The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Kettle, meet pot

Posted on February 11, 2012 by

It’s almost like they don’t even know they’re doing it, the poor loves.

“The First Minister was selective in his definition of a ‘gauleiter’ in the Holyrood chamber on Thursday.”

That’s Ruth Davidson, quoted disapproving of the FM’s shady behaviour in a Scottish Conservatives press release today. And it’s a strong point – there’s nothing worse than using definitions selectively to support your own case, right? But wait, what’s this?

“Alex Salmond described it as the kind of decision made by a tin-pot dictatorship populated by ‘gauleiters’ – which, according to the Chambers dictionary is a Nazi official.”

That’s the very same press release, just a few lines earlier. And unless we’re very much mistaken, what it’s doing is… you guessed it, readers. It’s selectively quoting from the dictionary definition of a “gauleiter”. Oops! Our wife’s going to kill us, etc.

But in fact, it’s rather worse than just selective – as the Collins definition quite clearly notes, “Gauleiter” in a Nazi context must have a capital “G”, because all German nouns are capitalised. If you write the word all in lower-case (as the Tory press release attributes to the FM) you’re explicitly citing the non-Nazi definition, which means that according to the Tories themselves, Salmond’s usage is correct and theirs is wrong.

And the Chambers definition they refer to makes things worse still – it explicitly refers to the Nazi definition as “historical”, meaning the current usage of the word is indeed to describe a petty bureaucrat. It also states that the former definition is only applicable to the period “under the Nazi regime”, which as far as we’re aware ended in 1945. (Germany has no Gauleiters nowadays.) In other words, unless you’re directly referring to specific events that took place in Germany under Adolf Hitler, the ONLY legitimate current definition of the word “gauleiter” is the one the First Minister used.

We’re sure the Scottish Conservatives would be embarrassed at this shocking display of both rank hypocrisy and basic grammatical ignorance, except that looking at what they’re doing to the unemployed, the disabled, and the sick at the moment, we’re forced to conclude that the Tories have no shame at all.

1 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. 12 02 12 17:33

    Round Up #01: Jan – Feb 2012 « Skull and Saltire

7 to “Kettle, meet pot”

  1. Scottish republic says:

    It's pathetic that's the best they've got is this against our natonal movement.  But that is all they've got because they are sitting on 300 years of corrupt empire building which has been reduced to zilch.
    We on the other hand wish to accomplish something for our country and countryfolk

    Reply
  2. Bugger (the Panda) says:

    Ruth Davidson appears to be an idiot.
     
    That is a selective quotation from me.

    Reply
  3. Shodan says:

    Ruth also "forgets" about all the comparisons to dictators that have been made to Alex, as she fails to complain or bring this up at any time. When SNP members are outright insulted or threatened they are told it should be shrugged off by her and her kind. She also fails to notice that the very same term has been used in parliament many times, by her own party no less. If it is okay for MPs, Lords and the media to use it and she doesn't complain about it then she's only making herself look pathetic and hypocritical, but then this is Ruth Davidson and she is rather dim and a very bad politician.
     
    Would we expect any better from someone who used valuable FMQ time to call someone fat instead of doing anything worth while or to justify her pay? This is how far the unionists have sunk. Truly pathetic bunch.

    Reply
  4. Diane says:

    Every day is a school day right enough.
    By the way, how does one pronounce it?
     

    Reply
  5. Shodan says:

    Big news for Scotland today. Apparently Whitney Housten has died. A tragic blow for the independence movement, I'm sure you will agree:
     
    link to newsnetscotland.com
     
    The SNP and Scotland will never recover from this. Thank goodness for quality journalism at NNS raising the bar and letting us know about all these Scottish events.

    Reply
  6. Shodan says:

    @ Diane
     
    GOW-LIGHTER, from what I can tell.

    Reply
  7. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    @Shodan, Diane: Yes, that's correct.

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,790 Posts, 1,222,479 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Rob on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Its become very obvious that having failed to purge the nurse through suspending her that they are trying all the…Jul 23, 00:14
    • Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “MB @8.07 A depressingly accurate assessment I suspect.Jul 22, 20:27
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Radiohead Creep.Jul 22, 20:17
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Is it case the Scottish government can’t step into it as they are the cause. It’s their secret cult of…Jul 22, 20:07
    • Milady on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Wait, just when I think I’m keeping up we get “trans*” – what does the * mean?! (Other than I’m…Jul 22, 20:02
    • agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Mark Beggan says: 22 July, 2025 at 7:43 pm Can the UK government step in on this scandalous behaviour? ———————————————–…Jul 22, 20:01
    • Bilbo on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “A song for Dr Upton: https://tinyurl.com/2s4m3vumJul 22, 20:01
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “The Scottish government are the criminals. It’s our money being spent on insulting us.Jul 22, 19:57
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Can the UK government step in on this scandalous behaviour? No matter the outcome Dr Upton will have to change…Jul 22, 19:43
    • Anne Johnston on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “For Everything, and that is EVERYTHING, I say ‘Follow the Money’and you’ll find the real criminals behind this enterprise …just…Jul 22, 19:31
    • agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Yet NHS Fife internal disciplinary procedure has cleared Sandie of all charges/allegations against her. Today she has been accused of…Jul 22, 19:13
    • Bilbo on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I wonder if that is a Freudian slip with the idea that men who have relationships with Trans women thinking…Jul 22, 19:03
    • Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Yup. It’s weirdly similar to the behind the scenes shenanigans recruiting people to testify against / stitch up Alec Salmond.Jul 22, 19:01
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “It looks like Dr Searle has taken it upon herself to be Judge, Jury and executioner.Jul 22, 18:42
    • Young Lochinvar on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Gilruth! Jesus H Christ.. The phrase “inept clown that’s achieved nothing worthwhile and effed up a shed load of stuff…Jul 22, 18:39
    • robertkknight on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Welcome to Sturgeon’s Scotland, a.k.a the tartan shitshow, that can’t distinguish a woman from a man. Meanwhile, Swinney fiddles whilst…Jul 22, 18:26
    • Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Well said. I saw that too and just gave up bothering even trying to understand their jibber jabber claptrap..Jul 22, 18:19
    • Dan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Ach, as an occasional engine builder, I thought bigender described an entity that identified as being / or was attracted…Jul 22, 17:53
    • DaveL on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “That’s a question for Greens MSP Patrick Harvie. He’s the proud recipient of an award from the deceased chief cheese…Jul 22, 17:51
    • Fergus on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““… straight (attracted to the same gender)” I suspect “same” was meant to say “opposite”. [but they can’t say that…Jul 22, 17:38
    • Neil Mackenzie on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Ah… Nope. If you’ve used ‘male’ or ‘female’ to mean someone’s gender, you’ve made a mistake and used the wrong…Jul 22, 17:26
    • Rogueslr on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “We knew at 13 weeks that we were expecting a daughter, that’s approximately 24 weeks before birth. So AFAB is…Jul 22, 17:20
    • James Barr Gardner on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I wonder if NHS view Paedophilia as normal and reducing the age of consent down to 10 years is normal…Jul 22, 17:16
    • KOF on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “” … an illustration of how far Scotland has sunk since Alex Salmond stood down.” Alex Salmond voted for the…Jul 22, 17:04
    • agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Meanwhile the warped and twisted evidence continues today with Kate Searle!Jul 22, 17:03
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I would like to dedicate this song to Mr. Upton: “Boys Keep Swinging” Heaven loves ya The clouds part for…Jul 22, 16:48
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Holyrood is the only sinking ship where the rats have decided to stay.Jul 22, 16:15
    • I. Despair on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Anent the uselessness and idiocy of NHS Fife management – I don’t know if her post technically counts as management…Jul 22, 16:13
    • Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Xaracen – thrown out is a figure of speech, it’s not been printed out and physically thrown out of the…Jul 22, 16:12
    • Stuart on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Meanwhile in other news, (and pay attention to the last paragraph from the article re devolution) Farage has spoken, this…Jul 22, 15:39
  • A tall tale



↑ Top