In my 55 years of life, I had never until yesterday seen a flag which was a saltire on one side and a union jack on the other. Yet last night thousands of them were distributed free at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. I have been told they are being given out at the swimming today, and possibly at other venues too.
Such flags do not normally exist. They had to be specially commissioned, and somebody had to pay for them. Who paid for them? Is it public money?
There is no doubt why these unique flags were commissioned, and why they are being given out free at considerable expense. It is to provide TV images of Scotland combined in the union, and to make sure that Scottish medals are greeted with media images of union jacks being waved with the saltire.
In the context of the referendum, only a hardened liar could claim that these unique flags were commissioned without a view to the campaign. This is enormous hypocrisy by the unionists, who have been bombarding the media for weeks with warnings to Yes supporters not to “politicise” the Commonwealth Games.
The BBC informs us that “political flags” are not allowed inside games venues. So saltires with a Yes will be confiscated. The BBC report states:
Well hold on, some flags will not be allowed to fly. Political flags.
Both sides of the independence debate have agreed not to use Glasgow 2014 for political gain anyway.
But even if you wanted to, well, it’s against the rules.
Glasgow 2014 Venue Regulation 6.18 states that no flags are allowed to enter a venue – or the vicinity of any Games venue – if they are normally associated with causes, affiliations or organisations.
Nobody can possibly argue that, at this time, a Union Jack combined with a Saltire is not an image strongly associated with a cause or association. So the rules are being quite deliberately broken, and somebody is funding that breach and doing it on a massive scale. It is vital that we know: who is paying for these flags?
Actually I am not sure why union jacks are allowed in at all. The rules are very clear. If you try to take in a Palestinian flag or a Dutch flag it will be confiscated. Again, to quote the BBC:
You are not allowed, however, to bring the flag of a country not competing in the Games
The United Kingdom is not competing in the Games. So there is a very respectable argument that union jacks should not be allowed in at all.
What is absolutely certain is that the two-faced union jack and saltire flags are very strongly associated with a political cause or affiliation. If they are allowed in, then Yes saltires should be allowed in too.
S Scott
It appears not to be true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Saint_Helena
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ascension_Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Tristan_da_Cunha
Not true at all, in fact
“The author of that last comment has the email address [email protected]. Can anybody trace the name of the particular stupid religious bigot who uses that email address?”
Hang on. Doesn’t it say “Email(Required)(Will not be published)” on the “Leave a Reply” form?
Fred
But remember we cybernats are cunning and evil
The desperation of the unionists is palpable, and it clearly is indicative of the anxiety experienced by those vested interests whom turned the Scottish nation into tenants in their own Scotland to begin with.
As the inane and almost incomprehensible grunting of the oh so the Unionist crème de la crème troglodytes doing their bit for the camera. Although the prospects of these migrating to this side of border is somewhat of a spine chilling prospect. But March for freedom starts somewhere and we all have to sacrifice.
Way to go Scotland!
” Actually I did not know there was a promise not to publish – must be a standard WordPress template. I can publish yours if you like, and then you can sue me and test the legality. ”
Well if it is part of the T&C’s an e-mail to the host should be sufficient to bring about a warning at least but isn’t it just unethical? I think we all expected better.
OK, OK, just to make up for this two faced “false” flag tactic, I have a knockout punch for the YES campaign – and only because of CMs good work at this blog.
What is needed is some Dutch courage for the bravehearts to run into battlefield on the 18th September, gird their loins to venture into the unknown (after 300 years of colonisation) and pierce the YES box with a sharp ballpoint pen ! All Alex Salmond has to do is arrange to loosen all prices and regulations on alcohol in the run up to the vote – but taking care the bravehearts will not instead be sleeping off a hangover on polling day.
Something akin to the half priced Famous Grouse tactic the politicians come up with towards the run up to every Xmas, with the aid of a quick conference call to all the supermarket bosses.
Kempe
What you expect is the least of my concerns.
With respect to you and Fred, you are not Scottish. You understandably do not get the nuance when people from Rangers football club start talking about us “multiplying” and “taking over”. It was therefore important to expose that this was someone from Rangers Football Club, with an official position there.
whois look-up for the domain *rangers.co.uk
Registrant’s address:
IT Dept, Broomloan House
Ibrox Stadium
150 Edmiston Drive
Glasgow
City of Glasgow
G51 2XD
United Kingdom
So, legally speaking you should not be using that address unless you are publishing views of that organisation , or publish a disclaimer that the views are your own , and DO NOT reflect the views of the organisation.
I am fairly confident the organisation would distance itself from your comment if confronted. You might even get into bother if its not yours to use.
Well done Craig. This is too important to bow down to British’fair play’. These bastards will use every spoiling tactic available. As the saying goes. ‘they don’t like it up them’.
@Craig
I’m not concerned with the independence debate or flags.
You should not be publishing personal information about people when you have specifically stated that you wouldn’t. It’s dishonest, it’s unethical, it’s quite possibly illegal and it is unjust.
If it’s true that the The Rangers have joined into this debate in an official way, i’m sure this will be a big story in the Scottish(boak) newspapers the morn.
Craig
That email address seems to be a catch all PR address for Rangers.
One prime suspect for that comment must be Lindsay Herron who has is head of PR for Rangers and has a foot in the pie promoting the games.
https://twitter.com/herron_media
Danny
People were forced to remove their Yes badges, and saltires with Yes were confiscated. I don’t actually mind people flying Union Jacks at all – they should be allowed to fly anything they like. Including Yes saltires. And Palestinian flags.
What I object to is one rule for the Yes campaign and a different rule for the Unionists, who are allowed to politicise it as much as they like.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/exclusive-defence-secretary-intervenes-in-red-arrows-commonwealth-games-row-9625976.html
I don’t even think your Lodge march should be banned, Danny, don’t worry.
But that still leaves the question of who paid for all those Unionist campaigning flags.
So you jump to a (wrong) conclusion about me in the same way that you jump to a conclusion about these flags. Are wrong conclusions a common theme is all your work?
I don’t really care about your YES or No flags or your petty rules, or even about the upcoming referendum.
The point is that Scotland is currently, whether you like it or not, Scottish and British. It’s people are free to represent themselves by flying the saltire or the Union Flag, and/or both, separately or together, if they so please! If people flying one or both of their flags conflicts with (bizarrely) Mr Human Right’s or anyone’s else’s interests, then that’s simply tough shit.
So please, y’all get on with your lives and stop greetin like little bitches.
little bitch.
Hmmm, I’ve lost a lot of respect for this blog today. Posting e-mail addresses of people commenting shows poor judgement, whilst telling others they do not understand some things because they are not Scottish is just condescending.
Seriously?? With all that’s going on these days, you’re worried about a flag! #firstworldproblems
Craig posted a company email addy, not a personal one.
Unless i can’t read.
” It was therefore important to expose that this was someone from Rangers Football Club, with an official position there. ”
That could’ve been done without publishing personal information.
By the way my grandfather was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent who married a Protestant Englishwoman. Something which I believe could still result in having your windows put it in parts of Glasgow. I think I understand more than you than might give me credit for.
[email protected] is routinely published, by rangers.co.uk (who own it), friendsofrangers.co.uk, gobalsportmedia.com, sockerframe.com, etc. That address is clearly intended for publication.
https://www.google.com/search?q=editor%40rangers.co.uk
Racists so often seem concerned about the reproductive rates of the “races” they disfavour. Maybe they can’t get enough sex.
Just because someone left a particular e-mail address, does not mean it IS there e-mail address.
yeah, no-one could ever use a false email address. it HAS to be Lindsay Herron.
some of you people are clearly mental. 🙂
And Kempe plays the religion card.
So predictable.
Are you George Galloway in disguise?
Kempe: “By the way my grandfather was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent who married a Protestant Englishwoman. Something which I believe could still result in having your windows put it in parts of Glasgow. I think I understand more than you than might give me credit for.”
Utter nonsense
Danny
Yes – you yourself arrived here from a link on followfollow.com. I shan’t give your email address as it is not a company one, but it does contain the word “blue”. I fear your claims that I misrepresented you…
I do however feel we have made much progress in discovering who is behind the handing out of those flags, and that beyond any doubt they were indeed intended as a political symbol in the referendum campaign…
The British establishment is fundamentally duplicitous. They call for political purdah during the games then shove their propaganda [two-faced flags, orders from the MOD for the red arrows, blatant unionist commentary, etc] in all our faces.
I’ve been trying to stay out of this one, but, hell. If separatists are forced to wave a UJ, then unionists are equally forced to wave a saltire. Confusion only ensues when the wind changes. Played correctly, this could be spun as a smartypants PR stunt that backfired. But Yes seems to have risen to the bait. Beware kneejerk nationalism, I say.
Since there is no privacy policy,data protection policy or terms and conditions on the website the publishing of personal information is probably not going to be an issue. The non-publishing of personal information is based more on good faith rather than legality.
The email address itself is not validated so it could be anyone using it, but it seems too specific an address to dismiss that.
The legality of flying the Union Jack where the UK is not competing when other non-competing nations flags are banned, that I would question.
Posting emails is akin to breach of Chatham House rules, i.e. discourages a free and frank exchange.
Phil, 7:27 pm:
Wonderful imagery!