First Minister of ‘Skintland’ accused of manufacturing outrage over Economist cover, Salmond too poor to answer questions, ten bob for a cuppa mister!

Dear All

First Minister Alex Salmond has reacted angrily to an influential magazine; The Economist that has likened Scotland to an impoverished nation.

They stuck on their cover a picture of Scotland and dubbing it 'Skintland'.

Alex Salmond said The Economist would "rue the day" it published the front cover with a map distorting the names of every area in the country.

I don’t think they will, although Alex Salmond is a big fish in ‘Skintland’, he is nothing in the London melting pot without his First Minster title.

In The Ecomonist’s article, names of places were changed to have a comic effect when read, Glasgow becomes Glasgone, Edinborrow, the Highinterestlands, Obankrupt, Aberdown and Falterkirk.

Kilmarnock, recently hit by job losses following the closure of the Johnnie Walker plant, was dubbed Nilmarnock.

The use of comedy is something which I proposed should be used more wider by the Scottish National Party along with my social media ideas.

Shetlands also becomes the Shutland Islands and the lowlands at the Loanlands.

Comedy scores used well, but is Scotland Skintland?

Yes, it is for many Scots, unemployment is rising, businesses are closing down and it is getting harder to survive in SNP 'skintland'.

Scotland’s seen a third of its courts to be shutdown, a third of colleges are to close or be ‘mergered’, courses axed, council budgets are getting more cuts, 350,000 people can’t get the decent treatment they want and need on Scotland’s NHS.

And the list goes on and on!

The article inside The Economist claims independence could leave Scotland "one of Europe's vulnerable, marginal economies".

This is because of oil isn't the panacea that Nationalists paint it as, the financial sector leaves Scotland exposed, local government reform is a problem and the general trend is downwards.

In Scotland, pretty much all political parties will be condemning this, because there is an election on.

But it is a storm in a teacup, without the storm, this is Skintland don’t forget, we can’t afford storms.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens say the cover is ill-judged, but the fiercest criticism came naturally from the SNP who wrap themselves in the Saltire at every opportunity.

Alex Salmond said it displayed a "Bullingdon Club humour".

New SNP member then Alex!

Alex Salmond said:

"It just insults every single community in Scotland”.

No, it doesn’t, it just insults the Scottish National Party and their increasingly out of touch middle class vision for separatism.

He added:

"This is how they really regard Scotland. This is Unionism boiled down to its essence and stuck on a front page for every community in Scotland to see their sneering condescensions. They shall rue the day they thought they'd have a joke at Scotland's expense."

How does he know that the person who wrote the article is a unionist or even cares about the union?

Deputy SNP leader and Glasgow MSP Nicola Sturgeon plodding along added even Scots who did not support independence would find the cover offensive.

I don’t, the article uses humour to demonstrate issues, it was used to provoke emotion and then debate, in that regard it served its purpose.

She said:

"This offensive and puerile front page is insulting to literally every single community in Scotland, not least to Glasgow, which it sneeringly terms Glasgone. It is patronising, metropolitan claptrap which lays bare the true nature of Unionism utterly negative."

Aye, aye, aye Nicola, keep flapping.

Nicola added:

"The Economist's article doesn't even reflect its ridiculous front page. As it says, Scotland is not subsidised from Westminster, the Scottish economy performs better than any other nation or region in the UK outside south-east England, and we account for 10% of the UK's GDP with just 8.4% of the population. How dare our community and nation be decried in such an insulting manner. It tells us nothing about economics and everything about the insular, metropolitan bias of the anti-independence campaign."

I hope she doesn’t do a Ken Livingstone and start crying.

Scottish Labour said the cover was "ill-judged".

Spokeswoman Patricia Ferguson said:

"Most people will recognise this front page does not represent the facts, is way over-the-top and will not endear itself to readers in Scotland. I have no doubt Scotland could stand on its own two feet if the Scottish people decided to go it alone, but the SNP owe it to Scots to be straight with us on the costs of separation."

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"The cartoon was a bit silly, but it didn't represent what was in the article. It was well-balanced and posed a number of difficult questions the SNP have failed to answer."

Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said the cover was "ill-judged and patronising", but added:

"People should calm down."

Tory spokesman David McLetchie accused the SNP of "manufacturing outrage."

He added:

"The SNP would be better advised to answer the important points made in the article about Scotland's future."

The article says:

"If Scots really want independence for political and cultural reasons, they should go for it. But if they vote for independence they should do so in the knowledge that their country could end up as one of Europe's vulnerable, marginal economies. In the 18th century, Edinburgh's fine architecture and its Enlightenment role earned it the nickname Athens of the North. It would be a shame if that name became apt again for less positive reasons."

So, Scottish politicians are all banding together to be ‘outraged’, the standing up for middle class Scotland SNP is particularly upset.

The ‘outrage’ game isn’t going to be a factor in the council elections so the SNP best ‘jog on’.

It seems that the SNP doesn’t have any problem standing up for Scotland, what a great pity that they cannot stand up so quickly for ordinary people working class people!

Alex Salmond has stood up for his 'middle class' Scotland, but can’t afford to stand up for the rest of it.

On his salary, I wouldn’t have thought that would have been a problem.

Maybe he is ‘skint’?

Alex Salmond, you are standing up for Scotland, is that right?

Given my SNP experience I find that rather hard to believe, but then I never thought he would stand up for the poor and disenfranchised in the first place.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University