Sunday 20 January 2008

Why don't they like us?

Surprisingly, despite the title, this isn't about the LibDems.

There has been a bit of negativity towards us Scots of late at Westminster.

A Scotsman as PM, the Barnett formula, wanting control of our own oil, West Lothian question?

There is a nasty side to all of this where, right now in English politics, it's a bit like 'Bash the Scots - win our votes' ("The question is not whether I'm paranoid, it's whether I'm paranoid enough" - anonymous). And with the Tories having no realistic chance of making headway up here, I wouldn't blame them for using it to gain votes down there.

But as if this wasn't all bad enough, it seems like America isn't exactly 'warm for our form' these days either.

First of all, the US Library of Congress wants to reclassify all Scots literary works as a subsection of English literature.

Then, American Express offered SNP Tactical Voting a lower exchange in the U.S for his Scottish, Clydesdale Bank money than he would have received for English notes.

And now I find out, much to my horror, that haggis is banned in the Land of the Free and has been since 1989!

What next?

2 comments:

Quiet_Man said...

I'm assuming this is a bit tongue in cheek. However the recent hostility towards Scots by the English is of entirely the current governments making. Assymetrical devolution has made the West Lothian question more relevant than ever with the Scottish labour MP block vote forcing government policies on England that are devolved to Scotland (University fees( You also have a Scottish Prime minister pronouncing changes to health that only apply to England because health is devolved to Scotland and anything he allows wont affect his own constituents. Until this is resolved by an English parliament giving the English the same rights as the other members of the union then you will inevitably get hostility. You don't find yourself being liked if there's one rule for you and one rule for another.

Terry Heath said...

Don't forget the Poles...

http://news.scotsman.com/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=3356121