Those of you north of the border will no doubt have seen the TV advert that that the MOD(A) currently has running [Scottish Army Soldier - be the best].
Don't know about you but it stinks of New Labour spin..
Why? well they hate anything to do with tradition, doesn't matter that the Jocks whether it be the Black Watch or KOSB'ies have a history going back further back than Napoleon and are a core fabric of the British Army.
New Labour doesn't like regiments with battle honours and traditions past father to son especially as regimental cutbacks show up when you have named regiments, Oh no much better for the Goverment Ministers (99.9% of them were all paid up members of CND) to have the whole set up as faceless,
they started with the Territorial Army units being re-named to totally obscure Regimental names (The Eastern Regiment or whatever the the forner Royal Anglians are now called) so there wouldn't be any trace of the former identities despite these Regiments having battle history in the First/Second & Korean wars.
Bet there will be plans to scrap the Parachute Regiment in the not to distant future (probably renamed Air Mobile Cavalry - nick named 'Tony's @rse' pronounced 'Horse' in honour of Teflon Tony).
Scottish Army Soldier
Started by
panda plodder
, Nov 29 2004 06:51 PM
5 replies to this topic
#2
Posted 29 November 2004 - 09:12 PM
One thing I noticed was the British Gas adverts seen south of the border are changed slightly when broadcast on local TV in Scotland to the name "Scottish Gas" although the ads and the logo are the same. Is Scotland not part of Great Britain or should we rename down here to "English Gas" and "Welsh Gas"?
I'm not knocking it as we should be proud of our respective heritages. My house has a small flagpole over the porch and I make a point of flying the Norwegian Flag on Norway's official flag days as my wife is Norwegian. The Union Flag most other days when I am in the country and the Cross of St. George on April 23rd and most Sundays.
The local (currently Labour) council in south London where I am usually based have recommended that I do not fly the St. George's cross in case I offend my neighbours from other ethnic backgrounds. Apparently the union flag and Norwegian flag are fine! Yet on our house in Norway we have two flagpoles, one with the Norwegian Flag and one with either the Union Flag or the cross of St. George. (Oslo city council readily granted permission for the second pole to be erected when we asked as most houses only have one but they are a proud flag flying nation and believe, like I do that ones family heritage if not local should also be celebrated)
My local church flies a defaced cross of St. george with a diocesan badge on it and the council have chosen not to comment on that! We have lived in the same street for a long time and get on very well with our neighbours regardless of colour or creed and they all think it incredible that the council are taking this view that the flag of England may offend others.
I am aware that the flag was seized upon by various right wing groups in the '80's but I thought that the country as a whole had rightfully claimed it back and disassociated itself with any ultra right wing views with the support of "The Sun" and other popular national papers urging the English to get behind the English football and rugby squads and be proud of the flag that these teams represent.
We should all be allowed to be proud of our respective heritages and demonstrate that by flying that country's colours, be they any of the countries that form the UK, or any other country that is part of our heritage from whatever part of the world that may be.
Going back to the Panda plodder's point, I'm not so sure its spin rather than political correctness. We all like to believe that Her Majesty's armed forces are "the best" but what happens if "Be the Best" is aimed only at single countries in the Union? do we all start fighting each other because, "The Best" is the advert south of the border too?
I'm not knocking it as we should be proud of our respective heritages. My house has a small flagpole over the porch and I make a point of flying the Norwegian Flag on Norway's official flag days as my wife is Norwegian. The Union Flag most other days when I am in the country and the Cross of St. George on April 23rd and most Sundays.
The local (currently Labour) council in south London where I am usually based have recommended that I do not fly the St. George's cross in case I offend my neighbours from other ethnic backgrounds. Apparently the union flag and Norwegian flag are fine! Yet on our house in Norway we have two flagpoles, one with the Norwegian Flag and one with either the Union Flag or the cross of St. George. (Oslo city council readily granted permission for the second pole to be erected when we asked as most houses only have one but they are a proud flag flying nation and believe, like I do that ones family heritage if not local should also be celebrated)
My local church flies a defaced cross of St. george with a diocesan badge on it and the council have chosen not to comment on that! We have lived in the same street for a long time and get on very well with our neighbours regardless of colour or creed and they all think it incredible that the council are taking this view that the flag of England may offend others.
I am aware that the flag was seized upon by various right wing groups in the '80's but I thought that the country as a whole had rightfully claimed it back and disassociated itself with any ultra right wing views with the support of "The Sun" and other popular national papers urging the English to get behind the English football and rugby squads and be proud of the flag that these teams represent.
We should all be allowed to be proud of our respective heritages and demonstrate that by flying that country's colours, be they any of the countries that form the UK, or any other country that is part of our heritage from whatever part of the world that may be.
Going back to the Panda plodder's point, I'm not so sure its spin rather than political correctness. We all like to believe that Her Majesty's armed forces are "the best" but what happens if "Be the Best" is aimed only at single countries in the Union? do we all start fighting each other because, "The Best" is the advert south of the border too?
#3
Posted 29 November 2004 - 10:13 PM
Eeh, there's nothing like letting facts get in the way of a good argument is there?
Even before the current Labour government got in there were moves to consolidate the regiments so they were focussed on acting as rapid reaction forces. This included merging regiments where feasible and disbanding them if impractical.
This was done with the agreement of the MOD as part of our U.N. duties.
Don't think this is purely a modern thing either, don't think many of the civil war era regiments have been around for a while
Even before the current Labour government got in there were moves to consolidate the regiments so they were focussed on acting as rapid reaction forces. This included merging regiments where feasible and disbanding them if impractical.
This was done with the agreement of the MOD as part of our U.N. duties.
Don't think this is purely a modern thing either, don't think many of the civil war era regiments have been around for a while
#4
Posted 29 November 2004 - 11:10 PM
We should all be allowed to be proud of our respective heritages and demonstrate that by flying that country's colours, be they any of the countries that form the UK, or any other country that is part of our heritage from whatever part of the world that may be.
Absolutely. And while the flag flies in the garden we should be inside cooking with the gas.
Since the gas industry was deregulated in the UK in 1998, new gas companies have sprung up everywhere e.g. London Energy, Cambridge Gas & Electricity, SWEB Energy to name but a few - there are about 20 or so in all.
The fact that in amongst them there is a "Scottish Gas" is not an anti-British statement, rather it's just a local one :wink:
#5
Posted 30 November 2004 - 06:42 PM
Does Scotland have any of it's own TV channels (such here we have BBC2W and S4C which show a mix of the same programs as BBC2 and Channel 4 in England, as well as local Welsh language programs (utterly boring, but that's another matter))?
#6
Posted 30 November 2004 - 07:48 PM
Does Scotland have any of it's own TV channels (such here we have BBC2W and S4C which show a mix of the same programs as BBC2 and Channel 4 in England, as well as local Welsh language programs (utterly boring, but that's another matter))?
In the main yes though it does share Border TV with Cumbria and ickle bit of Northumberland + the Isle of Man. Scottish TV (as in the company) is the only ITV channel that has done its own thing and doesn't have the corporate ITV identity that the others do. Border TV is owned by Granada (up until recently its news programme was a bit chessy but has improved - regional Police documentaries (crimefighters) up here can be boring ).
Never seen Grampian (they don't seem to make any networked programmes).
