Friday, August 01, 2008

We'd have gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for his pesky Lordship...

I am roused from the box-strewn midden I am proud to call my new living room and my dial-up internet purgatory, by this piece of idiocy:

SNP 'brainwashes' Scotland by painting trains in blue and white Saltire livery

"The Scottish National Party was accused of attempting to "brainwash people into independence" after it emerged that Scotland's trains are to be re-branded in a blue and white Saltire livery.

"Labour said the move was a "huge waste of money" and accused the Scottish Executive of adopting the design for nationalistic reasons.

"Stations will also be repainted in a dark blue colour scheme similar to that already used at Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley.

"Lord Foulkes, the Labour MSP, said it was "independence by creep" and followed on from the SNP re-branding of the Scottish Executive as the Scottish Government".


Drat, rumbled again! All those hours spent plotting away in secret at Nat Towers on McDonald Road, agonising over our strategy on how to get the last few percentage points we need to win an independence referendum. Eventually, we alighted on a scheme whereby die-hard unionists getting on a train at Glasgow Queen Street at 7.45am on a Monday would become Nationalists through colour-scheme osmosis by the time they'd stepped off at Haymarket 50 minutes later. It was as villainous and cunning as it was masterful. And it's all been ruined! We'd have gotten away with it as well, if it hadn't been for his pesky Lordship...

Mind you, it still doesn't explain how I managed to spend my childhood hopping on and off Edinburgh's maroon and white buses without ever being converted from an Aberdeen supporter into a Hearts supporter. But then, perhaps I can thank the Tories for their bus deregulation, which meant that the effects of this sinister Jambo/LRT subterfuge were neutralised any time I stepped on a green and white citysprinter.

Now I think about it, maybe my nationalism was affected by travelling on all those Citylink coaches as a student, with their sinister and insidious use of the prefix 'Scottish' and their stylised saltire logos? Maybe all those British Airways flights I've taken to and from London over the past year have turned me a little Unionist? And what about the effect of all those orange-liveried Easyjets? Goodness, where will it all end? With me taking walking holidays in Belfast in July?

Alternatively, and much more likely, his Lordship could just be talking nonsense and be in need of a lie down. Perhaps some kind soul could offer him a soothing expenses claim form to help cool his fevered brow?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Paranoid nonsense to bleat about such a creative innovation, but it does highlight the fear of losing their precious union!

Anonymous said...

These MP's Lords and all should have the same expenses that civil servants are allowed if away from their permanent work station. daily subsistence rate £9.50 thats under 10 hours if no meals provided 24 hour rate approx £14.50 and if you have to stay in London Max you can spend on a hotel room is £100. We are allowed first class rail travel if you are a SEO or above thats probably earning +£40k pa

Lesley a brum civil servant

Unknown said...

Quite right!

...and I loved this interchange, hilarious!!
LORD GEORGE FOULKES (Labour): "The SNP are on a very dangerous tack at the moment. What they are doing is trying to build up a situation in Scotland where the services are manifestly better than south of the Border in a number of areas."

COLIN MACKAY : "Is that a bad thing?"

LORD GEORGE FOULKES : "No. But they are doing it deliberately"

(the SNP has the temerity to improve Scotland?)- Alan in Dyfed

Richard Havers said...

Richard, you're so right....the guy is a loony, recurring, tune!

Anonymous said...

By Foulkes' reckoning, I should be a Dundee Utd supporter as I was brought up with Strathclyde Buses' orange livery.

However, I am a Partick Thistle supporter. Does this mean I saw too many red 'n' yella Clydeside Scottish buses in my youth?

Anonymous said...

I find it all rather amusing.

Unknown said...

Richard, please add a link to my blog Independence Cymru and I'll add yours. Thx

Richard Thomson said...

Alan - now done.

RGT