I thought you might enjoy some light relief related to the recent difficulties in the Alba Party. The Scotsman's article about Denise Findlay's departure offers the following purported quote from Alex Salmond's email to party members -
"Although Yvonne deleted her tweets and apologised for her mistake, the online row continued."
The thing is, though, I received that email when it was sent, and I was sure Mr Salmond had used the word "stramash". I doublechecked, and sure enough the Scotsman's quote was accurate apart from the fact that they had replaced "online stramash" with "online row". This presumably means the Scotsman had made an editorial decision that its readers would not understand "stramash" as a non-English word and thus felt justified to translate it into English.
Surely even the poshest Scots in Morningside or wherever have encountered the word "stramash"? Just who is the Scotsman's target audience these days? You can imagine the conversation: "we'll look ridiculous if we add an explanatory note about what the word means, so best just to pretend he never said it..."
The cultural cringe continues.....
ReplyDelete"Stands Scotland where it did?"
ReplyDelete'Alas, poor country,
Almost afraid to know itself".
(Macbeth)
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air
DeleteAre made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy.
He had his finger on social media, right enough…
There was once a time, but old Time was then young,
DeleteThat brave Caledonia, the chief of her line,
From some of your northern deities sprung,
(Who knows not that brave Caledonia's divine ?)
The slow anglicisation of Scotland continues. Standard stuff for a colony.
ReplyDelete🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
DeleteBritnat troll anon at 11.29 is too scared to post "ifs what nonsense " in case he gets deleted.
DeleteI get trolled by Britnat numpties and SNP/WGD numpties. Pity they cannae get together and decide if I support independence or I am a Tory. The clue for these numpties is the moniker I use. What is applicable to both these groups of trolls is they cannae put together anything more than a short sentence.
Both of them are just as colonised. Can't even tell them apart.
DeleteIFS, I don’t need to post “what nonsense “. Everybody can see you spout nonsense, without me needing to point out the obvious.
DeleteIf everyone agreed with you, Brit-anon, would there be an independence movement and this blog you conspicuously frequent?
DeleteBritnat anon at 12.36pm - well why do you keep posting "nonsense" if you don't need to point out the obvious.? A clueless Britnat troll but full marks for managing two small sentences this time in your post.
DeleteWhy not try posting something from your very own Britnat brain - you know an original thought. How about why it is so good that Scotland's east coast is getting covered in wind turbines to help out England? Go on tell us why it is so good to be a Britnat.
Well IFS, never mind wind turbines, how about Scotland’s ferry scandal? That’s certainly nothing to do with England or Westminster is it? I noted the other day when I brought it up you deflected away from the subject then disappeared.
DeleteBritnat anon and resident House Jock I said tell us why it is so good to be Britnat - you say ferries - is that it - no idea what you are referrring to when you say you brought it up - tell me the article and post. Plenty of scandals in Scotland - ferries being one of them - so again tell us why it is so good to be a Britnat. Is it because you can go on Orange Order marches and abuse Catholics? Go on tell us - saves me from speculating. Otherwise people will think this Britnat numpty has never actually thought about why he is a Britnat.
DeleteJust as I suspected, you don’t want to talk about the ferry scandal. What an embarrassment to this country that has become. The contract to build 2 ferries awarded to a Scottish yard, by the SNP SG in an attempt to make political gain, which has backfired so spectacularly.
DeleteHello IFS are you there?
DeleteI understand how desperately difficult it must be for you, as a nationalist, to talk about the ferry scandal, however I didn’t expect you to run away and hide!
Terence Callachan Dundee , There is no ferry scandal in Scotland a scandal does not exist here , the english newspapers including the Herald and Scotsman continually print false information about ferries in Scotland to serve the english nationalists who live here including the scottish born english nationalist helpers.
DeleteThe latest lie is about the ferry from Campelltown which only runs in the summer the Herald as dumb as they are referred to it as an island ferry service but it doesnt go to any of the islands it just goes up and down the mainland coast.
Those english nationalists clearly got an F for geography they think Campbelltown is on an island.
It’s a scandal ok, all of the making of the SNP SG. Over 6 years now since Sturgeon launched the Glen Sannox to great fanfare, and it’s still not in service! An absolute disgrace and embarrassment to this country. All because the SNP tried to make political gain from awarding the contract for the 2 ferries to a Scottish yard.
DeleteOh and by the way, I’ve recently retired after nearly 20 years working on the west coast ferries, so I know what I’m talking about.
Britnat anon at 6.40pm and resident House Jock - I ain't going anywhere. I asked you to tell us why it is so good being a Britnat. You deflect on to ferries and find I don't disagree with you on that matter. I agree with anon at 10.37pm and have said plenty on it in the past. Nothing to discuss numpty. You have had plenty time to think but the point remains you can't even say why you are a Britnat. So the conclusion has to be that you have never ever thought " why am I a Britnat House Jock." Self awareness not one of your strengths.
DeleteAnonymous 1037am , NO , you are wrong and i worked on the ferries for forty years .https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/ferries/infrastructure-projects/qa-troon-harbour-project-november-2023/
DeleteAnonymous 1037 , NO you are wrong , https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/02/18/youre-really-gonna-need-a-new-ferry-correspondent/
DeleteAnon at 8:56 am. I’m afraid anon at 10:37 is 100% correct. Even “Independence for Scotland” appears to agree with him ! 😀
DeleteAnon at 9.12am - hey it's a no brainer the facts speak for themselves. It's a shocker of a story but if that is all the Britnats have got then they don't have much of a case against Scottish independence. The truth is we are a colony and the colonials in Westminster have been running down our industry for a long time now. So what do people expect. We ain't an INDEPENDENT country like South Korea where their government assist the ship building industry. Next on the list for running down - Grangemouth no more.
DeleteNote to Britnat House Jock troll - it seems you are the one who has run away. Nothing to say as to why it is so great being a House Jock.
That's appalling. If they've misquoted does that leave them open to complaint?
ReplyDeleteFrom having dealt with IPSO, I know they take a rather elastic approach to the accuracy of quotes. They will still deem a quote using incorrect words as "accurate" as long as the gist is supposedly more or less right. (The problem is, of course, that the person being misquoted will often have a very different view from IPSO about what the gist was.)
DeleteReading up on it myself at the Herald, this is their version of Alex Salmond's text:
Delete"Yvonne acting with the best of intentions did not reflect Party policy in tweets last Friday on transgender issues and provoked an internet row. Although Yvonne deleted her tweets and apologised for her mistake, the online stramash continued."
Is this one accurate? If so, he's helpfully defined stramash for his Scots-challenged readers by using the phrase "internet row" just a line earlier.
As an Edinburgh native, I can confirm that all too many people here would be stumped at "stramash" and some even on "stooshie". Scots might as well be Gaelic for all they know.
Both the other Scotsman readers and I live in the Borders during the lovely summer months.
ReplyDeletePlease stay there
DeleteI don't think that 'stramash' is commonly used in Aberdeen, and I don't think many men in Falkirk would care to be described as 'a loon'. I think the author might be trying to depict the Scots languages as one universal thing when they are not. It seems to be a basic error also punted by the government. As such, translating stramash in a Scotland-wide newspaper may be justified.
ReplyDeleteAh, I think the commenter here may be trying to depict Scots as a non-language on the basis that there are differences between its dialects, which is obviously a ludicrous proposition. He or she may also be trying to imply that the way of overcoming differences in dialect is to translate into another language, ie. English, which is even more ludicrous. Pretty much every Scot knows the word stramash and know what it means, regardless of whether they would use it themselves.
DeleteTerence Callachan Dundee ,Stramash needs no translation its a common enough word its just that the circumstances in which you would use the word are limited a bit like forfar, " bridie " , its not like for example , arbeitswert which was delineated on my recent bill from John Clark BMW as AW,s now that does need a translation , there are many many words used across Scotland and the rest of the UK that are not used very often but are not translated in newspapers or elsewhere , example indefatigable , i remember seeing it all over the newspapers when George Galloway used it and nowhere was it translated but for the next year or two many many people started to use the word.If we were to translate every word that was not used a lot we would have newspapers as thick as encyclopedias
DeleteAs a wise man once said, Edinburgh isnae Scotland. Edinburgh's England
ReplyDeleteEver more literally so, judging by the accents now.
DeleteAnd London is nae that English.
DeleteTerence Callachan Dundee , NO , Edinburgh is most certainly Scotland , parts have been invaded by the English but its Scotland , they will never change that , we are not for changing.
DeleteBest to actually read what a newspaper is quoting before piling in with a rammy about quotations. The newspaper seems to be entirely accurate in this case.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a rammy
DeleteWhat are you prattling about? The quote in the blogpost is exactly what the newspaper published. It does not tally up with what Alex Salmond sent to party members, and I know that for a fact because I'm a party member and therefore received the email. The newspaper therefore published an inaccurate quote. That's not an opinion, that's not an interpretation, it's a proven fact.
DeleteI await your apology.
Keaton - stairheid rammy.
DeleteThe Scotsman is owned by National World which is based in Leeds, Yorkshire. Perhaps the big boss based there asked for stramash to be changed as he didn't know what it meant. Or maybe AI was involved in writing the article.
ReplyDeleteAI reckons it can spock guid Scots real braw, ye shuid try it yersel sometime. Hoots!
DeleteEven going back to the 80s, the Scotsman never was a Scottish newspaper, it always pandered to London.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I wonder what they would put in their quote if someone used the word antidisestablishmentarianism? Would they rely on people looking it up or translate it?
"Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, and your antidisestablishmentarianism."
DeleteAbsolutely. It's an everyday saying.
DeleteI still want to know what Saddam's translator told him during that famous scene. Intentionally or not, it's comedy gold. 1, 2 and the punchline on 3.
Delete"I still want to know what Saddam's translator told him during that famous scene. Intentionally or not, it's comedy gold. 1, 2 and the punchline on 3."
DeleteI fed that into google translate and it said: "Eh?"
I mean the famous scene where Saddam Hussein met George Galloway. A quick search finds it here: starting 40 seconds in.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzWNXEtwHUc
The Iraqi translator is handling it fine until Gorgeous George throws in the longest word of his (high class, highly educated, most erudite, definitely not common) life, which Saddam hears rattling all the way down his tongue. What was that then? The Great Iraqi Leader wants to know.
I've always wondered what that poor translator had to improvise, live on state television, in that sticky moment!
"Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, and your manly scent."
DeleteWell seen that she had never heard an Arthur Montford football commentary.
ReplyDeleteTerence Callachan Dundee The only thing wrong with Arthur was he couldnt understand the fans
DeleteLabour's Margaret *Magret* Curran's nickname is stairheid and she'd cause a richt stramash oot o ony rammy onywhere onytime
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me of the comic giant known as Margaret Curran. Does anyone else remember her trying to insert 'Realpolitik' into an interview at least three times during the first independence referendum campaign? Curran's Comedy Cavalcade.
DeleteHer surname is "carrot" in Gaelic. I find her naturally funnier than Jasper.
DeleteTerence Callachan Dundee , now that we have established that the Scotsman and Herald are english newspapers may i draw attention to a certain Roy Hudd whom i thought came as close to translating our Scottish tongue as is possible by yon english folk , either we speak too fast for them or theyre a bit slow 😉
ReplyDeleteSunak tells us we must adhere to British values or you may be deemed to be an extremist. Hey but what exactly are these British values. I can't say I've seen them written down anywhere. What to do? I know, our resident Britnat House Jock must know what these British values are - we wouldn't want to get in little Sunak's bad books would we by not following them. So go on Britnat troll - what are these British values. Or are they like the British Church or the British legal system or the British constitution - non existent.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure that little Sunak will soon be saying goodbye to these British values and heading to the USA where they have American values but more importantly low rates of tax as his wife will be losing her non dom status in the U.K.
Terence Callachan Dundee , here is the truth sbout the Sannox Ferry that the britnats complain about , gee they just dont read do they ? remember the stramash they caused about the building of the new Forth road bridge and look at its magnificence , these britnats need to wake up
ReplyDeletehttps://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/02/18/youre-really-gonna-need-a-new-ferry-correspondent/
Terence an anon poster beat you to it at 8.57am. Unless it was you posting twice.
DeleteIf SNP politicians took a dump in the middle of the old pub-crawling street in Edinburgh with an oyster bar at one end, the author of that piece would say it's wonderful, go sniff it - and it's good for the Roses.
DeleteRobertson said yesterday that the cancellation of the Campbeltown ferry for the whole summer didn't matter because Campbeltown is on a "peninsula called the Mull of Kintyre" (that'll be news to people who live on the Kintyre peninsula and who know the Mull of Kintyre is only the southernmost tip) and they can therefore take a three hour drive instead. In the words of Neil Patrick Harris, "WELL THAT'S ALL RIGHT THEN!"
DeleteAngus Robertson is central belt arrogant and wouldn't know the difference between Altnaharra and his Tongue. I'm surprised the SNP have any votes left outside the central belt. Not everyone in the central belt is like that of course :-)
DeletePlus the rest and be thankful being precarious means an extra detour round Loch Lomond - if that road isn't shut for hours by a crash. Or indeed the road north of Inverary being shut. I was caught last year for a 3 hour wait.
The ferries are a shambles.
For clarity, I was referring to John Robertson, not Angus.
DeleteOops! Makes more sense. The guy has no cop-on.
DeleteApologies to Angus Robertson.
" Apologises to Angus Robertson" - aye you really don't have a clue do you.
Delete"aye you really don't have a clue do you"
DeleteUnlike you I believe in facts, truth and integrity.
Yesindyref2 - truth and integrity in Sturgeon's gang - you really don't have a clue.
DeleteBasically the superb facility in Troon for the Sannox Ferry is brilliant , the saddo anonymous at 1037 who claims to have worked on ferries for twenty years must be in a daze now if he doesnt know about the troon facility and Sannox ferry.
ReplyDeleteDon’t worry I know all about Troon, worked out of there for many years fishing then on ferries.
DeleteWasn’t the Glen Sannox meant to be in service in 2018 ?
Any updates on her btw?
The ferry crossing is 20 mins longer than Ardrossan, so less ferries each day or longer hours and more crews, or more ferries. There's no LNG facility, so it's refuel from a tanker!
DeleteIt's a half mile to the train station through Troon town, rather than walk off the ferry onto the train which is often waiting.
20 mins or 40 mins if you double it might not sound like much, but if you're off to a hospital appointment at QE or GRI it makes it even less likely you'd be able to get there and back in a day, so it's an expensive overnight stay. That's even with a car, if islanders can get to book at all in summer.
It's also a temporary terminal building, and a shuttle bus service. Woohoo. A superb facility indeed.
And of course this from actual Arran residents:
https://arranferries.scot/
I'm from Troon originally (live in North Ayrshire now). Lovely places.
Anon at 9:05, I’m afraid the “saddo” at 10:37 is correct.
DeletePlus, the facts that “yesindyref2” states makes a nonsense of your ridiculous comment regarding the “superb” facility at Troon.
Rob here,
ReplyDeleteThis from Byline Times startled me awake thiss morning...
Around half of all British people would choose to leave the UK and move themselves and their families to another country, if given the opportunity to do so, according to an exclusive new poll for Byline Times.
As recent polls suggest that most Brits are now unhappy with the direction the UK is headed in, pollsters Omnisis asked voters whether they would now prefer to live abroad.
45% of all respondents said they would take up the opportunity to leave, compared to just 35% who said they wouldn’t.
Any comment, analysis? Does this say anything about Scottish poling?
Several things come to mind.
DeleteWhen was the question asked in the survey? Was it after a bunch of questions asking about faith in the Tory government, whether "you feel the country is heading in the right direction", and sense of pessimism about the future in general? That kind of framing will steer respondents quite a bit.
Also, has this question been asked in other countries? Maybe there's a lot of people out there who'd love a second chance with their lives, and nothing says "starting over" like abandoning everyone you know to move to another country. It may be more of a popular fantasy—if only you could afford it!—than a statement about the country they are in.
Don't get me wrong: I think the UK is a dumpster fire, with no turnaround on the horizon. But the question smells off to me. Noise, not signal.
Context: I've family in California, and have met many Americans there who are migrants inside their own (grossly oversized) country. It's a cliche, but people really do move to California to "start over" once they've convinced themselves they're buried in a rut. Moving thousands of miles to LA and the like is definitely a major reset. I’m sure for every one who makes the break, many more remain at home wishing they could.
DeleteRob here, yes, framing is everything - so much easier to remember once the question's been asked! For most in the UK it'd be a daydream/hypothecial sort of thing, easy to throw out a fantasy response. I suppose in Scotland it'd be much more a consideration of possible realities. I was kinda hoping an expert's quick inspection of whatever's available online would test its wider value. But James isn't short of distractions.
DeleteEven here (rural Aberdeenshire) the people I see most of are all, multiple "movers-on," folk who've moved "up to Scotland," or "up to Shetalnd" before trying "here." A good proportion of those talk about moving on - but never "back." The modern nomad's evolving before our eyes.
Repeat make-overs live to move.
DeleteNomads move to live.
I guess the far corners of Scotland are the English equivalent of "moving to Montana" for Americans. It's that superb, untouched, and surely unpopulated wilderness always waiting for you; only to prove a disappointment when you discover the pitifully few roads out there are clogged by holidaymakers and other long-distance punters just like you who are buying up all the housing.