George Foulkes - funny or not?

Sometimes ye gotta laugh at his greatness Lord George Foulkes. And other times, he is so nasty and small minded and so ANTI ALL THINGS SCOTTISH that it's not funny anymore. Today he was being interviewed about us bad Scot Nats. "They're brainwashing the Scots" he asserts. And what we doing to brainwash you all? We're sneaking in the saltire to all manner of everyday events. It's "Independence by creep" according to LGF. Evidence of this?

Why - our trains are to have a saltire design when next they are repainted. NO WAY?!!

"These Scots really are taking things a step too far don't you think?" - not an exact quote you understand, more how I imagine George to have reacted.

Secondly, we're now "allowed" to declare ourselves Scottish rather than British on the next census form. (Bet him and his fellow Lords and Ladies nearly choked on their port when they heard that outrageous concession to the wretched Scots - "why on earth did they have to discover oil? If it hadn't been for that we could have built ourselves a MUCH higher border"!)

And that pesky Alex "de Brainvasher" Salmond has had the flaming nerve to change the name of the Scottish Executive to Scottish Government - giving the commoner Scots an over inflated idea of who they are!

The foxy one claims that all of this is because the SNP can't win on the real arguments. He then devotes as much time as the interview will allow (not much, he can see the complete irrelevance of this and no doubt, of George himself) to telling us that he gets a train sometimes but Alex Salmond hasn't been on a train since becoming First Minister. "Why is he so afraid of trains?" blusters the Lord with the common touch!

Now I don't know if Alex Salmond has been on a train in the last year. I don't really care whether he has or not. Do you? Does anybody? But if George is trying to use this to say Scotland's First Minister is afraid to talk to people, perhaps he should have paid more attention to the Glasgow East by-election. (Perhaps they should have paid more attention BEFORE it and maybe they wouldn't have lost it.)

Yes, I'm still talking about it. The by election that Gordon Brown, the Leader of the Labour Party, failed to show up to. Whereas Alex Salmond didn't just show up, he was accused of being there TOO MUCH! And when he was there, shall I tell you what he was doing? He was visiting places like Carmyle, Shettleston, Tollcross, Easterhouse, Wellhouse.

It wasn't set up appointments. He turned up with John Mason and a team of leafletters. They leafletted whilst Alex and John chapped on doors and spoke to ANYONE who wanted to speak to them. That was quite a lot of people I can tell you. In many housing estates people were coming out of their houses and crowding round them keen to have a chat.

Alex Salmond has been in many a house in the East End this summer, having a cup of tea and listening to people's problems. Gordon Brown didn't set foot in the city never mind the constituency. The SNP is very unlike the Labour Party in that the SNP is not afraid to listen to ordinary people and to act on their concerns. I know because as the Campaign Co-ordinator I was in charge of ensuring we DID act on all concerns.

So, George, whether Alex takes the train or not is a complete irrelevance. The decision to rebrand the rail stock with a Saltire design was taken by Transport Scotland BEFORE the SNP were even in power. The repainting will take place when the trains are due to be repainted anyway so I can't see there being cost implications. The rise in national pride we have seen in Scotland is nothing to be feared. It is not necessarily associated with a rise in those wishing to see an Independent Scotland but even if it was, you have no right to talk down this country and the desire of the people to have a strong positive national identity. That is not funny, it's not the usual nonsense we're used to from you, it's more sinister than that and it is completely unacceptable.