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Wings Over Scotland


This is England

Posted on June 06, 2012 by

We’ve seen lots of UK media running stories about US satirist Jon Stewart’s mocking report on American coverage of the Diamond Jubilee, fronted by an extra-oily Piers Morgan. It’s pretty funny, but sadly everywhere we’ve seen it posted (except Gawker, which only has the first four minutes of eight) uses the same broken embedded stream, so you can’t actually watch it. Until now, that is.

YouTube’s fiendish software somehow knew that it was a clip of a copyrighted show and immediately threw a prissy little huffy-fit, which stops us embedding it here, but you can right-click on the image and download the video file, or just left-click to watch.

(We recommend the former for speed and convenience – if you choose to stream by left-clicking, there’ll be a pause of a few minutes while it buffers before playing.)

Enjoy some chuckles, and note with passing interest that to our cousins across the pond, the words “England” and “UK” are still interchangeable. Either that, or they have a surprisingly astute grasp of how little Scotland cares.

14 to “This is England”

  1. Ross says:

    Still blocked for me, but Gawker has it: link to gawker.com

    Reply
  2. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    Bloody YouTube. Should work now.

    Reply
  3. Elaine says:

    They are indeed very astute since we in Scotland don’t care….after all she may also be Queen of Scots but she has never been crowned here nor does she barely do anything up here other than holidays.  As for them always thinking England is the UK its because English folk do indeed think they are the “UK” and all the rest of us don’t exist. Mind you when we get our Independence the UK won’t exist, they’ll have to re-name it and Great Britain since it was the merging of Scotland with England that created those names.

    Reply
  4. rableather says:

    TBH its not worth watching. This is from a country which treats its heros/ celebs to a shower of rubbish ( or trash to use the venacular). Im no royalist. I didn watch the real thing, but I found this video crass.

    Reply
  5. charlie says:

    I found the clip (on gawker) entertaining. Elizabeth the First was less impressed than Jon Stewart, she was perhaps thinking ‘ oh goawd this is dunkirk, have they net thought this through. Is this the bleddy best they can do? Ah’m bleddy 80 something, can’t they sort thereselves out’

    Reply
  6. Appleby says:

    Best coverage of it I’ve seen so far. Cheers.
     
    What a dreadful and shambolic parade. Something to be ashamed of if that’s the best that can be done. Especially in the outright bizarre “MUST BE CONSTANTLY 100% POSITIVE AND AMAZED AT EVERYTHING” telly coverage of it all. Feels like I’ve fallen through the looking glass or slipped into some North Korean style state.

    Reply
  7. John says:

    Your video’s 150 Meg . not sure why .. Try this copy here:
    link to dropbox.com 24Meg

    Reply
  8. MajorBloodnok says:

    I’m glad I watched this instead of the live coverage.  I thought it was a pretty accurate summary displaying just the right amount of gravitas and respect for a venerable institution.

    Reply
  9. Kenny Campbell says:

    Do English people actually confuse England with the UK ? I think they sometimes overlap English and British but in the same way I would normally say Scottish when Iasked my nationality they are more likely to say British. I’d only use British in an official sense.
     
    England/Britain is a common synonym on the continent. I no longer take it personally and just put it down to ignorance.

    Reply
  10. Kenny Campbell says:

    link to heraldscotland.com
     
    Well according to Red Ed its all our fault anyway and we should be happy according to this quote
    Quote:-
    “At the same time we have rightly helped express Scottish identity within the Union.”

    Reply
  11. MajorBloodnok says:

    I find things like this very encouraging as it is clear, particularly to Scots, that Ed and Labour still don’t get it.

    Reply
  12. YesYesYes says:

    Ed’s currently making a speech in London about the constitutional future of the UK. After spouting the usual platitudes about multiculturalism, friendly football rivalries, “stronger together”, blah-blah-blah, he cited the “poll tax” as an example of our togetherness. Apparently, we led the way in the opposition to the poll tax and England and Wales followed – at least he had the decency to concede why we led the way.
     
    Curiously, although Thatcher’s poll tax was cited by Ed, there was no mention of those other examples of our togetherness in the 1980s – the monetarist experiment, the record post-war unemployment, the homelessness, the consistent attack on trade unions leaving us with the most repressive labour legislation in the developed world, the squandering of north sea oil revenues, the record number of factory closures as well as firms leaving Scotland altogether, the war on the poor and dispossessed, the public spending cuts, the sale of council houses at discounts of up to 70 per cent, the privatisation programme. Doesn’t it make you nostalgic for this golden age of British togetherness?
     
    In fact, doesn’t it remind you a bit of what’s happening today? There is one important difference though, the Tories are even less popular in Scotland today than they were in the 1980s. Never mind, though, Ed’s here to reassure us that we’re stronger together with a Tory government at Westminster and weaker apart.   

    Reply
  13. Arbroath1320 says:

    Would that be a BLUE Tory government or a RED Tory government YYY?

    Reply
  14. YesYesYes says:

    @Arbroath1320,
     
    Nice one. No disrespect, but it’s already an old joke with reference to the opinion polls on voting intentions in England for the 2015 general election.

    The Red Tories are on 42%, the Blue Tories are on 35%, the Yellow Tories are on 11% – it’s looking good for the Tories!

    Reply


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