Should Sarah Smith be taken off air

[Opendraw]

Aibu to think this kind of biased opinion has no place on the BBC

“It has been obvious that Nicola Sturgeon has enjoyed the opportunity to set her own lockdown rules and not have to follow what's happening in England and other parts of the UK”.

Sarah Smith, BBC News at 10 (18/5/20)

[MissEliza]

@Jazzled I have a couple of friends whose dcs are at uni in Scotland and have had very positive experiences. However one is at St Andrews and the other Edinburgh. I think they have high level of English and international students so perhaps that accounts for their different experiences. Of course my dcs will come up and visit. They like Glasgow and the people's sense of humour. They just don't understand the attitudes of people. For the record, their df is from the Middle East and have had no problems visiting his home country, despite being fair and blue eyed and speaking broken Arabic. They're not sensitive little flowers. They've been brought up to be open minded and tolerant and just don't get why some Scottish people are so anti-English.

[PickUpThePieces]

Kevin Bridges stand up comedy has a go at posh Scottish accents or the English.
Very Funny ( in part because there’s an element of self deprecation)

Middle aged Scots having a ‘ laugh’, ‘ banter’ at English teenagers about their accents.
Not Funny
Kind of in the same way Jim Davidson isn’t funny.

We don’t go home and cry ourselves to sleep about it but it makes those particular Scots look very narrow minded and perhaps more importantly for a nation that’s supposed to be known for its sense of humour and warmth, it’s actually totally rubbish patter.

Fortunately, most Scots are not like that but denying that there are a few, mystifies me.

In the same way that this thread was started about the use of 1 word by Sarah Smith.
Ironic that those of us are told to ‘get a grip’ when our kids have experienced a degree of anti English sentiment and yet the SNP seem terribly touchy, themselves.

Sun shining. Off out.

[Jazzled]

Sorry - typos. The sun has made its annual appearance and I cant see 😂

[Jazzled]

I've been asked*

[Jazzled]

The amount of anti-English sentiment in Scotland is pathetic.

I'm sorry your children experienced this. As a Scottish person I'm disappointed they felt that way because I've never witnessed it and have lived here all my life and have a lot of English friends who love Scotland and have said they find Scottish people very accepting and friendly.

I notice more anti-English sentiment when abroad. Almost every holiday I've ever been on I've asked if I'm English (with a look) at least once. When I respond Scottish there is an obvious change on demeanor and followed by an oh we love Scottish people type comments. I expect that's more football hooliganism related though.

My point is, I think what they have experienced here is not the norm and I hope they don't let it put them off coming back.

[StoneofDestiny]

Do not tell my dcs to get a grip. That's their real experience. The amount of anti-English sentiment in Scotland is pathetic

I’m telling you to get a grip!

[StoneofDestiny]

pickupthepieces

Never once said SNP is perfect 🙄. I am however pointing out the reality is that the UK govt. is not perfect either. Drug deaths at any level is sad - and Scotland has a significant drug death issue - but other cities across the UK have significant figures too.

Laughable that one poster on here say they came up from London and were shocked to see drug users in Glasgow. Wow - I travel to London every week and believe me, it’s impossible to ignore the homeless and drug users on the streets! I wonder wether that poster wears blinkers when crossing the border.

[MissEliza]

Do not tell my dcs to get a grip. That's their real experience. The amount of anti-English sentiment in Scotland is pathetic.

[StoneofDestiny]

Oh, and I'm disgusted that both my boys reported feeling hostility because of their English accents in Glasgow. I sent ds2 up to Glasgow to spend time with my df last year after GCSES. As I drove him home after picking him up at Heathrow, he said a lot of people were 'absolute twats' to him because of his accent. Nice

Interesting - Glaswegian here. My sons spend time every year in Glasgow (with their English accents) as does my English husband. They’ve never been made to feel uncomfortable about their accents in Scotland any more than I have in England. Yes, jokes about pronunciation are made both sides of the border and across county lines in England - but that’s it. Jokes - not racist attacks! Get a grip

[StoneofDestiny]

I wonder why so many non-Scots choose to reply on threads about Scottish politics and why Scots choose general threads to discuss specifically Scottish issues. There is a Scotsnet section for just that purpose

Wow - I’m a regular and long term poster and a Scot. I comments on lots of AIBU posts that attract my interest. Maybe you just want a clear field to have a Daily Fail rant and have no alternative perspectives to counter your views.
There is another ‘forum’ for that - it’s called a diary!

[Opendraw]

I think you will find a lack of funding at the heart of a lot of the issues, also Scotland is very different than a lot of areas in England. There has long been a culture here of alcohol, drugs etc that I think is changing with the younger generation generally across the whole of he UK. I am not sure why Scotland in particular has a huge drugs problem but I expect it’s demographics and poverty, lack of industry etc you are not comparing like with like

[Aesopfable]

SNP being blamed for not tackling Scotland's drug death problem, when narcotics laws are still a reserved matter and Westminster has continually ignored all proposals to change them within Scotland.

Blaming UK narcotics laws for Scottish drug deaths is a bit like blaming the NHS for people’s Health - it is the very last step of a whole chain of events that the Scottish Government does have control over. Everything from policing, to housing, to job generation, to education, to city planning, the nhs, transport, social services, prison system... Difference in which all contribute to much lower drug deaths in England despite the same narcotics laws.

[Opendraw]

And as above it’s AIBU !

[Opendraw]

Offt this went off piste !

I post here as Scotsnet is not looked at very often and I don’t mind having different view points from around the UK and any other country who happens to be on. Generally it was more about the biased reporting than Scottish Politics....

I have posted about other things as any persons view regardless of where they live is useful...

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

I wonder why so many non-Scots choose to reply on threads about Scottish politics and why Scots choose general threads to discuss specifically Scottish issues. There is a Scotsnet section for just that purpose.

Uh, this thread is in AIBU.

But yeah, good idea as long as it applies across all of Mumsnet.

For instance, all the Trump threads should only be limited to us Americans.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

I wonder why so many non-Scots choose to reply on threads about Scottish politics Well, I am naive enough to think we all live on the same relatively small islan, have all sorts of familial connections and are pretty much living in others back pockets. And It's a forum for discussion....

and why Scots choose general threads to discuss specifically Scottish issues. Because they have a devolved government, have unique issues to discuss

There is a Scotsnet section for just that purpose. And many users don't go there, this place is divisive enough without having an actual e -Gulag for pesky troublemakers!

I have to admit, this isn't quite how I though the thread would go overnight!

[Calyx72]

"I wonder why so many non-Scots choose to reply on threads about Scottish politics and why Scots choose general threads to discuss specifically Scottish issues. There is a Scotsnet section for just that purpose."

Get back in your box Scots?
Probably for traffic and/or different viewpoints.

[Chocolatedeficitdisorder]

I wonder why so many non-Scots choose to reply on threads about Scottish politics and why Scots choose general threads to discuss specifically Scottish issues. There is a Scotsnet section for just that purpose.

[EdwinaMay]

I would think this should be of no interest to NS, she should be working out how to sort out Scotland after CV, with the oil industry stuffed and little or no tourism we are rapidly heading for major disaster.

[Piglet89]

@FannyFernackerpan

I can hardly believe you brought Ireland and India into a thread about 2020 Britain.

Re Ireland - yeah, suspect many Brexiteers were thinking the same pre-Brexit - until they belatedly realised that sharing a border with Ireland was gonna cause them a shedload of hassle in leaving. Of course, it then immediately became the “Irish Border issue”. It’s never England’s problem. Then you’ve got journalists like John Humphreys on R4’s flagship breakfast programme asking senior Irish politicians why Ireland doesn’t also leave the EU.

Not to mention @mnhq not coming down hard enough on anti-Irish posts on this very site. even when they’re reported. Here, in 2020.

But, ok, sure - we’ll all just not bring Ireland up.

[XDownwiththissortofthingX]

And another example of the astounding hypocrisy that

Totally incorporating Unions, i.e. the UK = Good and natural

Non-incorporating Unions, i.e. the EU = Bad, evil, and amoral.

Usually demonstrated by folk who like to harp on about Sovereignty, 'taking back control', and sneering at nationalism despite being the most egregious nationalists of the lot.

[XDownwiththissortofthingX]

SNP being blamed for not tackling Scotland's drug death problem, when narcotics laws are still a reserved matter and Westminster has continually ignored all proposals to change them within Scotland.

But no, ESSENPEEE BAD!!!!!

[FannyFernackerpan]

It wasn't the 'English' empire. The Scots and the Welsh were every bit as complicit in imperialism as the English. It was the British Empire, writ large, loud and proud.

Don't pick and choose the bits of what I've written to suit your agenda. Don't bring India and Ireland into it, for some perverse anti 'English' bias.

It's about the 66 million of us who live on this island in 2020 who had absolutely no hand in what was historically done by our ancestors.

The British (British meaning those collective inhabitants of the island of Britannia Major - Great Britain) built an empire alongside every single other European nation from the Dutch to the Portuguese, to the French and Spanish. We were just better at it, because as an island we were, and are, a seafaring nation and our navy was more effective.

So keep wringing your hands over the fact that our ancestors - all of them Scots, Welsh and English - went off and colonised the world, which has absolutely fuck all to do with Scottish nationalism.

I don't mind having a debate with anyone but your post is so trite and ill informed, I can hardly believe you brought Ireland and India into a thread about 2020 Britain and a tinpot nationalist first minister, who at best, represents 1.2 million people.

[TheSandman]

But the size of the chip on the shoulders of some nationalist Scots (and yes, I agree, some of us Welsh also) about what happened centuries ago, overrides everything and the desire to carve up a small island in the North Atlantic for some perverse nationalist ideal of autonomy and self governance, is just pitiful.

And what makes it even more pitiful is that the SNP once having secured its 'independence' from the UK, would immediately do everything it could to sign Scotland up the the EU, an institution that loathes nationalism in all its forms and is openly committed to the erosion of the nation state.

Do you not see the HUGE contradiction in what you just said? Somehow the UK - an entity which has only existed in its current form for less than 100 years is THE PERFECT sized state? A perfect state that for some 'perverse nationalist ideal of autonomy and self governance' withdrew from the EU? That's some fecking chip you've got there, mate.

And I'm sure people were saying:

We've worked together, fought alongside each other and our ancestry and families, customs and every aspect of our day to day life from institutions, to currency, to humour, to psyche, to biology is so intertwined.

in Ireland in 1921 and India in 1947 and all those other bits of the English Empire that got out from under.

[MissEliza]

@FannyFernackerpan 👏👏👏