Too much hatey Katie matey

Bishop Hill points us to this simply astonishing article by Katie Grant in the Scotsman:

Where the English are unattractively soft, the Scots are endearingly tender. Where the English are yobbish and aggressive, the Scots are manly and tough. Where the English are insufferably arrogant, the Scots are grittily stubborn.

Of course we could point out to Katie how untrue and irresponsible her generalisations are but she's a clever girl and has already prepared her escape route for her obvious desire to belittle a whole bunch of people she has never met.

Preceding her comments above she wrote:

Abroad, Scots are respected for not being English, but are still part of a Great Britain with more friends across the globe than enemies. And people like us better.

And there is her way out. Accuse her of being an anti-English idiot and she will simply reply that her words are those of Scotland's friends across the globe.

Typical Mainstream Media pants.

These are my real world (first or second hand) experiences of Scottish tenderness.

An Englishman walks into a bar in Scotland and asks for a pint of his favourite beer. He is derided as an English poof for not using the correct language to order his beverage.

An Englishman has just watched his national team loose to a foreign European country on penalties. A handful of young Scottish men are dancing with glee that a British team has lost. The same handful that were extremely vocal during the match in support of a traditional British sporting "foe".

An Englishman over the wall on a freezing cold new years day is refused a taxi for not being Scottish.

An Englishman, against his better judgement, resorts to supporting the French rugby team. Enquiries reveal that it is simply because he is sick and tired of what he perceives as the traditional hatred of the Scots for the English.

It would be remiss of me to consider any of the above incidents as anything other than the result of individual prejudices and misunderstandings.

The facts of the matter, Katie, are that both England and Scotland have their share of thugs. Both have their fair share of manly and tough individuals. Both have aggressive teenagers. Both are blessed with tender individuals.

So, in recognition of Katie's contribution to the world of ridiculous generalisations and discriminations against the English I hereby announce the Sullivanistic "Katie Grant" award. Bloggers who feel inclined might like to award it to any other commentator who finds it as hard as Katie does to hide their anti-English sentiments.

Posted by John at February 8, 2005 08:33 AM | TrackBack