Meet the new year, same as the old year.
Well, that was miserable.They do it so well, the Scots. Grudge, grievance and melancholy. Smart, Successful, Soon to be Bankrupt Scotland, they
know how to throw money at Hogmanay celebrations: Drones, Doctor Who and depressing poetry - what's not to like? Did you notice the embedded messages?
Contest for unpicking an independence message from the mess a worms (oops, words). I'll start you off - "for those who vote". The Prize is to have your suggestion for a blog topic bodied forth in words and pictures.
Scroll down to find yesterday's suggestions from some of our regular contributors:
And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Yep, done that - Free! At Last! We happy few......
er, thanks, mr mongoose
We stood alone
I see mr johnson senior is attempting to jump off the sinking ship, leaving behind young Boris..
Trans Lives Matter slogan avant la lettre? Not bad for a patrician Victorian greybeard.
Thanks, editor mr verge, and for this:
I stuffed their mouths with gold - Aneurin Bevin and mr mike:
mr bungalow bill: May the cavaliers win this time round and may all the po-faced perish. Here's to the restoration.
Many, many thanks to mr ultrapox for the suggestion - I'd forgotten how outrageously funny it was.
And this:
it ain't half hot, mum.
unlike this:
12 comments:
Well, "good riddance to the last page torn" sounds like a reference to the Brexit deal the SNP refused to vote for (despite having vilified the very idea of No Deal for the last 4 years).
And some might say that "What's yours is mine" very neatly sums up the SNP attitude to matters fiscal.
As for WE ARE ONE, writ large in the night sky, that looks a lot like "contrarians nae welcome hier." (Sassenachs raus?)
I was curious about the poem - apparently there's a Scots Makar (nope, me neither) and I made it all the way to the second of these 7 minutes :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmLxjUNVtQU&ab_channel=TheScottishParliament
(Someone in the editing suite has a sense of humour, at least - first shot of Nicola Rapt comes with the words "plague or passover".)
cheers
v./
Thank you, mr verge - that's three entries in the contest. Sadly, there's more to be found.
The drone display that I posted is the third of a series. The first two were much less welcoming, stating the Saltire ( that's the Scottish flag) was a big cross hovering in the sky over Scotland, telling outsiders not to venture here. Honest, not invent. Look at it yourself - maybe not, as it will give you bleeding ears.
A word of explanation about the Scots Makar - A makar is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as a royal court poet. Since 2002, the term "makar" has been revived as the name for a publicly funded poet, first in Edinburgh, followed by Glasgow, Stirling and Dundee, and in 2004 the position of The Scots Makar, in the sense of a Scottish poet laureate, was introduced by the Scottish Parliament.
Off at a bit of a tangent, but have you read Stuart Kelly's book "The Minister and The Murderer" ? Highly recommended as a piece of Scottish literature, if you haven't - not least for its delight in language, though it's about so much else as it weaves its way.
I haven't come across it, mr bb, but I've just popped over to Amazon to read the blurb and it sounds fascinating."In 1969, James Nelson confessed to murder, served a prison sentence, then applied to be ordained as a minster in the Scottish Church (The Kirk). The case split the church in two, and challenged the institution to consider its most basic functions, obligations and duties. James Nelson's crime was no ordinary crime. The bible has a lot to say about murder, but not about this particular variety of murder." I've ordered it on the strength of your recommendation.
Not having a go in my Spot the Propaganda Contest?
Hmm, I thought that I might sneak that one past you, mrs i. Though it didn't seem inappropriate.
in response to my idea of repeating the sitcom it ain't arf hot, mum, a contributor on the previous thread noted that any such expression of essential britishness would thesadays be summarily stifled by an inevitable earl gray scented storm of stuck-up political correctness, and that, in order to neutralize such pleb-bashing liberal repression, a referendum could be held on the matter.
well...
since this classic comedy series attracted an audience of 17 million, and also scored a number one pop-chart-hit - courtesy of windsor davies and don estelle's highly sensitive rendition of whispering grass - it seems quite reasonable to assume that, in the current climate, a popular vote on the cultural propriety of re-running it ain't arf hot, mum might just shade a last-ditch victory british artistic freedom...
and after all, in a radically diverse production, which includes a pair of upper-class-twit british officers, cunning indian servants who craftily manipulate the two dim-witted officers, a concert-party of transgender squaddies, and a sado-masochistic transracial sergeant-major, what's not to like?
now, in contrast to the cabaret-performing cast of it ain't arf hot, mum, it behoves me to point out that the european empire of blood-mineral-trading no longer has any clothes - certainly no woolly ones manufactured off the backs of british subjects - and as its parasitic membership scrambles frantically for the exits, will, in due course, demographically - and god forbid even democratically - dematerialize before our very eyes.
clearly, the unfolding eu-crisis is extremely serious - for catching corrupt countess arsula von data-card mislayen without her kit on...
is one thing...
but beholding barndoor in the buff...
quite another.
@ultrapox
correction:
"...it seems quite reasonable to assume that, in the current climate, a popular vote on the cultural propriety of re-running it ain't arf hot, mum might just shade a last-ditch victory for british artistic freedom..."
A short Scottish independence motto can be gleaned, sticking it to the English imperialists : “ For those who vote - what’s yours is mine”.
With some licence: “The pure light of Venus and the red of Mars, Belong, of course, to Scotland, They are ours.”
Both good 'uns, mr bb. Here's another - "the Scottish air". The bit that sounds like New Year's Day distress following a heavy night is, in fact, the Garlic, promoted as Scotland's national language and spoken by 1.1% of the Scottish population. It is a translation of the preceding verse, but could be any old thing, as hardly anyone will understand it. Intended, no doubt, to be inclusive, it is the very opposite. I am also distressed by the shameless sentimentality of the poem - turning to one's dear, dead dad,indeed.
Keep it up, Ishmaelites, I'm sure we can wring a few more drops out of this damp dishclout.
@ultrapox - 2 january 2021 atT 05:23
correction - the last sentence would be better phrased as follows:
"clearly, the unfolding eu-crisis is extremely serious - for it is one thing to catch without her kit on the corrupt countess arsula von data-card mislayen...
but quite another to behold barndoor in the buff."
@ultrapox - 2 january 2021 at 05:23
sorry, did i refer to the sergeant-major, in it ain't arf hot, mum, as transracial?
no, it is the bearer, played by michael bates, who acts transracially - and indeed i make no bones about using the term transracial, rather than introducing the derogatory notion of blackface, because, as a matter of historical record, we ethnographic experts now recognize that there has always existed in this world that slightly eccentric type of fellow, such as prime minister jumpskin transpeau, who, in the face of black-and-white evidence to the contrary, adamantly consider himself to have been born into the wrong tribe...
thus creating a somewhat sensitive social situation which demands due tolerance to be exercized.
@ultrapox - 4 january 2021 at 02:18
make that adamantly considers himself.
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