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Wings Over Scotland


The lifelong sigh

Posted on February 02, 2014 by

Sorry we haven’t posted much today, folks, but with a pulsating League Cup semi-final and then Scotland’s first game in the Six Nations (about which events we shall speak no more) it’s been a big day for sport. You know, this stuff:

andyengland

We hate to be so petty and chippy, but after 40-odd years it wears you down. We’re pretty sure it’s a mistake they’ll stop making if we’re actually a proper country.

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90 to “The lifelong sigh”

  1. Wayne
    Ignored
    says:

    Yeah, you know, it’s not because any Scots are involved?… ;p

  2. halftracknat
    Ignored
    says:

    GB = England = GB

  3. Alfresco Dent
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m pretty damn certain it’s not a mistake this time, just more bait.

  4. Big Al
    Ignored
    says:

    So that was the script John Inverdale was reading from.

  5. Doug Daniel
    Ignored
    says:

    They clearly WANT to be just England, so really we’ll just be doing them a favour by making that dream a bit closer to reality.

  6. BBC Scotlandshire
    Ignored
    says:

    That’s great. I can’t wait to see how the English Olympic team does in Russia now.

  7. mogabee
    Ignored
    says:

    After September 18th they can call it what they like!

  8. ObamaCares
    Ignored
    says:

    The Daily Express……

    Recycled toilet paper

  9. Iain
    Ignored
    says:

    They’re wearing the English Flag after all

  10. Susan
    Ignored
    says:

    Andy should have told us that he has become English!

  11. Jimsie
    Ignored
    says:

    @bbcScotlandshire. If these curlers get a medal they will become English immediately.

  12. The Man in the Jar
    Ignored
    says:

    And it is lifelong.

    A long time ago when I was but a young man it was this that set me on the course to be a nationalist. Arrogance and contempt! Over forty years on and no change in attitude at all. One way to sort that. Roll on Sept 18th.

  13. Richard
    Ignored
    says:

    Doesn’t Cameron’s legal advice say Scotland doesn’t exist?

  14. Geoff Huijer
    Ignored
    says:

    Yep, we’re programmed to think of it as ‘chippy’…

    Call a Canadian American or a New Zealander Australian
    though and that’s not them being ‘chippy’ – they’re pointing
    out the obvious.

    Us, well we’re just chip-on-the-shoulder sweaties.

  15. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    Britain = England = Britain.

    The message is clear.

  16. Kenny Ritchie
    Ignored
    says:

    No pressure on the only Scotsman in team ‘England’ to end a 40 year drought then.

  17. bmc875
    Ignored
    says:

    And the Rugby Commentator John Inverdale on BBC just did the same thing then had to retract and apologise. Just a slip of the tongue apparently. Wan o those wee things!

  18. Airtteth
    Ignored
    says:

    Likewise on The Andrew Marr Show today http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03tws73/hd/The_Andrew_Marr_Show_02_02_2014/ (20:05 in), France beat Britain at rugby yesterday but because we are all unionists we want Wales and Scotland to win.

  19. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Maybe it’s one of those headlines where English folk are supposed to ‘get it’ Murray is ‘Scottish’ to see if the penny drops. I’ll get my racquet!

  20. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    They probably think that Andy Murray was the first Englishman to win at Wimbledon since 1937.

  21. Findlay Farquaharson
    Ignored
    says:

    poor andy, i cant think of any other sportsperson treated with such nastiness by british media. how dare anyone not care how englands football team get on.

  22. Shady Lady
    Ignored
    says:

    Not just Andy Murray in ‘England’s’ Davis cup team, but the chap on the right of the picture is Colin Fleming of Linlithgow……the sooner they can represent their own flag, the better 😉

  23. kendomacaroonbar
    Ignored
    says:

    I don’t know if anybody else feels the same but I am getting heartily sick and tired of ignoring this stuff for fear of sounding petty and chippy.

    It perfectly illustrates a thoughtless and inconsiderate understanding of the concept of Britain/UK and frankly for me it’s wearisomly offensive.

  24. Craig M
    Ignored
    says:

    Now I understand the anger directed towards the First Minister at Wimbledon. He was holding the wrong flag!
    Seriously, though. This is a deliberate headline and who knows, perhaps there is an expectation on the part of the London Establishment that some folk like Andy will jump ship at a Yes vote. Actually, I can see that subject being an attack line from the MSM, putting Scots sports persons in the spotlight. There is a definite identification among some in the MSM that GB = England = GB, so in their logic, someone currently representing GB should go over to England. Or I could be wrong.

  25. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Scottish golfers (in individual competitions)run with the Saltire. Murray (in individual competitions) running with GB.

    Branding, money and less hassle, I don’t know!

  26. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Bet the “Scottish” Express has a very different headline, with lashings of usual creepy BetterTogetherness.

  27. Ian Kirkwood
    Ignored
    says:

    Just been repeated on Beeb during the Ireland v Scotland rugby that USA v England coming up. After a viewer complained they apologized for the “error”.
    Better “together”………

  28. G. Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    No need to worry; Johann Lamont is on the case. She’s sent an email to the editor demanding that the headline be changed to “London’s Davis Cup hopes”.

  29. Thepnr
    Ignored
    says:

    “The Daily Express……
    Recycled toilet paper”

    Disagree, used toilet paper is more accurate. Full of shite!

  30. annie
    Ignored
    says:

    Jimsie- surely you meant when these curlers get their medals.

  31. Gary
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s no surprise really. It’s an English paper and they can’t even spell “Britain”.

  32. lumilumi
    Ignored
    says:

    Poor, dear Andy.

    He can’t object and antagonise hundreds or thousands of rabid Bitnat fans.

    He doesn’t have a vote on 18.9.2014 anyway. (He’s not registered to vote in Scotland).

    All the best to Andy Murray and rise above all the English Britnat shit that’s come and keeps coming yer way.

  33. Lanarkist
    Ignored
    says:

    We really need to re-educate our fellow Britons.

    British = Scottish, Welsh, English.

    UK = Scottish, Welsh, English, Northern Irish.

    Then each Nation as per their national boundaries.

    Is it really so difficult?

  34. Findlay Farquaharson
    Ignored
    says:

    andy murray owns a hotel near dunblane, may well have a vote and i would bet a months wages he is a yessir.

  35. annie
    Ignored
    says:

    Loved the picture tweeted by Judy Murray last week of her two lovely nieces with the First Minister at a Burns supper.

  36. gordoz
    Ignored
    says:

    Leave Murray to get on with it. Brit flags & all.

    He’ll have to make a decision at some point; dont be too upset & surprised if he picks the corporate money route.

    He’s a professional sportsman utilizing flags to suit his ambition after all. Its up to him.

  37. Papa docs
    Ignored
    says:

    Why not drop the pretence, after all ENGLISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION sounds correct to me.

    England and Britain are inter changeable. Scotland was erased 1707. What’s the problem.

  38. Richard
    Ignored
    says:

    They’re only practising there headlines for post 18 September – and their wishful thinking

  39. Richard
    Ignored
    says:

    F*c*ing predictive text

  40. Andy-B
    Ignored
    says:

    Something like this maybe.

    http://youtu.be/D9G-DMCKCrl

  41. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    The English MSM do not accept that there is more to being Scottish than dressing up in a kilt and singing “Flower of Scotland”.

    Sadly, many “proud scot” unionists do not accept this either.

  42. This is one of those freudian slips.

  43. gordoz
    Ignored
    says:

    What about the golf then ?

    Scot Stephen Gallacher wins Dubai Classic golf championship / again.

    (Suppose that was for England as well)

  44. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Andy-B

    Very droll! Was the BBC around in 1707. 🙂

  45. Bevrijdingsdag
    Ignored
    says:

    What did the Englishman do after he won Wimbledon?

    Turned his PlayStation off
    and went to sleep.

  46. Morag
    Ignored
    says:

    Good vibes today. Delivered Yes newspapers yesterday, and this morning when I went into church an old lady greeted me enthusiastically, thanking me for the paper, saying it was marvellous and had so much information she didn’t know before. Also that her husband, previously a firm no-and-don’t-talk-to-me-about-it is now an undecided-and-don’t-talk-to-me-about-it, and the paper was proving wonderful ammunition for not talking to him about it.

    Then in the village Co-op, the assistant asked me how it was going and did I think we’d do it and smiled broadly when I said yes I did.

    Getting there.

  47. Sunshine on Crieff
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s like the old Battle of Britain film that has been on Channel 5 a lot recently.

    I don’t think the word Britain is mentioned; it’s all England this, England that.

  48. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    Andy-B says

    whatever it was Andy it has been taken off smartish ( the video )

  49. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    They say English because they own us and that is how it will stay. Hmmmm, not for much longer! Let them sleep, they will wake up with a severe truth hangover!

  50. G H Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev, I’m not so sure attitudes will change.

    After all, England will still regard itself as Britain and regard Britain as a pseudonym for England just as it always has done before, during & after the Union of the Crowns/Parliament.

    British history programs on the BBC for example have always used the origins of England’s history as key reference points & invariably refer to the House of Stuart Kings using the English order of ascendancy to the throne regardless of the superior order from a Scottish Crown perspective.

    For example, Schama’s woefully incomplete “A History of Britain” makes fleeting mention of Neolithic Orkney & the Wars of Scottish Independence but those & everything since is viewed from an singularly south English perspective.

    It’s as if nothing much worth mentioning every really happened north of Carlisle. He symbolises the arrogant, narrow minded, British introspective view of itself. Everyone to the north is a restless, thin skinned Jock & anyone else is a suspicious foreigner.

    The Express, Mail, Observer, Independent & Times are just a wearisome means to reinforce those British/English attitudes in print.

  51. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s been with us all my life especially the football where they still go on and on and on about sixty fuckin six. I’ve nothing against those English boys playing football but it’s their commentator’s and panels and a section of the support who believe in their divine right to win football tournaments. They just don’t get it when they are roundly beaten at these tournaments

  52. Anne (@annewitha_e)
    Ignored
    says:

    a glimpse of a No future #assimilated

  53. Bill C
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry to go o/t but still on a sporting theme of sorts?
    Neil Lennon: Fans abuse was drunken, not sectarian: CELTIC manager Neil Lennon today accused drunke… http://bit.ly/1i90Rq2
    George Galloway was tweeting the sectarian card last night claiming that Neil Lennon was abused because he was Irish, Catholic and Celtic. Above link says not the case. Just an example how low Galloway and his fellow unionists will stoop to save their precious union. Despicable to try to sow disharmony among their own people.

  54. Findlay Farquaharson
    Ignored
    says:

    o/t im curious to know if slab mps will be able to take the place of current msps at the scottish elections after independence?

  55. Thepnr
    Ignored
    says:

    @Croompenstein
    “where they still go on and on and on about sixty fuckin six”

    Yep, I’m so looking forward to the world cup where our TVs will be non-stop England 66, Charlton and Hurst.

    Looks like it’s all over! It is NOW.

  56. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    @Findlay – No, it will be so long Chairchoob and Sarwar

  57. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    @Bill C – Galloway is a total sell out, he tries to pedal the sectarian problem. we do have a problem with sectarianism in the West of Scotland but we don’t need a crusty old has been that’s been too long in the sunbed to pontificate from afar. I am hopeful that in a democratic independent Scotland free from the baggage of the UK we can tackle this problem and take Scotland forward and not back to 17th century problems that do not translate to the 21st century

  58. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Findlay

  59. Alba4Eva
    Ignored
    says:

    Bill C, anyone who knows Dons fans, would ROFL at the suggestion of them being sectarian. No excuse for an idiot or two, but in context Tynecastle was packed with Dons fans who in the overwhelming majority were behaved brilliantly. Galloway on the other hand has lost the plot completely.

  60. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    @Findlay – more importantly it will mean so long ermine for Flipper as good a reason to vote yes as the other wee things

  61. G H Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    The Scottish cringe & creeping superiority of Englishness was best exemplified last August by Anas Sarwar’s father, Mr. Mohammad Sarwar. He came to Scotland in 1976 & made a successful career for himself in the grocery business.

    Then, after having represented the people of Glasgow from 1997 to 2010 as Britain’s first Muslim (Labour) MP, he returned to Pakistan to declare …

    “I have come to Pakistan with a heavy heart, leaving behind the companionship of 35 years in England, but my heart beats for Pakistan”.

    I rest my case.

  62. Edward
    Ignored
    says:

    Findlay Farquaharson
    will all be part of the SLAB bloodbath to come
    I predict that after a Yes vote, the London parties in Holyrood face a predicament and a bit of a night of the long knives as each party has to take stock of what they want to do. Out will go all the current leaders, with respective votes of no confidence with each party. Layer into that the SLAB MP’s wanting to sit in Holyrood, result more blood on the carpet.
    Some names will disappear and I’m not talking about people, I’m talking parties.
    First off the blocks will be the Tories, exit Davidson Cameron’s person’ in Holyrood, in perhaps Murdo Fraser and rebranding, re aligning a right of centre party.
    Next up the Libdems, they may actually disappear completely or will splinter out.
    Labour may retain the name, but the faces will change., some from Libdem may go to them , you may even see 3 new parties emerge from the wreckage.
    As for the MP’s like Sarwar, Murphy, Alexander, they will be signing on the dole, unless they have been working on their contacts in the private sector, but honestly who on earth would employ them?

  63. fourmenterian
    Ignored
    says:

    From Twitter: BBC Breaking News. England to be disqualified from Davis Cup for fielding ineligible Scottish Players.

  64. heraldnomore
    Ignored
    says:

    Of course wee nyaff Inverdale has previous for this sort of stuff, and no doubt these wee things will slip out again and again.

    But he got it completely wrong at the rugger from Paris yesterday, talking about ecstasy to agony in the space of seconds; quite the reverse thought I, quite the reverse John. An ecstatic moment in fact.

  65. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    @GH Graham – I wish sumdy would phone Mohammed Sarwar and tell him that his boy is makin a complete coad o himsel and mibbe he will take him to Pakistan oot oor road!

  66. Conan_the_Librarian
    Ignored
    says:

    @BBCScotlandshire 4:54pm

    Johnny come lately…

    http://mypseudepigrapha.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/when-saturday-comes.html

  67. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Westminster Labour mp’s returning to ‘Scottish’ labour for election to Holyrood in the event of a yes.
    Some stuff here.

    http://archive.is/tnbMU

    http://nottspolitics.org/2013/03/06/what-will-become-of-the-may-2015-uk-parliament-if-scotland-votes-yes-on-independence/

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/burning-the-lifeboats/

  68. Kev
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T Did anyone spot the article in the Sunday herald today, which began with the question “Is Alex Salmond more dangerous than the IRA?” and then continues with allegations from Iain Paisley Jnr and David Trimble that a Yes vote in September could ignite violent nationalism in N Ireland, and a leading Unionist saying that his country “could end up like West Pakistan with a foreign country on one side of us and another foreign country on the other”…Dearie fcking me..

  69. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    There’s a rather good Scotsman playing for England in the first set of the Davis Cup at the moment. He has promise.

    Computer viewers try Wiziwig tv.

  70. Edward
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Kev
    Yes, presume you mean this article http://archive.is/qfrix

    Quoting inane and expected comments from the unionist politicians. Fortunately events will hopefully leave them cast adrift as they no longer have the Union flag to wrap themselves up in

  71. Jamie Arriere
    Ignored
    says:

    As obvious an attempt to provoke a cybernat attack as you’ll ever see. Just convert any reaction into Yes votes and they can say what they like!

  72. Desimond
    Ignored
    says:

    Last thing we need is to let them turn it into an England Scotland thing. Let them try, we should just laugh it off, as we have done for the last few decades at such utterances.

  73. Stuart Black
    Ignored
    says:

    From the Herald article that I now wish I hadn’t read:

    “”Alex Salmond’s main hope for success has always been to rile the English; to get the English riled and to use that to say to the Scots, ‘Look, they hate you, they want rid of you’. It’s a deeply cynical ploy but it has been obvious,” the former Ulster Unionist Party leader said.”

    Sigh. How do people as deeply and enduringly stupid as this get into these positions of power?

  74. Desimond
    Ignored
    says:

    @Kev

    A NI friend of mine summed up the Peace Process as “The fighting is over. The main players have all agreed where each can sell their drugs”. Business wins out.

    Northern Ireland has already moved on from people like Paisley, my we have Sinn Féin at Memorial Services these days. The worry for folk like Paisley is a Sinn Féin or Republican majority coming soon as so many young Protestants are moving out.

    Its that Fear factor yet again.

  75. Graeme McCormick
    Ignored
    says:

    There are many things you can use a curling stone for? A bottle of whiskey for the most imaginative use

  76. Graeme McCormick
    Ignored
    says:

    Oops! Predictive text on whisky spelling jumped the gun. But in the interests of Celtic solidarity happy to include Irish delights as well !

  77. Bill C
    Ignored
    says:

    Re the Lennon story. Firstly I am a bit of a hybrid I have a soft spot for both Aberdeen and Celtic. I know many Dons fans and I have never heard a sectarian word from any of them, so the story did not ring true from the start; for me at any rate. Spoke to two Dons fans who were at the game this afternoon, who in turn had spoken to other Dons seated near to Lennon. They claim there was a bit of abuse, but nothing more that the usual and no sectarianism and no coins. The plot thickens, turns out that the story came from a very well known BBC reporter who claims to support St. Mirren. In addition Neil Lennon himself has now said there was no sectarianism involved. So it now looks as if the story has been sensationalised out of all proportion. Question is who gains out of spreading such blatant lies? As I said earlier one of the first to jump on the sectarian bandwagon last night on Twitter was George Galloway. He seems determined to frighten every Catholic/Irish person into voting No. Also this morning the Sunday Mail splashes what now looks like lies all over its’ front page. Not trying to create a conspiracy theory just feel that this story might be a wee bit more complex than a few neds shouting abuse at a football manger.

  78. Dave McEwan Hill
    Ignored
    says:

    Morag at 6.00

    I like it. “Do you think we’ll do it?”
    What a good idea for a leaflet. In it goes to my portfolio.

  79. WallaceBruce
    Ignored
    says:

    Just what you expect from the Daily Excruciating. Must be confusing for them though when their cricket team contains South Africans and Zimbabweans and there’s a Tongan playing for their rugby team.

  80. Calum Craig
    Ignored
    says:

    I was in a classroom of a Birmingham high school for work a while back (thankfully not at the same time as the students).

    Judging by the stuff on the walls it must have been used for PE/ sport science or something of that ilk.

    On one wall were a couple of displays (apparently made by students) side by side- one featuring 2012 Team GB athletes- the other, the England football squad… My (English) colleague genuinely couldn’t understand why I was annoyed by it.

  81. JLT
    Ignored
    says:

    Basically …F*** off, Daily Express.

  82. Gray
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done England on qualifying for the Davis Cup quarter finals. Let’s hear it for Timmy.

  83. James123
    Ignored
    says:

    A few years ago Andy Murray was described as “England’s great white hope” on the official US Open website. In his early days Murray become exasperated about constantly being referred to as English. I remember those very large saltire wristbands he wore in his teens, that was a message to the world. Andy, do you really need to think about independence?

  84. magnus barelegs
    Ignored
    says:

    England=Britain…..and will always be the case, they are also very good at claiming the successes of others as their own…..we know who the real parasites are dont we!

    Time to put an end to this union nonsense once and for all.

    vote yes

  85. David Halliday
    Ignored
    says:

    Rushed correction, imperfectly executed:

    https://twitter.com/DavidJFHalliday/statuses/430118586036662272

  86. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “Rushed correction, imperfectly executed:”

    Twats still haven’t fixed the strap, either.

  87. Patrick Roden
    Ignored
    says:

    Keep calm and don’t let them wear you down…it’s exactly what they are trying to do.

    Once we are an independent nation we can all gather on top of the Law Hill in Dundee and let out an almighty scream of anger and rage.

    I know this works because I’ve did it loads of times…I’m a Dundee United Fan! 🙂

  88. simhedges
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m English and this confusion of England with Britain really pisses me off. I am sick to death of it. I am happy to the British but I am NOT Scottish and the Scots are NOT English (though none the worse for that!). It’s not that hard to work out the difference between England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the UK, so why can’t people get it right? Shame on you, Daily Express.



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