Referendum on Scottish Independence

[jackelgull]

Silence! Your country's 238-year-old rebellion shall be crushed. The British Invasion spelled the beginning of the end for your lot.

One Direction? I knew they were a force of unimaginable evil!

 

[Antilogic]

He's probably referring to the Beatles aka the 60s Jonas Brothers.

 

[bhsup]

One Direction? I knew they were a force of unimaginable evil!

He's probably referring to the Beatles aka the 60s Jonas Brothers.

Little late, gents.

 

[Antilogic]

Little late, gents.

One of those rare occasions where we are in perfect agreement.

 

[imperialman]

As I recently started at BAE, I'm glad it was a 'No' and we can build the next generation of frigates at the Scotstoun yard in Glasgow.

 

[Traitorfish]

But don't go imagining that England is home to any prejudices...

 

[Quackers]

zzZZzzz

The Waterloo Bonfire Society is one of six which parade through the town every year. The societies all have their traditions, costumes, fire sites and fireworks.

An effigy of David Cameron holding a "puppet Nick Clegg" was burned in Lewes in 2010. Other effigies in previous years have included Osama Bin Laden.

The event is said to be one of the largest bonfire celebrations in the UK, with 30,000 people attending last year.

Elsewhere, an effigy of former European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso will be burned in the Kent town of Edenbridge

So they burn all types of political figures.

 

[Traitorfish]

Yeah, I figured I'd end up having to explain this.

The effigy is depicted wearing tartan trews and accompanied by the Loch Ness monster, which is itself wearing a tartan Tam o' Shanter.

Tartan, the Loch Ness monster and Tam O'Shanter bonnets are not symbols of the SNP or the Yes campaign. They are symbols of the Scots as a national and ethnic group.

If the effigy was merely political, they would not appear. Yet appear they do. So what to make of it?

It is, at the very least, poorly-considered, and unlikely to be taken as a symbol of the deep and abiding love which we've been assured all Englishmen feel for the Scots.

 

[Quackers]

Your actually being serious? Wow. I'm amazed.

The people who take offense at that are a group of hyper sensitive babies

 

[VGL]

Dang it. Poll is closed. Count me as the Rest of World: Yes ones

 

[Flying Pig]

Yeah, I figured I'd end up having to explain this.

The effigy is depicted wearing tartan trews and accompanied by the Loch Ness monster, which is itself wearing a tartan Tam o' Shanter.

Tartan, the Loch Ness monster and Tam O'Shanter bonnets are not symbols of the SNP or the Yes campaign. They are symbols of the Scots as a national and ethnic group.

If the effigy was merely political, they would not appear. Yet appear they do. So what to make of it?

It is, at the very least, poorly-considered, and unlikely to be taken as a symbol of the deep and abiding love which we've been assured all Englishmen feel for the Scots.

Bear in mind the English also have a culture in which friends insult each other... it's certainly a joke at the expense of Scots, but I'd take it more in the vein of 'Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman' jokes than a golliwog.

 

[Traitorfish]

Your actually being serious? Wow. I'm amazed.

The people who take offense at that are a group of hyper sensitive babies

I'm not saying it's "offensive". It'd have to be a damn sight more creative to achieve actual offence. I'm just saying, it puts all those the declarations of fraternal love in perspective.

Bear in mind the English also have a culture in which friends insult each other... it's certainly a joke at the expense of Scots, but I'd take it more in the vein of 'Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman' jokes than a golliwog.

I'd hazard that there's a difference between good-natured insults among friends (which is hardly peculiar to the English), and an ethnic effigy displayed in a wealthy Southern town under the approving super vision of a Tory council.

 

[Farm Boy]

Bear in mind the English also have a culture in which friends insult each other... it's certainly a joke at the expense of Scots, but I'd take it more in the vein of 'Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman' jokes than a golliwog.

Huh. Now that I think about it "hey pig*fornicator*" is actually in standard usage as a greeting between myself and several of my most longstanding friends. My wife finds these guys abrasive and it bothers her. I don't think she quite gets it when I tell her that if the day comes that they become unfailingly polite to her it means they don't like her anymore.

 

[Pangur Bán]

@Quackers, since the marriage metaphor is so often used to promote Scotland's political arrangement with England, you might be interested to know that the response you were making is very typical of those accused of spousal abuse. 'She says you call her fat and ugly' the accused is told; 'Oh me' he responds, 'she just can't take a joke'.

Goes along with the 'he'd be nothing without me', 'I only do it because I love her', and so on type comments earlier in the thread.

 

[Arakhor]

I'm just saying, it puts all those the declarations of fraternal love in perspective.

Or you could say that it simply indicates that one wealthy southern Tory town decided to make an ill-advised poke at the Scottish referendum.

 

[Traitorfish]

I don't think the two are mutually-exclusive. The people responsible for the float evidently thought it was well-advised, and were supported in this assumption by the local council. So, it seems that at least certain pockets of England aren't so resolutely pro-Scots as the leadership claims.

 

[Commodore]

I'm just saying, it puts all those the declarations of fraternal love in perspective.

Or some English people could be lashing out because they feel betrayed that a country they fraternally love seemed so willing to readily cast that friendship aside.

 

[Borachio]

I suppose so. But it seems a very strange sort of lashing out.

A large proportion of Scots want to leave the Union, so we're entitled to burn effigies of them? It's hardly calculated to change their minds, is it?

 

[GinandTonic]

I'm not saying it's "offensive". It'd have to be a damn sight more creative to achieve actual offence. I'm just saying, it puts all those the declarations of fraternal love in perspective.


I'd hazard that there's a difference between good-natured insults among friends (which is hardly peculiar to the English), and an ethnic effigy displayed in a wealthy Southern town under the approving super vision of a Tory council.

So i live near lewis and have been to their do many times, till the impossibility of actually leaving the place after put me off. Listen to the Mark Steels in Town for Lewis, it probably tells you everything you need to know.

Lewis isn't a home counties town type. Look at the political map of the South East - Brighton, Lewis and Hastings are the not home counties part of the south coast. Lewis is where the lecturers at Sussex Uni traditionally lived. Not to mention a long anti-monarchist tradition. And the firework societies blew up the first half dozen parking meters, so def anti-parking meter tradition. Oh and they throw fireworks around and a couple of dozen people end up in casualty every year.

Just not a "home counties" town.

So the firework societies burn six effigies every year. The PM, the US president and the Pope are all but certainties, and the leader of the opposition frequent. With offensive guy's.

So Salmon is being treated like the big boys.

 

[Arakhor]

I think there's a difference between being "pro-Scots" and "pro-independence". I'm very fond of Scotland, having been there many times, but that doesn't mean I want to see the end of the Union. This effigy, whilst not so bad in its own right, comes with certainly ill-advised references to the referendum, which I think is what makes it far more political than it would otherwise be.