England's Education Secretary Michael Gove at the Scottish Tory conference a couple of days ago -
"There's no question that Scotland could survive if it were independent. Don't let anyone talk Scotland or the Scottish people down. We never have, we never will."
It seems therefore that the Tories have NEVER talked Scotland down. Hmmm. So given that some of us have this strangely vivid recollection of David Cameron sneeringly making the following comment to the House of Commons on October 27th, 2010...
"if you had an independent Scotland, you wouldn't be flying planes, you'd be flying...by the seat of your pants!!!!!!!!"
...that must have been a figment of our collective imagination, right? And the sight of the Tory benches erupting into gales of laughter afterwards must be another false memory. I must say the whole incident still seems weirdly lifelike to me when I think back to it, but there you go. I didn't go to Oxford, so I'm easily confused.
As a matter of interest, Michael, if David Cameron had said something like that in a hypothetical parallel universe, what should we have done about it? You've made abundantly clear we're not to stand for that kind of nonsense, after all.
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UPDATE : Here's a disgraceful "video" that appears to show David Cameron making the "seat of your pants" comment (at about 0:48). Another of Peter Curran's cunning forgeries, no doubt.
Fancy that: Michael Gove getting caught out telling lies.
ReplyDeleteWell, I never,
The failure to acknowledge that there actually are people who can think in Scotland goes higher than Mr Gove. Mr Cameron for example wont debate with Alex Salmond because he says he wants the referendum to be a Scottish thing for Scottish people, he then goes and gives a patronising eulogy in favour of the UK at the Scottish Tory conference. What he and his advisors don’t seem to think we can do is take the two things and connect them together. Mr Gove it seems has the same perception of our short-term memory and ability to think.
ReplyDeleteNow I wonder if this is just a thing that politicians do. But no, it’s not. Because Alex Salmond and his advisors rarely do it. In fact Alex seems to have made a study of it and how not to do it yourself while pointing out every instance of your opponents doing it. FMQs is often a study in such tactics. How refreshing indeed if Johann Lamont and her advisors went away a found a question they could ask where they checked before she read it out, if the Labour party had done that before, or used that advisor or commissioned a report etc etc etc! That would have Alex on the ropes.