Posted by
Scottish Unionist
at 3:41 PM.
There are .
From today’s
Scotland on Sunday:
“The battle for independence has moved into the fruit and veg aisles. A Nationalist politician has written to supermarkets demanding that they translate the English names of fresh produce into their Scots equivalents, such as "tatties", "neeps" and "brambles".”
And as if that’s insufficiently cringe-inducing, the Nationalist in question, MSP Bill Wilson, claims:
“Nobody uses the word 'blackberry' in Scotland; they're always referred to as brambles.”
Nobody, Mr Wilson? In your imaginary world, does
nobody in Scotland speak standard English?
The current Historic Scotland magazine has a letter from this loon.
In it he objects to their usage of "toon" instead of "toun" and of "o'" instead of "o".
Apparently these are tell-tale markers of a subtle agenda to denigrate Scots at the expense of English.
Amusingly, the letter is credited to "Dr Bill Wilson MSP, Scottish Parliamentw".
Not sure if "Parliamentw" is supposed to be a Scots spelling or not.
“O’” and “a’”: gonnae no’ dae tha’!
What a tumshie!
I agree this is rather stupid. I think Mr Wilson qualifies as an eccentric. But then do the Brits not have a grand tradition of being eccentric ? Why then should not the Scots ?
"we shall fight them in the supermarkets, we will never surrender"
This outrageous attack on our vegetables on top of the falkirk SNP viscious snub earlier in the week to HRR and the Duke, show the lows to which these nats will stoop. Are we not fast reaching a point where the police should be called in?
Hold on a second: brambles are the plants, blackberries are the fruit.
Is this really a nationalist v unionist issue?? In Northern Ireland the Scots tongue is fiercely protected by the unionist community... See here for the government agency they successfully campaigned to be set up.
Scottish Nationalists love compounding their own silliness, or so it seems. Blackberries or brambles, indeed!
Bill Wilson is pretty potty. But what is the difference between this and people who bang on about wanting to use imperial weights instead of metric etc. It's about preserving traditions. Some people care deeply, oblivious to the fact that most of us don't give a monkeys. It's harmless stuff.
Incidentally, blackberries are wireless handheld devices much loved by MSPs and councillors.
Brambles grow on bushes and you can make jam out of them.
Hope that clears things up for you.
Leaves:
I would hope that it’s a “sane people vs Mr Wilson” issue!
(…or “Dr” Wilson, as an anonymous emailer has felt it essential to remind me. Strange that s/he wasn’t similarly irked when I carelessly referred to the PM as “Mr” Brown.)
Leaves
The Ulster-Scots Agency.
Sweet suffering Christ, it has a budget of nearly TWO MILLION POUNDS.
I think that is one by-product of the special circumstances over there we can afford not to import.
As someone said, the only differences between a language and a dialect are a flag and a navy.
We are thus already on the slippery slope towards public Support Agencies for Geordie, Scouse, Cockney and the rest.
Enough already.
I suspect the enthusiasm for Ulster-Scots has more to do with a reaction against Sinn Fein's politicisation of gaelic than anything else.
Grahamski - it was indeed the "if they're claiming special treatment of a minority language then we want one too" type of rubbish that infects NI politics. And I won't comment any further than that....
The point I am making sm753 was not to defend or attack those that hold these points of view - but just to show that getting all hot under the collar about Scots is something that is shared across nationalists and unionists! Or does this all only become barking mad if its proposed by nationalists ;-) ?
Now an agency for Geordie - canny idea... Being a Boro fan I would normally be coming up with a wisecrack, but seeing as we're off Match of the Day too next year I'll just remind that its "toon" and not "toun" down there....
what no resignations yet? We should march on Falkirk to demand a flogging or two
>> But what is the difference between this and people who bang on about wanting to use imperial weights instead of metric etc.
This is not a discussion about metric/imperial.
>> It's about preserving traditions.
Lots of people in Scotland call these fruit and veg potatoes and blackberries and turnips. It's a tradition, like.