Now I think I misunderstood EBG.

Scotland is like that for everything. National Trust? Nope, Scottish National Trust. Shared blood service? Nope, Scotland has its own blood service and its own stocks. Ambulances say 'The SCOTTISH Ambulance Service' on them. Could you imagine English ones saying 'The ENGLISH ambulance service'? Of course not, that would be silly. SCOTTISH TEA is sold bearing the slogan BEST BREWED WITH SCOTTISH WATER. Brands looking to ingratiate themselves with the locals feature banners saying 'PROUD TO SERVE SCOTLAND'.

Generally you find that practically everything is prefixed with 'Scottish' or otherwise tries to highlight that it's local local local, in Scotland.

I don't know how this came about but all I see are almost pathetically desperate attempts by the Scottish in general to highlight that they're distinct and different from everyone else. Take a close look around when you're here Kern, you'll find it very strange.

How so?

But yeah, Scottish Gas being the respective sub of British Gas. SSE is branded as 'Scottish Hydro' here. All the companies know they can engender a bit of mindless brand loyalty by sticking the word 'Scottish' in there. You'd think it would be too obvious to work, but it's not.

It tgen kicked me out saying that the app was only for the use of Scottish residents and that I was not permitted to use it.

Scotland is like that for everything. National Trust? Nope, Scottish National Trust. Shared blood service? Nope, Scotland has its own blood service and its own stocks. Ambulances say 'The SCOTTISH Ambulance Service' on them. Could you imagine English ones saying 'The ENGLISH ambulance service'? Of course not, that would be silly. SCOTTISH TEA is sold bearing the slogan BEST BREWED WITH SCOTTISH WATER. Brands looking to ingratiate themselves with the locals feature banners saying 'PROUD TO SERVE SCOTLAND'.

Generally you find that practically everything is prefixed with 'Scottish' or otherwise tries to highlight that it's local local local, in Scotland.

I don't know how this came about but all I see are almost pathetically desperate attempts by the Scottish in general to highlight that they're distinct and different from everyone else. Take a close look around when you're here Kern, you'll find it very strange.

Regions might exhibit it on a smaller scale but Scotland is by far the worst offender to the point of tedium. Scotmid, Scotbet, Scotthis, Scotthat. Fucking hell I've even eaten sandwiches that said 'MADE WITH PRIDE IN SCOTLAND' on them.

I guess that's where we differ then, because I can see when some lame attempt is being made to pander to some bias and it makes me more unlikely to buy it.

There is no 'English Blah' for anything because presumably the English feel much less need to desperately reinforce their identity in absolutely everything. Regions might exhibit it on a smaller scale but Scotland is by far the worst offender to the point of tedium. Scotmid, Scotbet, Scotthis, Scotthat. Fucking hell I've even eaten sandwiches that said 'MADE WITH PRIDE IN SCOTLAND' on them.

Regions do it presumably because they are big enough to make it worthwhile having seperate services - you can see that in Police Scotland, they used to be seperate regions, but it was condensed into one to make it more efficient and to save money. You don't need 4 or 5 different forces in a country with only 5 million people, after all.

But I'm happy for the Scots to organise their policing in whatever way they want.

I'm on a large business project involving marketing in Scotland at present.

All our contact and research at present shows a far stronger bias to buy into marketed Nationalism in Scotland than in England.

For example, shoppers in Scotkand show a strong negative bias to buying something labelled as 'English' (English Butter), for example, whereas Shoppers in Engkand do not show the same bias against products listed as 'Scottish' (beef, water, etc).

Basically, advice and research says don't stock products marketed as English, avoid any show of the Union flag on packaging, etc

Just makes ecological sense to buy local stuff

Bzzt!

That's not always the case. Outside of the British season for tomato-growing, for instance, imported Spanish tomatoes have a smaller carbon footprint than locally-grown ones.

Angela Eagle:...And what about the Scottish National party? The vaingloriously self-styled Scottish 56 have now been in Parliament for nearly a month. They promised to make the Scottish lion roar at Westminster—

Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP): Grrr!

Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP): I thank the Leader of the House for announcing next week’s business.

May I say to the hon. Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle) that my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr MacNeil) was merely practising his roar in the bathroom last week, and a very impressive roar it is

Bzzt!

That's not always the case. Outside of the British season for tomato-growing, for instance, imported Spanish tomatoes have a smaller carbon footprint than locally-grown ones.

In February, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon identified fox hunting as the sort of English-only issue her party's MPs would not vote on.

"We are in a situation where the Tory government are refusing to agree to any amendments to improve the Scotland Bill - which are supported by 58 of Scotland's 59 MPs - and imposing English Votes for English Laws to make Scotland's representation at Westminster second class."

"The third reason is less to do with fox hunting. Since the election, David Cameron's government has shown very little respect to the mandate that Scottish MPs have."

Hmm... so, the SNP are going to break their non-interventionist stand and vote against the hunting proposals. They're MPs, and that's their choice (although amusingly the plan would bring England & Wales into line with Scotland). The only thing that's concerning me about all this is it means that the next few years are going to be spent going endlessly over the hunting issue, just like the Blair years. Zzzzz...

Indeed. I doubt it would've got through without the SNP dicking around, and the issue would be buried. But instead they go for this...

Le sigh.

Shouldn't the blame be more accurately levelled at whomever raised this new proposal in the first place, rather than sighing at a group who've responded to it?

I suppose because I've no dog in this fight

I am completely opposed to fox hunting with dogs. If the SNP want devolution and non-interference from the UK government in 'their' affairs, they can at least uphold the basic fucking credibility of practising what they preach. Except they don't because they're a bunch of hypocritical, selfish opportunistic bastards with no true sense of fairness or due process.

Meh, every dagger the SNP can stick into the side of the Tories over the next five years is good by me.

Maybe Labour will fucking grow a pair as a result too, I'd be surprised if the Tories manage another majority in five years time - the opposition just need to get their act together.

You know me Cavey, the antics of the SNP spark me off far more than any other, probably because I'm beaten over the head with their tedious propaganda on a daily basis.

Look at those cute little SNP badges they all wear too - possibly because they're worried that they're so irrelevant that they won't be identifiable without them? They should be worried.

So, reasons to be cheerful EBG old chap? Things could've been so much worse and the last 9 months or so could hardly have been any better for those of us to the right of centre/unionist persuasion. It's all really quite fab.

Meh, every dagger the SNP can stick into the side of the Tories over the next five years is good by me.

Maybe Labour will fucking grow a pair as a result too, I'd be surprised if the Tories manage another majority in five years time - the opposition just need to get their act together.