waning powers.
It’s a wee shame, really.
It’s great that the interwebthingy can spread his wit and wisdom so quickly, though.
Keep on truckin’, Steevo. What a boon you are for the SNP.
But Hogarth you are not, except for the rancid racism.
Casual racism and sexism aside, there are a few other points jump out of these cartoons.
Firstly, the highland fling isn’t scottish country dancing, it’s highland dancing… the clue is in the name… duh!
Secondly, “Incest and Morris Dancing” (two unconscionable acts) doesn’t translate into “Incest and Scottish Country Dancing”, because most Scots enjoy country dancing at weddings, whereas Morris dancing is complete anathema to most English people.
So that’s two counts on which Mr Bell just demonstrates a total ignorance of Scottish culture.
Finally, the appearance of Alex Salmond on the first mention of incest, and the reference to safe words implies there’s some kind of warped sibling/sexual relationship between Sturgeon and Salmond. That’s just revolting.
All in all, casually sexist and racist, trying to be clever but getting lost in cultural translation due to ignorance of Scottish culture, and sleazily and lazily implying sexual improriety without having the guts to some out and say it. It’s cowardly, deeply unpleasant and not funny at all.
I’m never buying the Grauniad again.
Westminster threatens war with other countries, so the useless greedy members can try and terrorise folk. In order that they and their useless, greedy associates can keep their lying snouts in trough, and steal £Billions of public money. It is a murdering diversion to kill Innocent people who do not comply. In order that Westminster and their fellow greedy associates can keep their noses in the trough. Thry are the most disgusting creatures on the Planet, which they are ruining.
The rotten to the core Unionist politicians are protected by the sythanantic, incestuous Press who also have their noses in the tough supported by mass tax evasion of public money. Any threat to the nauseous murdering elite results in a counter attack on innocent people, with the contrive, contemptuous Press leading the charge. Westminster do not do democracy. It’s an alien concept, in order that the murdering liars will survive.
From the previous thread – this is worth repeating
THERE’S ONLY AN HOUR TO GO AND STILL NOT EVEN HALFWAY
CAN WE APPLY SOME WINGS GENEROSITY HERE QUICKLY PLEASE
K1 says:
Corri Wilson, SNP candiate for Ayr. Carrick and Cumnock’s campaign fundraiser closes today at 6pm. Not even half way there to complete its funding!
We need as many SNP candidates in Westminster as possible and therefore need to support them as much as we can to ensure they have the best chance of getting there.
Vote SNP, Get Scotland outta the madness.
X_Sticks has done his bit..
K1 says:
10 March, 2015 at 10:05 am
Oops…link:
link to crowdfunder.co.uk
Steve Bell says your Scottish grannies were all hairy apes and so we have irrational tendency to go bananas at his cartoons.
Thanks goodness it is only genetic, for a minute there I thought it was all due to the water we drank.
O/T another nice chap suspended by the BBC
link to bbc.co.uk
Response from IPSO – Guardian is not a member, so they advise me to contact The Guardian.
Nice, you have a ready made public platform, you spew whatever you like, and you are accountable to nobody.
Lianachan – the British Army Order of Battle at Culloden comprised 13 battalions 3 of which were Scottish (lowland)and there were some Campbell militia (as you say “settling old scores”) as well.
Notice that the North Brit Nat parties are never offended by any patronising racist remarks about Scots and Scotland. In fact they encourage it.
Ihttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/09/tory-attack-snp-union-labour-snp-governmentt`s not ALL bad at the Gurgin. Interesting piece by John Harris
Good man X_Sticks!
I believe if the amount isn’t reached the candidate doesn’t receive a penny!
All hands on deck…think of the future…
Vote SNP
When Steve Bell swaggers about the Guardian office, do you think he knows no-one finds his cartoons funny?
Donated for corrie.
In my more supple youthful days when in mixed national company, I used to do a “fine” version of Morris dancing and singing mournful Greensleeves whenever the English in attendance tried to mock Scotland. And then I’d yawn through a version of the “lonely seas and the sky, all I ask is a tall ship…”, followed by a Burns phrase or to.
Yeah, it didn’t polish up my career prospects, but I got by, with pride intact.
“When will the English stop taking from others?”., I was asked by an Indian gent in Bahrain.
Cartoonists who wouldn’t know how to spell satire, left any principles behind the minute they crossed the border. Sold their souls for tax evaded gold and a comfortable lifestyle. Like the rest of the pigs at the trough.
Scotland has lost at least £30Billion since the ConDems came to power. The ConDems elected to protect NHS/Education and cut the deficit. Cut the deficit by cutting NHS/Education. They attacked the weak and vulnerable but rewarded the rich, wealthy (cartoonists) who caused the problems.
No wonder the Guardian readership is going down soon to Zero along with the disintegrating website. Shameful.
We are in for a hell of a ride until May!
Expect SNP ‘paeodos’, fake tartan terrorists, economic acopolypse, ‘proof’ of Russian funding of the SNP, sleepers to be activated (although they might save that for after the election). You name it, we’ll face it.
Unspeakable Scots. How very dare we!
Grin.
Boss-eyed Beardy Bell-end Outs Himself as Bottom-feeding Britnat Bigot.
Reductio ad Hitlerum is always the barrel-scraping refuge of moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
Gigha Atricle:
This just typifies the UK OK Media.
The incident in question had nothing to do with SNP,
however the truth need not have any relation to the hatred that they wish to nurture.
To be fair to them, they do still have significant numbers of reader, viewers, and listeners who do not access social media,
and consider if the establishment said it, then it must be true?
The whole tone of the article takes us back more than a century
when the serfs were only cattle like creatures that existed to serve the Dukes, Barons, and Lairds.
Tug your forelock, bow your head, Neil,before your Masters.
Let’s recall with warmth the Highland clearances, families
barely surviving the harsh life of a crofter were thrown out
of their homes, killed if they offered resistance, cast out
on to the rocks with their families young, old and infirm, it
made no difference.
Yes let us all feel sorry for those good old days and bring them back to reality.
Not on your privileged pompous posterior pal.
Enjoy your right to free speech, but if you come over with that
attitude in my presence, I’ll kick your arse all they
way back to your Nanny’s door.
The sheep have gone and you only have educated hard working
people to try and try and pull that shit on. We shall prevail!
Sorry, this is a storm in a teacup – Steve Bell has been satirising politicians for decades. Thatcher as the swivel-eyed loon, Howe as a stuffed lion, Action Man Heseltine, Norman Baker as a slug, overpants Major, the list goes on.
So now, he’s doing the same for Scottish politicians. Really, so what? Is satire only good when it’s on “our” side?
Though I miss Able Seaman Kipling, John the monkey, Badger of the Yard and the assorted penguins.
JE SUIS ALEX
I had the following, pitiful, reply from the Guardian today, following a polite observation that the Bell cartoons of today and yesterday were neither funny nor exhibited any sophisticated understanding of Scottish Nationalism.
Quote :
Dear Mr Brown
I am sorry that you were so offended by yesterday’s “If . . .” cartoon. Steve Bell was referring to an old saw that he remembers as “you should be prepared to try anything once – except for incest and Scottish country dancing”. However, he says his real intention was to examine “the irrational atavistic urges at the root of Scottish, or indeed any form of nationalism”. His focus is nationalism and he denies any form of racism, which I accept because he targets everyone in a style that references the eighteenth century cartoonists Gillray and Hogarth. He is also half-Scottish himself. Many of his cartoons have caused offence over the years but I have always defended his right to offend, even on occasions when I have missed the joke. However, his work has also been one of the best beloved aspects of the Guardian for more than 30 years.
best wishes
Chris Elliott
Readers’ editor
END.
I enjoyed Bell’s cartoons years ago. I voted labour for 30 years. The true atavism is in the politics of the present government, a return to the promotion of the self interest of a few and the condemnation of the weak and disadvantaged. And the Labour party will clamber aboard this bandwagon if only it will give them power. Power to move the UK to the right, as they have unashamedly done throughout my lifetime.
Bell’s understanding of our movement is embarrassingly unsophisticated and simplistic. He just doesn’t know, or care, what the truth is.
But it’s grist to our mill I think. Poor quality work placed before a largely irrelevant audience.
Who really cares? Not the Guardian obviously.
In order to be less subjective about perceived insult we need to take ourselves out of the equation. Once you see the joke from a different angle it gives some needed perspective.
link to oi57.tinypic.com
Funny that, Bell never does Labour. Political biased. Supports murdering, lying greedy fraudsters, but condemns people in Scotland fighting for their democratic rights. The vulnerable being sanctioned by the Westminster liars. Austerity doesn’t work, it costs more. Forty years of debt cannot be paid off in four years. The attacks on the vulnerable are unforgivable.
Stand easy. The othering is over.
Mrs Ed has declared war against personal attacks.
Ed will be calling off his branch office attack dugs, & their meeja gimps asap.
Whatever the English media do, it will have no effect whatsoever on Scottish voting.
Either they don’t understand that or they understand it but can’t come to grips with it.
Have they come out with the “Vote SNP, get the end of the world” headline yet? Also Putin is getting ready to invade (again).
They’ve taken the humour out of political humour, the satire out of satire and the love out of ‘love-bombing’. All that’s left is racism.
A number of points, so this will be a rather rambling post.
On Trident, There is a body of belief that, rather than encouraging the UK, the US would prefer to see it end, and have the monies devoted to the (for them) more useful conventional forces.
The reason for the left-wing bile (e.g. bell) against Nationalists, is in no small part down to the fact that most of Labour has a vanguardist viewpoint. That is, any advance by Labour cannot be reveresed, therefore the growth of the SNP is an offence against nature.
On the Scottish Country dancing portrayed in the cartoons, when I moved to England, having grown up knowing of, and being taught, this dance at school, and knowing of the song tradition, I was quite surprised by the disdain to folk culture shown my many of the self-proclaimed intelligentsia in England. I am sure that Bell shares this, and by portraying Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon as folk dancers is a way of saying that they are not serious characters intellectually, but mere posturers.
Ian,
I made a similar complaint to the Guardian, and received exactly the same response. It’s obvious that they just set it up as boilerplate, and just send it out to any objector, without any thought or consideration.
je suis Nicola
The SNP will be doing a fund raiser. Crowdfunded. With so many new members it could be interesting. All that can, give as much as possible, to stop the destruction of the Scottish economy which is already damaged by the Tories. £Billions have been lost to Scotland because of Westminster decisions. Increased taxes on Scottish industry but continuing tax evasion through the City of London for (foreign) Multinationals making vast profits. London the tax haven. The tax evasion capital of the world. Damaging British business and the world economy. Illegally creating unfair competion, not an equal playing field.
Westminster cuts on NHS/Education is an attack on the vulnerable. The wealthiest who caused the crash have been rewarded, while the vulnerable have suffered, even further. Westminster have damaged the Scottish economy in spite and ignorance.
Donations to the SNP can be sent to their HQ. It’s on their website.
Of interest, legislation germane to this issue.
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 inserted Section 4A into the Public Order Act 1986. That part prohibits anyone from causing alarm or distress. Section 4A states:
“(1) A person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he— (a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or (b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting, thereby causing that or another person harassment, alarm or distress.
A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.” (The emphasis is mine)
Reading this it would appear that any individual seeking relief could make a complaint against the individual or group believed guilty of criminal wrongdoing as defined by statute.
Consider if, instead of Scots, other ethnic minorities in Britain had been the victim of this hate speech.
I shouldn’t have to draw anyone a picture, and I am absolutely certain Steve Bell would not draw such pictures. Nor would the Editor or publisher of the Guardian allow it to see the light of day in this journal if he did (if for no other reason than they would incur certain civil and criminal liability).
If any other publication had produced racist cartoon like these, targeting any other ethnic minority, the Guardian would condemn them and call for a criminal indictment.
Other minorities have received judicial relief from hate speech. When will Scots receive equal treatment under the law? When will the Guardian stop enabling racism?
Sorry, this is a storm in a teacup – Steve Bell has been satirising politicians for decades. Thatcher as the swivel-eyed loon, Howe as a stuffed lion, Action Man Heseltine, Norman Baker as a slug, overpants Major, the list goes on.
So now, he’s doing the same for Scottish politicians. Really, so what? Is satire only good when it’s on “our” side?
Though I miss Able Seaman Kipling, John the monkey, Badger of the Yard and the assorted penguins.
I agree it is a storm in a teacup. I agree that Mr Bell satirises many politicians and it is to be expected that he will do the same for Scottish politicians: arguably it is a measure of their new importance, even
But the fact is I have come to expect more originality and relevance from Mr Bell than this. I suppose he cannot be expected to find an apposite persona for everyone, but perhaps he should refrain from bog standard cliches and wait till he finds something witty and clever. His characterisations of others he lampoons have been personalised, and whether you like or loathe them they said something about the character of the person he portrayed, as the list you outline amply shows. This falls far short of that. Perhaps he just does not know the Scottish politicians so well, but this seems lazy to me. Quite poor, really
Hi gavin lessells.
Your link (to the John Harris article) was screwed up.
Try this one.
link to archive.today
And a reminder how this graphic propaganda process of demonising and dehumanising ethnic minorities played out with the uppity Irish near a century ago. The more things change . . .
link to thesocietypages.org
Its definitely racism, there is also cultural racism which stands out a mile…..how much they insult Scotland’s culture, highland dress, highland dance etc…I was told that cultural racism is real and an offence. As for racism as a whole, in the Race Discrimination Act 2010 being racially discrimating towards someone’s Nationality or national origin is part of what racism covers. link to adviceguide.org.uk
I remember last year an English lad was tweeting some horrendously offensive tweets about Scots, calling us neandrathals who lived on caves and were alkies and a lot more…as we usually do, we take a lot of insults on the chin whilst having to stomach from the English that WE are the racist/anti English when even pushed to the limits, at most we give smart retorts or basic F off comments back but never ever seen anything as racist that comes from the south at us. Anyways, I looked at the guy’s profile on twitter,found which town he lived,searched down the Police HQ of his area and filled in the standard hate crime form, I received a call the next night, a policeman from his area phoning to apologise for the guy’s abuse and gave me a crime number should the guy continue his abuse. Police Scotland has the hate crime form and I think its time Scots used it…..enough is enough!
Hear about the Englishman with the inferiority complex?
He thought he was equal to everyone else/
Ask not for whom the Bell trolls, it trolls for thee.
Steve Bell’s vile cartoons do not represent the sentiments of those of us who support the Union. His nastiness only fuels separatism, but what can you expect from an old Trot?
@ Will Podmore
Since when do you speak for all those who support the union?
All Brit Nat producers and Jeremy Clarksons should be punched on a regular basis and Wullie Podmore should have his bum slapped with a wet Butcher’s Apron.
The nearest to incest that I am aware of in Scottish society is the nepotism of Labour Cooncillors and MPs.
I’m looking forward to the unfair WM voting system biting the unionist parties on the backside. Sticks and stones. Redilent of blind panic. Loving it!
Yes Henry Bell and other Brit Nat Bells should have their necks wrung before being beheaded and fined.
Some of my best friends are durty Sassunachs and have never heard of the incest jibe directed at the Sweatties. Methinks they doth protesteth too much and may be hiding something when they refuse to give give you a high six.
Fiona, I speak as one of those who support the Union but do not support the sheer nastiness of Steve Bell – is that OK? I guess you might prefer that I supported Steve Bell, because that would confirm your prejudice that all Unionists are nasty.
I detest all forms and all varieties of prejudice, racial, sexual, nationalist. And I detest personal abuse and vulgar insult as a variety of ‘debate’ – as practised by Donald Anderson, among others.
@ Will Podmore.
1. You did not seem to speak for yourself. That was my point. You can only speak for yourself, obviously, just like all the rest of us.
2. Your “guess” is yet another example of the same thing. You have absolutely no basis for attributing this “prejudice” to me or to anyone else.
There is a pattern there, Will Podmore: a pattern we have seen repeated ad nauseam since the referendum debate started. It is never clever to force people into boxes of one’s own construction, assuming one knows what others think because you have a particular view of the “group” one decides to place them in. It says a lot more about the person doing that than about the people they are ostensibly talking about.
Sorry Fiona, good point, I shouldn’t have written that about you.
Surely there’s a valid reason to carry out a global “Search and Replace” in WoS and replace “Steve Bell” with “the Racist Steve Bell” and “the Racist Guardian”
From glancing at this satirists cartoons, it seems to be only the Scots he chooses to degenerate as a race with the repeated use of tartan and the saltire. None of the Cameron, Milliband, Clegg, or even Farage items are decorated with Union Jacks or John Bull memorabilia.
Given Tartan is an important industry to Scotland and the Scots, he is clearly identifying us as a racial target. And by ridiculing tartan, he associates an entire industry with this bile.
Sturgeon and Salmond are fair game for ridicule. It’s part of their job description but our country and people are quite a different matter.
Sorry, took me a few days to finally figure out why I was so deeply offended by the cartoon.
You are no different, Will Podmore. Not when you say things like
that would confirm your prejudice that all Unionists are nasty.
Neither you nor Max Hastings speaks for what they presume to be their constituency nor their opposition.
Your attempt to suggest that the OP is an example of the same thing rests on selective quoting, as you very well know. You omitted to quote other relevant phrases such as
Unionists, meanwhile, indignantly pointed out to some complainants that attacking the SNP isn’t the same thing as attacking Scots as a whole. But as media hysteria about the apparently-unconscionable prospect of Scottish MPs influencing a UK government reaches fever pitch, that distinction is getting less and less meaninfgul.
That is a reasoned position for taking the view that you choose to quote: and therefore it is not the same thing. Rev Campbell made a case: you and Hastings did not. It is really quite simple and you can do better than this
Fiona , I have already apologised for writing
“that would confirm your prejudice that all Unionists are nasty.”
Which means to say, that I have retracted that comment. Please accept my apology.
You write, “Your attempt to suggest that the OP is an example of the same thing rests on selective quoting, as you very well know.” Sorry, you’ve lost me there – what’s the OP?
Attacking the SNP isn’t the same thing as attacking Scots as a whole. True. But Stu comments, “that distinction is getting less and less meaningful.” Meaningful to whom? All of us should maintain the distinction between attacking a political party or position and attacking a people. It is vital to maintain that distinction.
Would attacking the Labour Party or the Tory party be the same thing as attacking the English as a whole? No, of course not. Attacking a political party is not the same as attacking a people. We should all keep our heads.
My apologies in turn, Will Podmore. I missed your retraction, presumably cos I was typing my response when you made it.
@ Will Podmore
OP is “opening post” and refers to the article we are discussing. Sorry, thought that was obvious from the content. Must try to avoid using abbreviations in future 🙂
Perhaps we should recognise it is racist bigoted and sextet but we forgive him
Then he can choke on his words
I have said something ever since the Establishment first made it plain they thought they were being Oh! SO very clever by first turning the bipartite United Kingdom into a quadratic union of countries then thinking themselves so very much MORE clever by retaining Westminster for their very own, unelected as such, de facto Parliament of England. My thoughts were quite simply that, “this’ll end very, very badly for the Establishment”.
Well it seems I was right for it certainly is shaping up that way at the moment. Whatever made them think we Scots were quite as stupid as they seem to imagine defied all credibility. Now they are in panic mode and not a single one of either the actual political wing of the Establishment nor the Establishments compliant Media wing have the slightest clue just what to do about it. (and I’m certainly not going to enlighten them).
They set a trap that they thought was to trap those stupid Sweaty Socks, then forgot just where they had set it. So when we Scots quietly walked round it, (and brushed out the bit of our tracks that skirted the danger), they blundered into the danger zone and are now attempting, far too late, to get out of the hole they have dug for themselves.
As My old Granny would have said, “Weel hell mend thaim. They kent fine whit they wir daein”.
@Will Podmore says:11 March, 2015 at 4:47 pm:
” … All of us should maintain the distinction between attacking a political party or position and attacking a people.”
Perhaps so, Will, but it is very apparent by the briefest squint at the English Broadcasters, English Dead Tree Press or the English Twittersphere that a rather large faction, looks about 99.9999% of the English electorate and at least 110% of the Establishment political wing, (no that’s not an arithmetical error – the extra 10% are the Scottish Unionist members of the Establishment Parties), are indeed attacking the Scots electorate – and have been for a considerable time. In fact many have never ever stopped doing so. It is in their genes it seems.
Robert, the media do not reflect public opinion; they do their best (=worst) to change public opinion to suit the interests of their owners.
Your assessment that “99.9999% of the English electorate … are indeed attacking the Scottish electorate” is rhetoric, understandable but unsupported by evidence. ‘In their genes’? A biological explanation for a political phenomenon?
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