Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Cheeky Scots whinge about English Raj
The Times yesterday reports here that: "Twenty venue organisers lobbied Edinburgh City Council, the Scottish Executive and arts bodies for extra support and funding."
These are venue organisers for the "Fringe Festival", one Scots response reported in the article from Tommy Sheppard, director of the Stand Comedy Club is:
"“I can’t help (feeling) that visiting producers should regard the host population with just a little more humility. To take over the city, then demand more taxes from the local population to fund their activity, is a colonial approach worthy of the Raj.”"
Personally on principle I'm against state funding of this kind of thing, if people want it and want to pay for it fine and if there's not enough money to make it viable then it's simply not worth doing. In any event I'd wager if these "colonialists" decided to abandon the "colony" and host the festival in a native city, perhaps Liverpool or Birmingham we'd hear no end of it from Mr Sheppard.
That aside, I'm struggling to see what Mr Sheppard's problem is, presumably he must benefit even if indirectly from the festival so why is he complaining. I must at this point confess I've assumed him to be Scotish because of the nature of his complaint, nevertheless the complaint brings me nicely to my point.
I paraphase his complaint: "They elect two MPs, one is sent to the colony country where they vote on matters pertaining to the colony. Naturally there is no reciprocity so the colony has no say in the home affairs of their masters. These MPs ensure that the majority of the electors of the colony are denied the government they selected, and may soon be imposing one of their own as Prime Minister, they demand and collect more taxes from the population of the colony to fund their home activities and the constitutional imbalance. It is a colonial approach, used today by the Scotish Raj".
These are venue organisers for the "Fringe Festival", one Scots response reported in the article from Tommy Sheppard, director of the Stand Comedy Club is:
"“I can’t help (feeling) that visiting producers should regard the host population with just a little more humility. To take over the city, then demand more taxes from the local population to fund their activity, is a colonial approach worthy of the Raj.”"
Personally on principle I'm against state funding of this kind of thing, if people want it and want to pay for it fine and if there's not enough money to make it viable then it's simply not worth doing. In any event I'd wager if these "colonialists" decided to abandon the "colony" and host the festival in a native city, perhaps Liverpool or Birmingham we'd hear no end of it from Mr Sheppard.
That aside, I'm struggling to see what Mr Sheppard's problem is, presumably he must benefit even if indirectly from the festival so why is he complaining. I must at this point confess I've assumed him to be Scotish because of the nature of his complaint, nevertheless the complaint brings me nicely to my point.
I paraphase his complaint: "They elect two MPs, one is sent to the colony country where they vote on matters pertaining to the colony. Naturally there is no reciprocity so the colony has no say in the home affairs of their masters. These MPs ensure that the majority of the electors of the colony are denied the government they selected, and may soon be imposing one of their own as Prime Minister, they demand and collect more taxes from the population of the colony to fund their home activities and the constitutional imbalance. It is a colonial approach, used today by the Scotish Raj".
Tags: West Lothian Question, England, fairness,
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
