The Guardian’s ill-informed patronising judgement on the fighting Jocks

I still read the Guardian though it took me a while to get over their failure to resist the war drums in 2003 and their backing of the invasion of Iraq. Unlike the New York Times they never apologised for their complicity in the pursuit of an illegal and bloody war.

While they did host George Monbiot who suggested that Scots voting No in 2014 were indulging in ‘self-harm’, they backed the Union in the end.

This editorial is unattributed but it’s another piece of evidence-free, Anglocentric, supercilious, nonsense.

It reminds me of the spat I had with their Martin Kettle when, knowing nothing, he arrogantly pontificated on us. When I questioned his competence to judge life up there, he reminded me that his wife was Scottish and that he had a Westie.

The author suggests ‘deep cultural failings in the way Scotland has been governed‘, blames the SNP rather than the melodramatic, MSM saturation coverage, as it should, for the reasons why ‘the feud between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond has been so bitter and all-consuming as a spectacle.’ I mean, really, who does s/he think constructs the spectacle other than headline-thirsty journos?

Deep cultural failings in the way Scotland has been governed?

Good grief! In England, ministerial codes have been broken, repeatedly and far more seriously by the PM, Hancock and Patel, yet none are punished ever. The UK Government, cuts aid to the children of the Yemen and offers the heroes of the pandemic a 1% rise while gifting vast sums of public money to their chums!

As for sexual harassment, more than 30 Tory MPs have faced charges for often far more serious offences than Salmond faced and have escaped largely unpunished. Two Tory mayors are currently doing time for child rape.

The Lib Dems have a history of sexual offences, rich enough for a Netflix documentary and Labour do infighting of a scale and intensity beyond anything the fighting Jocks could muster.

Deep cultural failings in the way Scotland has been governed?

FFS, glass houses, own backyard etc.

27 thoughts on “The Guardian’s ill-informed patronising judgement on the fighting Jocks”

  1. I still occasionally read one of the Guardian articles, but their constant begging to ‘support their journalism’ will garner not a penny from me as long as they are anglocentric Westminster arsekissers.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      1. never read or support ANY ENGLISH MEDIA

        SCOTS GET SMOTHERED ENOUGH
        LAST NIGHT sITV ALLOWED SCOTS TO WATCH
        AN ENGLAND INTERNATIONAL GAME

        AND DID NOT ALLOW US TO WATCH SCOTLANDS INTERNATIONAL

        STOP SUPPORTING TV CHANNEL THAT IS CALLING ITSELF
        Scottish tv

        Franchise should be cancelled

        Like

        Reply

  2. The Guardian is up there with the rest of the rabid English press pack who denigrate Scotland and our place in their union.
    Perhaps,once we have parted company,they will return to being a left of centre publication but I doubt it,Thatcherism runs deep in the English psyche.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I used to have a subscription to the Grauniad but stopped it once their coverage of the indy referendum started to follow the usual London “too we, too poor, too stupid” mantra. I’ve never considered renewing it since – if they change their editorial stance then I will likely support them…

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  3. You make the the exact same fatuous point a “chippy” Scot would, questioning the veracity of a piece published in England for English consumption, for clarity to your south where the mother(f) of parliaments resides.
    One need not reside in Scotland let alone have a passing acquaintance with the place to remain completely informed of what makes it tick.
    I trust this clarifies matters, Jacob…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY SCOTS (majority)
      WANT TO LEAVE THIS UNION
      WE SCOTS ARE CONTINUALLY ‘TOLD’

      What an who we are, and what we should do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      AND THAT IS THE.CORE OF INDEPENDENCE
      SCOTLAND. IS A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY ARE WILL NOT BE TOLD
      WHAT WE SHOULD DO OR SPEND
      BY A THIRD PARTY

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  4. If we’re talking cultural failings, the English press simply can’t resist a bit of misrepresentation and symbolic violence, when directed against Scotland anyway. That’s because they’re a structural component of Berxitania’s neo-colonial political economy.

    If only Scots were a distinct “people”, then England’s chin-stroking pseudo-liberals would think twice about their cultural condescension. 😉

    Exploring symbolic violence in the everyday: misrecognition, condescension, consent and complicity
    https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/10214/Sanghera_2016_FR_SymbolicViolence_AM.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Perhaps not, as cultural habits are hard to overcome, and the arrogance of English exceptionalism is ingrained in English culture.

    Who ‘We’ Are: Otherness, Nationalism and the Media
    eprints.soas.ac.uk/24049/1/GKirsch_SOAS_Who%20we%20are_prepublication%20version(dot)pdf

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  6. Of course, we should remember that an ex-Editor of the Guardian has an estate in Scotland and they wouldn’t want Scots getting Ind and controlling such things.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      2. Dacre former editor Daily Mail. Now associate editor DGT. Brexiteer. Daily Mail editor now supports EU. Ullapool Estate? Scotland estate. Hydroelectric unit. The Canaird River Company. Made £1/2Million 2019.
        Accounts – accumulated profits £1.5Million

        DGT. Daily Mail General Trust (tax evasion?)

        Owner (shareholder) Lord Rothermere tax evader. Was tax exile.

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

  7. This is a real problem. The Guardian, for all its faults and parochial mentality, is one of the few southern newspapers that should have a broad enough mind to try to understand our wish to be self-governing.
    But it cannot see past its own nose.
    The other papers are worse, and will stir up animosity against Scotland.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  9. OT

    I note the impartiality of ‘our’ justice system continues to be a topic of concern. This should come as no surprise, given Brexit laughs in the face of constitutional justice, and the Internal Market Bill represents a direct assault the process of Judicial Review. Which is apparently perfectly acceptable to Westminster, which is most certainly not an impartial source of law.

    Natural Justice and Fairness – Substantive as well as Procedural
    Standards for the Review of Administrative Decision-Making?
    https://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/wp-content/uploads/pdf/6927003-mullan(dot)pdf

    Like

    Reply

  10. Too wee, too poor, too stupid … and now with ‘cultural failings’! What next?

    What kind of reaction do people expressing such patronising – actually, denigrating – views expect/want in return?

    And we who support Scotland’s independence are the ones charged (wrongly) with being anti-English!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. It is indeed very sinister to equate cultural identity with governance. What does the writer at the Graun mean, ‘deep cultural failings in the way Scotland has been governed’.
      Not enough tartan and shortbread? The whole message is to demonise the SNP to such an extent, by blurring the lines between ‘culture’ and governance, that it is portrayed as not fit for well, anything really.

      We here all know that Scotland was ‘governed’ by England for centuries, and, when devolution in Scotland was forced onto the English government by the EU, Labour were ‘governing’ Scotland for the first ten years of that ‘cultural governance’, a semi autonomous pretendy talking shop at best, with the BritNats in charge.

      What the English HQ’d Labour party did in those ten years? For Scotland? I have no idea except to say they took the loot and dined out on Scotland’s massive resources and revenues. The ones in charge were awarded very very warm seats at the HOL’s, £300+ a day for life, nice, for robbing and shafting your own country.

      The right wing rag the Guardian, in even printing the words ‘deep cultural failings’ about Scotland is deeply sinister. They
      would never liken or equate the English Government with English cultural identity, in terms of performance, success or
      ‘failings’. We have seen the BritNat media calling Scotland a ‘failed state’, also very sinister. This is all designed to create a narrative that somehow Scotland and Scotland’s government/parliament is somehow illegitmate and rogue, needing interference, a coup. When an outsider country controls the narrative, and orchestrates faux ‘failings’ in a country they want to control, the people are fooled into believing that that country is ‘failing’, dangerous even, and so a coup of some sort is acceptable.

      Scotland has no government for the next 6 weeks, as another indy blogger pointed out this week, it leaves Scotland in a very very vulnerable position…

      Scotland’s unique and diverse ‘culture’ and identity is being undermined by the English government. Scotland’s government over the past decade or so has become a real threat to the EngGov, because the SNP have concentrated on starting to repair the BritNats’ devastating damage, over centuries to Scotland’s sovereignty, cultural identity and self esteem of the people.

      That’s my tuppence worth, I can’t stand the pretency lefty Graun.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. Like Liverpool , soon they’ll be sending in ”commissioners” to run Scotland properly.
        We obviously have a poor grasp of how to properly KILL off our old folk in Care Homes during a pandemic , we have NO IDEA how to corruptly make our mates millions on the back of a pandemic , we have ludicrous levels of support for the ruling party and its leader because she can’t act like a buffoon in front of the media …really , it is long past time for England to take the cultural reins of power in this verminous infested land !

        Liked by 4 people

        Reply

  11. Looking at this from the perspective of critical discourse analysis, one can either follow a Foucauldian approach, which is grounded in the genealogy of knowledge, history, and materiality, or an approach grounded in critical social psychology. Though Foucault’s method is robust, here’s a look at the latter. As you’ve got to be more than a bit delusional a nationalist to believe Britain is one nation. Nationalism tends towards exclusionary and supremacist views, where as patriotism is grounded in civic morality.

    Contemporary British nationalism articulates racially informed and expansionary English nationalism (see Brexit).

    https://scholar.harvard.edu/hckelman/publications/nationalism-patriotism-and-national-identity-social-psychological-dimensions

    Like

    Reply

  15. Would they ever write an article about the “deep cultural failings in the way Israel has been governed”? I doubt it. They obviously think this sort of ill informed, pretentious abuse is acceptable for Scotland though.

    The problems of the Scottish Government are largely media creations, The reported problems are in the main minor or don’t actually exist.
    The deep cultural failings are in the Media.

    The most pressing problem with the government of Scotland is the absence of real power. They need to write about that.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  16. The Sun and Record (1/2million sales) supported Nicola Sturgeon. Caricatured the Tories.

    The Guardian (10,000 sales) Didn’t.

    Israel have had 4 elections in a year. D’Hond’t. Still no conclusion. Netanyahu is up in Court on corruption charges, embezzling and taking bribes, There might have to be another one. Hard right wing. The economy is tanking. There are riots and protests in the streets. High unemployment.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  17. The patronizing Guardian etc are just purveyors of britnat propaganda. The Guardian supports the so-called united kingdom because it still dreams of Scots voting Labour again. Nae chance.

    Britnat media types haven’t a clue about Scotland.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.