The 'Media Mole' feature at the New Statesman had a short piece last night poking fun at the Sun's decision to back the Tories in England and the SNP in Scotland in simultaneous front pages. It was later updated to include the Sun's justification - namely that the two editions of the paper have very different readerships, and you wouldn't expect the Scottish Sun to back the England national football team. The update concluded with this bizarre observation -
"This is a fair point. The Scottish Sun probably couldn't get away with saying that the English national team shouldn't be allowed to play football at all, though."
I get the impression that's intended to be a really obvious analogy that can be understood instantly, but I can't make head nor tail of it. Is the idea supposed to be that the SNP wants to ban England from existing as a nation? As far as I can see they're rather keen on England becoming a nation in a much more complete sense than has been the case over the last 308 years.
Any other thoughts?
It's the other way round. They mean that the (English) Sun has been saying that the SNP should be excluded from government; presumably they also mean that the Sun would decry even a minority Lab government with tacit SNP support as 'illegitimate', i.e. the votes of SNP MPs should not count.
ReplyDeleteI think that the meaning is quite clear. The English Sun supports the Conservatives and makes it clear, on the front page, that one of the reasons for doing so is to prevent the SNP having a voice in Westminster. This is akin to the English Sun saying that its readership ought to take action to ensure that the Scottish national team is prevented from playing football altogether.
ReplyDeleteOK, that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteThe BritNats simply don't understand Scotland, its politics and its people - they never have and they never will.
ReplyDeleteI think they mean to say that the English Sun is going over the score when it appears to argue that Scottish MPs are somehow illegitimate in Westminster.
ReplyDeleteThe Sun always backs the winners.
ReplyDeleteIt clearly thinks that the SNP are going to win in Scotland. It will do nothing for its sales to advocate labour or the Tories.
Presumably it hopes that the Tories will win in England/Wales, and that, if they do, any amount of winning the SNP does in Scotland will have zero effect on Tory governance of the UK.
The New Statesman could just be doing the good old UK = England thing. The SNP wants to abolish the UK so, obviously, that means they want to abolish England. Seemples.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they meant it other way round English team can't say Scotland not allowed to play football? Poor editing?
ReplyDeleteHi this election is indeed a once in a lifetime opportunity. And that opportunity is to get a PM who for the first time since the 1980s has NOT been endorsed by Rupert Murdoch and who will finally implement Leveson and clean up all manner of things. Unfortunately Murdoch and his beloved Sun now endorse the SNP. This should make any SNP voter highly suspicious. Does anyone really honestly argue or believe that Murdoch would do this if he thought it would hurt the Tories?? Makes no sense whatsoever. No, it is the ultimate proof, indeed it cements the view that the Tories are indeed rooting for the SNP to wipe out Labour. I cannot see any way round it. Murdoch is Murdoch, his endorsements are worked out nakedly and strategically. The only way to defeat him is to vote Labour.
ReplyDelete{PS have not been back on this site in a long while but I still like and respect it.)
1. Most people have considerations other than the business interests of Rupert Murdoch.
Delete2. The Sun is endorsing the SNP because it is popular, not the other way round. One of New Labour's mistakes was to confuse the idea that Murdoch's support made them popular with the truth that they were popular anyway and Murdoch was trying to co-opt him. Hopefully the SNP will not make the same mistake.
The meaning is clear. It's that England doesn't want Scotland to participate in politics, not to not exist.
ReplyDelete