FROM A JACK TO A JACKASS

I can’t help but think we’re going a bit overboard on the old union flag…

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Nick Eardley@nickeardleybbc

UK govt says has issued new guidance saying the Union flag should be flown on Government buildings every day.

I imagine that this decree is for England, although presumably the hideous concrete monstrosity that they have sicked up in the middle of our capital will be included… as well as all the new offices they are building in Glasgow and their nuclear bases close by.

We should probably, therefore, learn more about it if it’s going to be forced in our face at every turn. So here’s a wee video about it:

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Maybe it should become compulsory to have a flag on your car?

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Or maybe we’ll be forced to shave out heads and wear an England no surrender tattoo where our brains used to be...

It’s also possible that we may be forced to wear a uniform when we go to the pub so that foreigners will immediately recognise our superiority. Smart, huh?

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And possibly, by Johnstonian degree babies may be born with a Jack on their foreheads to proclaim to the world that they are pf a superior race with a regime that will last a thousand years.

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Personally, I think that (if you’ll pardon the rudeness) this is what they can do with their flag, at least in Scotland.

52 thoughts on “FROM A JACK TO A JACKASS”

  1. Indeed, Tris, on the understanding that any cracks up which a jack is to be stuffed will belong to a Unionist / British Nationalist, as the rest of us would not appreciate the gesture.

    All the claptrap about bladidadidah British identity / national pride and suchlike is a sign of just how low the level of understanding of such things is in BritNat circles: they appear to believe that not only are other people’s internal senses of who they are, are somehow their business, and also that other peoples’ sense of who they are can be influenced by idiocies such as flags on buildings, driving licences, and branding on public works.

    A plethora of flags in public spaces is one of the signs of the kind of faux, jingoistic patriotism that is the last refuge of a scoundrel. I’ll defend our saltires at AUOB marches by saying that we’re the ones who have to assert our national identities in the face of all the pressure to the contrary: whereas groups of yobs wrapping themselves in the St George’s or Union flag in England are using them as symbolic of their right-wing, fascist / fascistic ideologies, with the Union flag alone fulfilling the same purpose here in Scotland, our saltires symbolize our aspiration for an independent Scotland that’s wedded to the idea of civic nationalism, a concept which has been common currency here since the Enlightenment.

    SoP – there are some Scottish nationalists on the ethnonationalist side, of course. I persist in optimistically declaring that they are a small minority with a talent for shouting very loud.

    If the members of the Westminster regime believe that they can change how people think of themselves inside their own heads, they are much mistaken. What they can do, however, with all their ghastly flags and ostentatious faux patriotism, is create a public atmosphere in which people are afraid to criticize – it’s a means of converting dissent into a perceived lack of patriotism, which can be built on to persuade a gullible public that dissent is tantamount to treason.

    I expect that, in Scotland, excessive displays of Union flags and other BritNat street furniture and merchandise will be subject to a rash of incidents in which they are torn down, defaced, covered up, graffitied, and generally terminated with extreme prejudice. Munguinites of a certain vintage will recall how the Post Office was forced to remove their E II R red pillar boxes from Scotland – and at that time, of course, there weren’t many of us independence supporters around at all. Now there will be loads of us picking and hacking away at them.

    Enough ranting. I’m not at my best: my mind is wandering.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Oh, I dunno, Ed. You sounded quite coherent to me.

      I agree. I carried a Scottish flag on marches, although latterly I carried an Antarctica flag instead, as Munguin instructed me to.

      I’m not, however, one to bathe myself in the blue and white of Scotland. Who needs that?

      I’m mindful too of what our flag and the other one stand for.

      I do admit to having a European flag sticker on my car.

      I just wonder what kind of mindset you have to have to think that plastering everything with a union flag will somehow change people’s minds about Europe or about Scottish or Welsh independence.

      Oh, I was a real European person, who enjoyed having a holiday house in Cyprus and travelling all over the continent freely. I enjoyed being at university in Finland and then in Ireland, then work in Estonia and I miss being part of that most awfully… but there’s a union flag on my Spanish carrots, so everything is fine with the world.

      Honestly. What do they teach them at Eton?

      Liked by 2 people

      1. In answer to your question, Tris, I think the only thing they teach them at Eton is who the other members of the privileged caste are so that they can all enjoy the benefits of the Old Boys network. They certainly don’t teach them history. As to the Union Flag, the only thing I’d use imprinted with it is bog roll.

        Liked by 4 people

    2. I’ve just seen this:

      @jimbo_wallace and 3 others liked
      Jack Foster
      @jackfostr
      Β·
      4h
      The Union flag will now fly every day on all UK Govt buildings in Scotland, as new guidance published. It will apply in England and Wales too, but not Northern Ireland.
      @LBC

      @LBCNews

      Like

      1. I assume that all government buildings, of course, have a flagstaff and persons in attendance who know the procedures for flying flags including the fact that they should be taken down at sunset. That might mean some very late attendance at government buildings particularly on the long summer nights up here in the blasted wilds of Caledon.

        Like

        1. Alister the Jack will be rushing round all the building hauling down the flag and round again in the morning putting them up.

          Still, it’ll keep him out of mischief.

          Liked by 2 people

  2. UK Govt. buildings, so not applicable to Holyrood and associated buildings to my mind. It’ll be on the one at New St. though; possibly in multiples…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. No the Scottish government limits the number of occasions that the union thingy is flown on our own government buildings.

      I suppose it’s up to them. I have no objections to the French Consul flying a French flag so fair enough if the Brits want to fly flags on their buildings

      Like

      1. The French consulate will, in due course, be upgraded to an embassy of course.

        The Westminster regime will have to scale back their presence & it’ll be interesting to see what the Kingdom of England calls itself after dissolution. I’d suggest that they’ll go for a United Kingdom of something contrived & factually incorrect. They’ll probably continue to use the Union flag too, they’ll be too skint to afford the replacements & it could seriously unbalance what remains of their economy; Union flags and associated tat being their only remaining output.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Why are Northern Ireland being excluded from the benefits of this wonderful new flag flying initiative? It seems unfair and, well, discriminatory.
    Now while I understand the general principle of flying flag on Government owned buildings I have just a couple of queries about the detail. I appreciate that Boris famously isn’t a “detail person” but for the purposes of avoiding confusion later what exactly does he mean by “government”. 3 of the 4 nations in the UK have more than one government. Please forgive the whatabootery but … What does he mean by a government building…does it need to be owned by them? What about leased or rented buildings? What if the terms of the rental or lease agreement forbid the erection of flag poles or the flying of flags. What about flags and flagpoles in conservation areas or where they otherwise fall foul of local planning regulations? What about those buildings that prefer to remain anonymous and are inhabited by MOD personnel, spooks and undercover police? Does it apply to government agencies? Does it apply to buildings leased or rented out by the government?
    Patience though, I’m not finished yet…what IS a building? Are we to include motorway flyovers, bridges, historic monuments…?

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Interesting questions.

      Is DWP going to ahve to fly a flag?

      If said DWP shares an office, as it does in Dundee, with many other organisations (Wellgate Centre), will these other organisations be forced to accept this flag or can any one of them raise an objection?

      Who will pay for the erecting of flagpoles on said buildings?

      Like

  4. tris, I have a relative who allegedly votes Yes and S.N.P, but hates Nicola and the E.U, and this is, the car, right up his alley.
    I have sent him the link because he has always insisted we can resurrect our automobile industry., and don’t need to depend on foreign imports. B.T.W, he drives a car built in South Korea.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. On the car breaking down theme, I do remember a couple of cars way back, Morris Minor and Viva, when the clutch cable (remember them) broke. I had to drive home both times with no clutch. Luckily only one set of traffic lights on the route and you could buy a new cable at the garage, crawl under the car and fix it yourself or, in my case, husband’s job.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. You have to be a pretty good driver to be able to drive without a clutch. I seem to remember some elderly relative of ours should us how to get the revs just right adn change gear.

        Munguin would simply summon a mechanic, of course.

        Like

    1. Thanks for that, tris. It was me.

      I was looking for information about a huge bronze statue of a Red Army soldier that used to stand on Gellert Hill. I saw it there in 1988.

      But it was different from the one mentioned on that web-site. A much more dramatic pose, wearing a steel helmet, and, I think, waving a banner in one hand and brandishing a sub-machine gun in the other.

      It probably got broken up and melted down, but I have never been able to find any record of it.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. To confuse things, I have no memory of the Liberation Statue which seems to me to stand in EXACTLY the same place, and was put up in 1947, according to wiki.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. The style guru in the union jack jumpsuit and his chums seem to like their Great British beers – Murphy’s, Kronenbourg 1664, etc. Best in the world… Probably.

    Liked by 3 people

            1. The Oktoberfest is on my bucket list I must admit…but then again to slurp Westvleteren or Chimay in a pub in Bruge on my 100th birthday is also well in there.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. The Oktoberfest in Munich is certainly a bit of fun but the local festivals all over Bavaria are even better. If I remember rightly… I’d swear I was there… oh, my head!

                Liked by 1 person

          1. Budvar 7.5%ABV used to be available in my local Scotmid and became a favourite, then it disappeared without explanation *sigh*

            Liked by 1 person

              1. I never considered that; but on reflection I don’t think so, as Leffe, brewed in Belgium is still on the shelf.
                In fact, I think I’ll open one now. Proost.

                Liked by 1 person

    1. LOL Iain. I imagine that they think they are all made in dear old blighted, I mean Blighty.

      I have to say that to my taste British beers are WAY down the list… German, Belgian and French beers are far nicer.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. In England, Johnson’s confusion reigns:

    Vaccine passports for pubs ‘would create two-tier society’

    Landlords and MPs have trashed the idea of requiring vaccine passports to go to the pub, branding them unworkable and unfair. Boris Johnson sparked the row on Wednesday when he said it β€œmay be up to individual publicans” to decide whether to bar punters who have not had a jab.

    ‘Fairly poorly thought-out idea’

    β€ŒThe boss of the Shepherd Neame pub chain said making jabs mandatory for entry to pubs is a β€œfairly poorly thought-out idea”, as trade bodies suggested the idea was β€œsimply unworkable”. Tory MP Steve Baker said the scheme would create a “two-tier Britain”, preventing people who cannot or have not had a vaccine from participating in society.

    PM rows back

    β€ŒThe PM was forced to backpedal after the idea was criticised, saying coronavirus health certificates would not be feasible until everyone had been offered a vaccine. Johnson insisted β€œno decisions have been taken at all” and that there will be an update in early April, adding that the 12 April reopening of pub gardens will be unaffected. The prime minister said: β€œI do think there is going to be a role for certification”, though it is possible this will be limited to foreign travel.

    Liked by 1 person

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