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Monday 2 March 2015

Flying the flag for British nationalism

James Forsyth does the best he can to justify what is obviously no more than a British nationalist propaganda gimmick. But he can't make a convincing case. (Who paid for that?)

Those who think about such things more deeply rather than simply accepting the gloss put on them by spin-quacks will at least wonder why it has suddenly become essential to know how every single infrastructure project is funded. It will occur to many that they never needed to know this before, and that the UK Government was at no pains at all to inform them.

Some might even wonder whether it is entirely coincidental that this wizard wheeze has been cobbled together at the very time when the British establishment senses that the settled order of the UK is under threat from political forces which cannot be relied upon to offer unthinking respect for the structures of power and privilege which define the British state.

Advocates of the restoration of Scotland's rightful constitutional status have responded with characteristic wry humour, plastering social media with messages highlighting some of the things that Desperate Danny Alexander might be somewhat less keen to remind voters were/are "Funded by UK Government". Things like the crimes of the colonial era; the Iraq war; weapons of mass destruction; criminally avaricious banksters; the arms industry; and the insult to democracy that is the House of Lords.

We are not fooled. We know another exercise in banal, jingoistic British nationalist flag-waving when we see it.

The next thing James Forsyth will be trying to tell us is that the twenty-fold proliferation of BBC programmes with the words "Britain" or "British" in the title since the SNP were elected to government in Scotland is pure coincidence. (Massive increase in ‘British’ themed TV shows on BBC since SNP came to power)

As we say around these parts, "Aye, right!"

See also: Of flags and feelings

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