It’s a tough gig being a Scottish Unionist, constantly on the lookout for things to feel outraged about that can be laid at the door of the Scottish Government and the SNP, even if what they are complaining about is not actually the responsibility of the Scottish Government or the SNP. Parliament, both the Scottish and British ones are currently in recess for the summer, so it falls to British nationalist zoomers on social media to work themselves up into a pro-British froth of indignation in an attempt to salvage the Union.
Take “Linda”, who according to her Twitter bio is a Scot resident in Margaret Thatcher’s home town of Grantham who hates the SNP. Of course you just know that if you heard her say that rather than reading it on her social media account, she’d spit out “Thatessempee”, because folk like Linda always do. Anyway, Linda has decided to grace the land of her birth with a wee visit and while here took the opportunity to tweet her outrage about how she’d just seen her first Scottish ambulance with AMBAILEANS” written on the top of the cab and her first bilingual POLICE /POILEAS motor. Linda demanded to know what “cretin” thought that the front of an ambulance should have anything other than plain English written on the front of it.
Poor Linda, you can imagine her confusion and empathise with her puzzlement as she sits in her car in traffic and a big squarish van with yellow and green checker patterns and flashing blue lights with AMBAILEANS written on the side in big fluorescent lettering screeches at top speed through traffic lights while making a deafening nee-naw nee-naw noise as it wheechs past her car. Oh my god! “That must be an ice cream van, thinks Linda. And then she fumes at those nasty and exclusionary Scottish nationalists who’d deprive her of refreshments because she doesn’t know how to say “A ninety-nine and a strawberry Cornetto, please” in Gaelic. Just wait until she gets to a train station, her brain will melt.
Those bilingual signs on the roundabout in Fort William are actually part of a cunning plan to confuse the Lindas of this world and ensure that they remain trapped forever in a gyratory traffic flow system in a small West Highland town. That way they’ll never be able to share their hot takes about the Gaelic language with us on social media ever again.
I cannot stress this point enough. If a Gaelic roadsign confuses and upsets you to the point that you risk losing control of your car, this is indeed an extremely useful sign, one which serves a vital public service. It’s a sign that you should not be driving at all. It’s a sign that you’re a danger to other road users.
Social media was full of British nationalists, who neither speak Gaelic nor care for it, moaning that in any case the Scottish Gaelic word for ambulance is not “ambaileans” but rather “carbad-eiridinn” and complaining that “thatessempee” can’t even get its dastardly campaign to force Gaelic on us right. In fact “carbad-eiridinn” is a neologism, an invented word rarely used by native speakers, and generally confined to the most formal and puristic registers of the language. Native speakers invariably say “ambaileans” in everyday conversation. Yet when it comes to Scots, British nationalists get themselves worked up into a lather of indignation when neologisms are used in formal written registers, complaining that words like “wab-steid” are artificial and no one actually uses them in everyday conversation, where native Scots speakers invariably prefer the word website instead. However in Gaelic all of a sudden formal “artificial” vocabulary is the way to go, at least when it comes to finding some spurious reason to attack thatessempee. Maybe they can get themselves over to Google translate and find out how to say “hypocritical lack of consistency” in Gaelic.
Nowhere in the complaints of the British nationalists is there the slightest awareness of the crass arrogance of someone who neither speaks a language nor welcomes its presence in the public sphere having the unmitigated gall to lecture people who do actually speak, use and value the language on how it should be written “correctly.” Only English speaking monoglots have the arrogance and entitlement to insist that they know better than speakers of another language how that language should be written.
A more frequent complaint from the British nationalist language police is that no one is going to get lost due to the lack of a Gaelic town name in a train station or not be able to find an ambulance or a police car because it doesn’t have any Gaelic text on it. They are spectacularly and probably deliberately missing the point. The point of Gaelic signage in a train station or on a public service vehicle is not in order to lift the confusion of any Gaelic monoglot who happens to be passing. The only monoglots in Scotland are English speakers. Those would be the same monoglots who resent any reminders that Scotland has a rich and complex linguistic heritage quite apart from Scottish standard English.
The real purpose of Gaelic signage is to make a public declaration that the Gaelic language is valued and respected and that all of Scotland is the natural and proper territory of usage of the language. Gaelic signage exists both to raise the profile of the language and act as a visual reminder of its existence and importance and to raise the prestige of the language, demonstrating that it is accepted and appreciated in domains , such as official or governmental usage, from which it has been traditionally excluded. This is an invaluable means of boosting the confidence of speakers and demonstrating that the use of the language is welcomed and supported. This is vital in order to ensure that the language remains a living and vital part of the Scottish cultural landscape. It’s not because of the SNP that we see Gaelic on public signs, it’s because of commitments made by the British Government when it signed the European Charter for Minority and Regional languages. Those British governmental commitments with respect to Gaelic are implemented in Scotland by the Scottish Government acting on behalf of the British Government. I thought British nationalists liked it when the Scottish Government does what the British state expects of it – but not, apparently, when it comes to Gaelic.
But if you tell a rabid British nationalist that we only have Gaelic signage because of the international treaty obligations of the British government, they are likely to have a fit of apoplexy which might require them to call an ambaileans.
NEW MODERATION POLICY
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Wee Ginger Dug 
Can somebody just gie the wumman a few suiteis tae shut her up.
Love your essays, they keep me in the loop, thanks!
Poor Linda. Fancy not knowing that ambulance is a French word, and living in a country that plasters it on its emergency vehicles.
I wonder how ‘Linda’ from Grantham feels about Wales?
What a stupid ignorant besom – no loss to the land of her birth.
I suppose we have to realise though that these folk live in an informational vacuum filled with whatever exceptionalist anti-Scottish hate du jour the English editions of the adult comics provide. ThatNiklaSturgin as an ever-available bogie(wo)man.
Scotland is steadily changing but they aren’t changing with us, stuck where they are, immersed in Brexitland, fearful even – not without reason – that one day they’ll also be treated as unwelcome foreigners just like the long-resident older folk from the Continent with no immigration documentation.
Linda’s maiden name wouldn’t be Kerr by any chance ? Brother Juan ?
Sadly Linda is not much travelled around the UK devolved nations, if she had been she would have noticed that in Wales the Emergency Service vehicles also have the Welsh names on them : Ambiwlance Argyfwng on Ambulances and Heddlu on Police Cars. This is not new, they have had these descriptors for many years.
God help her if she ever visits Cornwall.
Ace, Paul.
Linda, the cringe Scot in Merrie England.
Busy outside…tea break. Later.
Monoglot. Emphasis on the glot. Sounds very apt. Linda the Monoglot.
She’d be f’ked if she went to Wales or Ireland. 🙈
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
The wifie will be ferr beelin if somebody reminds (or tells) her that it was Labour who brought in the policy on Gaelic. Then of course they began a campaign against Gaelic after the electorate dumped them. Hellmendem.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug Calling an ambaileans for British nationalists It’s a tough gig being a Scottish Unionist, constantly on the lookout for things to […]
Is it not the case that one the key piece of legislation relating to the use of Gaelic on Ambulances etc – Linda’s bete noir – was passed by the Labour/LibDem Scottish Executive in 2005? The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.
This issue of the use of Gaelic on signs, police cars etc is a hardy perennial in the Letters’ pages in the likes of the Herald and Scotsman. It does not seem to matter how often the authors of such letters are told it was not the SNP or told it is not a costly exercise because the changes are phased in as and when the signs need replaced someone will bring it up again a few weeks/months later. This repetition suggests they have not got much by the way of ammunition in their quiver or working synapses in their heads.
Correct… Look out for “If you want to stay in the EU…” reaching the top of the pile…
Many years ago, I read that the first person to agitate for Gaelic language signage was a Conservative councillor in either Argyl or the Highlands.
This used to be an issue of culture, not a British nationalist whine.
No doubt Boris/Gove, backed by DRossie, would like to have our schools teach only Estuary English, and go back to the good old days where Scottish children were physically punished for uttering a Scots word or phrase in class.
no just in school, Gavin.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12706321.sheriff-judges-aye-aye-a-contemptible-no-no/
Oh, I did rather enjoy that sting in the tale (if you’ll pardon the pun). A UK obligation, heh, heh.
Frankly, if an “ambaileans” came along to wheel any of these hair-trigger objectors off for some needed help, as one kindly did for me after a fall last Christmas*, would they refuse on grounds of their new-found principles of signage? Does what’s written on the side somewhere affect the service performed in any way? What fundamentally matters, in the end?
This desperate need for a rigid monoculture in every little corner of their narrow lives is a sure tell that they are desperately insecure. After independence, I suppose we’ll have to have a plan for how to support their own fragile egos and endangered niche status.
*(No drink was involved, honest, just – nota bene! – a surfeit of careless impatience.)
I have never found bi-lingual signs a problem in Ireland or Wales. I wonder whether it’s this woman’s eyesight or brain which is failing!
Having said that, I have an acquaintance who hails from the town of Grantham but now lives here. She’s a lovely woman in many ways but I’ve learned not to go anywhere near politics with her because she has an incurable case of the Maggie virus. I gave up after trying to convince her that what Johnson said about Covid rules had no validity in Scotland. Banging my head on a brick wall is not my favourite occupation
If you habitually live outside Scotland, you can only ‘self-id’ as Scottish. At least until such time as Scotland becomes independent and we can get our ‘nationality recognition certificates’.
Some Somerset ‘new English’ who prefer life in brexit England to Scotland don’t see the irony in that.
In my house, we speak Scots, Scottish Standard English and French. Sometimes all within the same sentence. Whatever works. It’s the beauty of language; the goal is to express and be understood as best you can.
Many European politicians speak multiple EU languages. The fact UK leaders don’t speak at least a couple of UK languages, even basically, is enough said.
“If you habitually live outside Scotland, you can only ‘self-id’ as Scottish.”
I think that’s a fundamental difference between Scotland and England that often gets overlooked.
I’ve habitually lived inside Scotland since the 1980s but, until recently, considered myself English If asked, I’d say I was “from” or “lived in” Scotland, rather than a ‘New Scot’. Sounds like Linda’s absorbed this attitude in reverse!
This matters only because WM will try to argue that only people of Scottish blood should be able to vote in the event of the referendum they “won’t allow”. That will resonate with a lot of yoonyun-leaning voters in Scotland – especially the older ones.
Worth considering in any campaign?
UK voting convention is based on the electoral roll which is based on your registered address.
The “Scottish blood” gambit would not only require change to electoral law and convention but a complete rebuild of electoral registers….
It’s a scam intended to stir the pot, it simply isn’t going to happen.
It’s ironic that for the unionist ‘expat Scots’ thing to work, it would require Scottish nationality to exist legally, which requires independence.
As it stands, since Scotland can’t issue nationality certificates / passports, then the only way to be Scottish legally is to reside habitually here. That puts you on the voters roll, has you paying Scottish tax rates, may be called upon for jury service etc.
As things stand, if you don’t live here, you can only be Scottish by self-identifying that way, so Gove’s idea would never get off the ground.
And to be honest, many ‘Scots’ in the rUK are there not because they wanted to be, but because they were forced out of Scotland in search of work due to the UK historically trashing the Scottish economy. It almost happened to me as a graduate in the late 1990’s. Over the preceding 20 years, about 1 in 10 Scots was forced to leave in search of work. I got into oil and gas; one of the few areas that skilled engineers could build a career at the time.
It was one of the fundamental reasons for me backing independence. Your qualified graduates should not be having to leave their home country to get a job. Danes don’t need to go to Germany for work do they?
So I’m not entirely sure ‘Scots’ in the rUK would necessarily be No voters…
I once spent a climbing holiday in Northern Italy. Imagine my confusion when I got to Cortina and found most people spoke German. I then went to a wee place called Corvara. Imagine my further confusion when locals there spoke Ladin. My equinamity was so disturbed I went down a via ferrata rather than up.
These monoglots who insist on the Queen’s English to the exclusion of all other languages would find it difficult to get a decent lawyer/solicitor / QC to fight that dastardly Scottish Government . So many of these chaps/chapesses have a grounding in Latin , another foreign language to the seriously affronted Unionist !
And if they unfortunately find themselves being transported in an ‘Ambaileans’ ,( after crashing their car when faced with the horror of a bilingual road sign ) it would take them to a hospital where you will be treated by these people called doctors who also have a passing acquaintance with Latin .
Other than at train stations I don’t often come across signage Gaelic and English.
Those that I do see at stations I actually like trying to decipher and I often wonder if they are a true translation, by that I mean were these areas called this in Gaelic before they gained their English language identity.
I also like the fact that visitors to Scotland will be reminded that Scotland is a country with it’s own history and not just an appendage to England that makes up Great Britain or the UK. It is this that gets right up the noses of Unionists like Linda, they despise anything that dilutes their “Britishness” and so Gaelic signs are a target for their anger.
If they only knew that cringe makes them appear as anything other than “Proud Scots But”.
“Those that I do see at stations I actually like trying to decipher and I often wonder if they are a true translation”
So do I. Same with Welsh names. For all the same reasons as you, as it happens. I saw an article recently (can’t remember where) arguing that, rightly speaking, Shetland road signs should be in Norn, because nobody speaks Gaelic up there anyway. But they seem easy going about it.
In fairness to Linda, the first time I encountered a Welsh road sign – many years ago when they were first being set up – I was confused myself.
It was in a town, at a very busy roundabout. Not a good place to be confused, but I just drove around the roundabout like any other time I miss a turn off.
Next thought was. “Good for the Welsh! Glad they’re taking their language back.”
“by that I mean were these areas called this in Gaelic before they gained their English language identity.”
Like the ‘Devil’s Point’ on the Lairig Ghru? {vbg}
No doubt one of the reasons the Linda’s of this world wanted to separate from the EU was to get rid of all those nasty foreign instructions on packaging.
They better hope that Johnson & Co don’t start doing trade deals with China or Middle Eastern countries.
Not sure what Cantonese for ambulance is.
Scotland is not England.
Ireland is not England and they have some road signs in Gaelic only.
She needs to get out of England a bit more.
Linda from Grantham might live in a *bungalow* (Indian word) and enjoy wearing *pajamas* (Indian word) or wave *cheerio* (Gaelic word) or exclaim *Slainte* (Gaelic word) when she has a swig of Whisky or if in Ireland Whiskey
Perhaps on holidays in Spain she attempts to show off to her pals when she says the only line people ever learn in Spanish apart from *Hola* usually pronounced *Hoowlaah* by our English cousins when they ask for *Cafe con leche* and they always instinctively know what the words Farmacia Polis or Restaurante mean when in other countries and that doesn’t seem to bother them, because Linda probably recognises that *foreign* countries have different languages but has no memory that she uses words that came from all over the world and formed the language she currently uses most of the time, except Linda will speak in one of the funny silly sounding English accents as opposed to our silly funny sounding Scottish accents and all the other funny sounding accents from around the entire world
Poor Linda is an expression of English exceptionalism and doesn’t even realise it, Linda has fallen victim to English Imperialist propaganda that teaches all others in the world are less than England born white people (call me Bwana) and it’s the duty of those people to civilise and educate the rest of us
Linda from Grantham hasn’t noticed that over 60 countries in the world have rejected her English Imperialism its theft and its bullying and her country is shrinking and shrinking due to her attitude to everybody else and the languages they and we speak
Feel sorry for Linda from Grantham, she’s unable to evolve and accept that the world has refused to stand still because Imperialist Linda (wee soul) demands it so, and her species is becoming extinct
I’ll put money on ‘Linda’s’ talks with a combination of Gove Sub Lieutenant (RN Failed) Bowie, and baroness Rape Clause posh Anglo accent.
WE have been subjected to 300 years of ‘Anglification’.
BBC programmes are merely drip drip drip Anglo culture, language and values, such as there are.
I take solace in reflecting that ‘Linda’ will need to apply for a permission to travel to 27 EU nations from now on, come independence, as she opts to remain ‘English’, and her erstwhile Scots have our own ‘European’ Scottish passports, and access to the lands of 500 million of our ‘friends and neighbours’ despite the fact that they all spikka da furrin jabber.
What will it take for these Auntie Tamisinas to realise that their opinion holds no sway Up Here?
Team GB? Not ‘the UK’? What is that all about?
So much for the Loyal Brits in Norn Irn.
It’s comin’ yet for a’ that.
Your “…and her erstwhile Scots have our own ‘European’ Scottish passports” missed the sting of “with title duplicated in Gaelic on the front cover”.
Abair deagh bheachd,Bob.
Perhaps someone should advise ‘Linda’ to ‘haud her wheesht’?
For certain, laxatives are unnecessary..
What an absolutely brilliant article, Paul. So enjoyed reading it. Hope “Linda” did too!
Ha ha, brilliant and funny post Paul, thanks.
No idea what Linda’s problem is, she’d be shocked if she goes onto a UKgov website and finds the whole thing is available in Welsh! Argh! I see though it’s not made obvious like it used to be not so long ago, hmm.
I do hope not, but suspect that this is a common complaint from folk, within, but mostly without Scotland. The arrogance of BritNats knows no bounds.
Some of you might have already read this, but worth posting this example of real analytic journalism. Long read. New Statesman, Annette Ditter.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/07/politics-lies-boris-johnson-and-erosion-rule-law
Wow! That is a brilliant piece of journalism, and from a German journalist who is all too aware of the consequences of subverting democracy. Thanks for posting.
Gobsmacking article about Johnson, it almost beggars belief when you read about this governments antics in such a well written piece.
Gobsmacking isn’t the word I’d use, terryfying more like!
A lot of what is in there is not overtly new to those of us who actually have their eyes open to what is happening in Westminster and beyond, but when you see it all written and the trail so graphically described, you can’t help but be frightened by it.
But to the point of submission, no!
How do “we” get that out to the masses,
those that haven’t been blinded to the truth by Johnson and his cohorts,
not in England, I fear it is lost to the truth,
and the chilling reference to future (if not already there?) dictatorship.
No, this needs to be sold to the undecideds up here,
those who haven’t seen the path the way we have and still think, or cling to, the Union is the sacrosanct “Better Together”,
but might be beginning to question that belief.
I don’t think I’ll ever read a more passioned piece,
that whilst not at its core, indeed barely mentioned,
made the case for Scottish Independence in graphic form!
I would use frightening as well as gobsmaking.
TOT (sorry)
It’s not that I cannot believe it (oops went all victor there)
It’s that completely without malice, totally matter of factly.
A woman broadcasting a few minutes ago on “Lorraine”©.
Apparently from her own home in Buckie about her Scottish American heritage.
Used the phrase “over here in England”
Now if this is how a Scot born, grown up, and living in Buckie views her location, town, country.
We still have a massive hill to climb.
Or
Am I being over sensitive.
Certainly not being over sensitive. I cannot understand how any Scot would make such a remark.
Having spent many years outwith Scotland I often had to correct people on the question of Scotland and England. One of my most enjoyable conversations was with a Canadian who would not admit that England did not encompass Scotland. He was infuriated when I told him that ‘You Americans are all the same.’
Out of interest, what is the English word for ‘Ambulance’? Or indeed, ‘Police’?
Amblince and Rozzers
There are bilingual signs in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany. None of these countries have a problem with that. Maybe it’s only a certain English clientele of Gammon descent that has a problem with it.
On Topic 🤣 – https://www.thenational.scot/news/19468424.gaelic-speakers-bus-made-son-feel-unwelcome-unionist-claims/
Aw – the wee sowell. It’s hard being the centre of the universe.
As we all know,it isn’t about Gaelic but about the unionist narrative of ein reich ein volk….
Next,we will be back to having the wearing of tartan banned again and anything else which makes Scotland not England.
I actually feel sorry for people who become upset when they see Gaelic written or hear it on radio or TV. Have they so little in their lives to concern themselves. Among my favourite anti-Gaelic kneejerk reactions is “It was never spoken here.”. In short, it was. But don’t take my word for it; have a look at any history book written by a historian.
The MSM attempt to undermine the Scottish Government’s public health message continues. Connor Matchett in The Scotsman and Paul Hutcheon in The Record both attack the vaccine programme.
But take a look at the Travelling Tabby images of infection rates in the UK. How to explain the deep red high infection rate in the north of England and the contrasting pale beige low rate in Scotland. Hard border?
Ann;s links!
Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
For the people who were worried that the sharp decline in Scottish cases was some sort of mirage due to lower testing, or people hiding from testing/tracing – hospitalisations are now moving exactly as you’d expect from the case data. (Lagged graph) https://mobile.twitter.com/Birdyword/status/1419249496932986880
In view of recent cases – in 10 percent of drownings, adults are nearby but have no idea the victim is dying. Here’s what to look for.
https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/rescuing-drowning-children-how-to-know-when-someone-is-in-trouble-in-the-water.amp?__twitter_impression=true
No role for First Minister at Glasgow’s COP26 https://mobile.twitter.com/SovereignBain/status/1419250547203444742
Retailers *Blame Brexit* as food shortages sweep across Scotland’s stores.” Interruptions to food supply to Scottish shops and restaurants are *Largely Due to Brexit* – not the “Pingdemic” – say independent food retailers. https://mobile.twitter.com/WinstonCProject/status/1419277361946693638
This is an interesting ferry map of routes between the EU & the Isles of Britain (note the geographical reality). Take some time to study it & ask yourself: Why has Scotland no direct links to the continent of Europe. https://mobile.twitter.com/BjCruickshank/status/1419427341814669312
Ex-DUP leader Arlene Foster joins GB News
https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2021/0725/1237153-ex-dup-leader-arlene-foster-joins-gb-news/
However Richard Murphy isn’t
Sometimes saying no is the right thing to do
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/07/25/sometimes-saying-no-is-the-right-thing-to-do/
Don’t forget Talking up Scotland
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/blog-feed/
More links over on
https://indyref2.space/forum/topic/links-monday-26-july-2021/
OT
Just been to Tesco in Paisley and the shelves are depleted
The ‘promised’brexit dividend is beginning to bite!
Gaelic – a language on the verge of extinction. I think it’s fair enough to ask if it’s worth pumping loads of money into it in the hope of saving it, quite probably a forlorn hope when it is considered that only 1,1% of Scots claim to be able to speak it and even in the Western Isles less that 2000 under-17s can speak it, compared to over 5000 20 years ago. It’s also rather unrealistic to compare it Welsh, which is spoken by 28.5% of the population, 16.5% on a daily basis. It can only be revived as a living language if people actually want and make the effort to speak it and there is precious little evidence to suggest that they do.
And while we’re publishing lots of links, I wonder if anyone’s seen this one: https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/article-of-the-week-that-will-raise-even-more-questions/
It’s really very sad. I’m now in the second half of my 70s and I’d desperately hoped to see independence in my lifetime. I’m not sure I can hold onto that hope any longer.
DT
No look over there!
Interesting all this investigation of SNP over £600k
Whilst the billions/trillions stolen by the CONservatives & their pals – not a word!
Dt
Sad. Just because you have no interest is no excuse not to aid it’s extinction. Your own indifference is maybe a reason.
Maybe you just call lochs, lakes?
Who was it famously said welcome to the lake Loch Lomond?
Ah Cheers Hamish, you just prompted recall of DaveyTee, now his post makes perfect sense…
On your last point, I’m not an SNP member nor did I contribute to the fund, so have no vested interest in this, but I do observe, and it stinks as much as the GRA and HCB stooshies, the distinct aroma of Eua de Latrine, made in London.
As much as I understand the honest felt anxieties of some, if auditors have declared the money is accounted for and available for it’s intended use (as they consistently have done), this latest ploy has all the hallmarks of Cluedo, the only difference is the evidence is not down to chance but planting the card.
As PHarvey highlighted, compared to the real fraud going on daily in London this is chicken-feed, yet despite a string of accountants having not only risked their career in being struck off never to work again on behalf of SG or anyone else, be tried and imprisoned, for what ? 50k apiece ?
“Show me where my personal 50p contribution in December 2015 is sitting right now” is the propagandists dream.
I’m fairly certain Police Scotland investigations will conclude, nothing to see here, then the entire conspiracy theory will include a nobbled investigation of the Police…
Conspiracy games are an Empire speciality, even Alex Salmond knows that…
Bob, the money isn’t available for its intended use – the last accounts showed that there was only £93,000 in the bank, which is rather a long way short of £600,000. A future fundraiser was going to be required. I do wish that the SNP had come clean in the first place, said sorry folks, we’ve had to use the money for essential purposes in running the party, but we’ll raise some more and if anyone wants a refund they can have it. People probably wouldn’t have liked that, but it would have hopefully avoided the present situation which is a direct result of SNP obfuscation and lack of transparency – even now the police are apparently having to get warrants because the SNP is refusing to hand over some relevant papers.
Police Scotland will be in a dificult position because, of course, decisions as to prosecution are made not by them but by the Lord Advocate and while Wolffe has thankfully resigned, his successor is going to find herself in the invidious position of having to decide whether to prosecute the party that runs the government in which she is a cabinet member and chief legal adviser.
As for your other point, Bob, whatever the appalling actions of Johnson and his cohorts, two wrongs don’t make a right.
DT
And your “right” is plainly obvious sir, your “the money isn’t available for its intended use” proves the point admirably, when precisely as stated above it has been certified as so by qualified auditors.
But a wee lad fae Forfar says otherwise…
Ah, already setting up a conspiracy-theory alibi for an investigation that will will prove a complete flop, all down of course to “interference” from the new Lord Advocate because of that nasty SG yet again. You’re so obvious we can see where you’re going with this already.
Frankly, we would be far more impressed by your righteous indignation if you would only devote your attentions in due proportion to the actual clear misdemeanours being perpetrated, on a daily basis even, rather than simply trot out a limp “two wrongs” apologia like this.
Have you no notion of how you, and people like you, come across? As long as you behave so disagreeably lop-sidedly, you won’t earn our respect, and you won’t deserve to.
No big organisation has multiple accounts to leave money in. I worked for a large local authority for years. We had money that came from UK and Scottish governments and was ringfenced for homeless accommodation provision. That money sat in the main account and was drawn down using budgetary charge codes. I think I donated to the 600k Indy fund do I give a stuff that actual pot of money has been used in the meantime for other legitimate means absolutely not. All of those clowns who troll the National comments page and the various Snp bad articles in the Sunday National yesterday have absolutely sickened me. Apart from this blog I want nothing to do with the Indy movement there are far too many people with personal grudges and pathetic agendas involved. Definite smell of sewage re what is going on at the moment
What the bank balance was on a single day of the year is meaningless. If you look at most folks current accounts the day before pay day (e.g. the 31st of the month) it may look like there’s no way they could find the cash for their mortgage in a few days time.
What was the balance on the 1st January or 30th December? Maybe £1m? If you are using the balance on one day as ‘evidence’, you need to look at all the other days too. And what if they had £660k ‘ringfenced in one ‘protected’ account and a £560k overdraft on the other, knowing that by the end of February 2020 they’d have cleared the latter (which was e.g. used to help win the 2019 election?) The annual accounts would show they only had 100k cash on the 31st, even if there was a big sack of tenners under sturgeon’s mattress protected for the iref.
The point is whether the donations were properly recorded on their internal account system (e.g. SAGE), and whether any spending against that internal account was appropriate. That is what Police Scotland will look at. That and any evidence of intent to misuse, e.g. emails and the like.
The final thing that might be considered is whether the SNP could produce the cash if needed; failure to do that would be potentially fraud based on evidence re the above. Given the sum involved is just 12% of yearly (2019) turnover or 3% of 2017-2020 turnover, it difficult to imagine how they could not be. That’s a pittance. The party brought in £5.3 million in 2019 and have been getting pay rises each year since due to increasing MPs shares in 2019 and based on large donations reported for 2020.
Anyway, what we can be sure of, is that the party is innocent. If we are looking at fraud, then the more people that are involved within an organization, the less likely the probability of it happening. It’s an exponential decline. 1 person helping themselves happens and is the norm for such cases. A couple of folk colluding also occurs, but far less often. 3 does sometimes, but 4, 5, 6… turning to crime? And that’s what we are talking about here. I’m a director of an SME and need to sign of the accounts. Every penny must be accounted for and our accountants go over things with a fine toothcomb. So we can be sure that even if a couple of folk were fiddling the books, the party as a whole would be innocent.
And Colin Beattie is back the job he had for 16 years. He either knows fine well everything was done by the book or he’d be on the run in Brazil or something, not walking back into the job with his arms held out ready for the handcuffs FFS.
My prediction is that there’s no missing money and that’s what the police will conclude. The fact that Stuart Campbell is sure that there was fraud makes me very confident there wasn’t. I’ve found the ‘Wings rule’ is very reliable in this respect.
Also, the new lord advocate isn’t corrupt (and that’s what we are talking about here; criminal corruption) and neither was the last one. Take off the tinfoil morris dancing hats FHS.
Anyhoo, it was me posting like this and saying let’s wait for what the police (and potentially courts) find before making any serious criminal accusations against innocent people. Trial by blog is for the right wingers.
Somehow deleted the end of a sentence…
Anyhoo, it was me posting like this and saying let’s wait for what the police (and potentially courts) find before making any serious criminal accusations against innocent people that made me increasingly unpopular on another blog I use to frequent.
So many times I’ve been through the whole unionist ‘SNP accused’ thing and it has almost ubiquitously translated as ‘SNP innocent of’.
Aye
”Loads of money ” pumped into Gaelic – ”a language on the verge of extinction .” Strange priorities you have .
How much is ”loads of money ” compared to the wastage from Westminster over the decades on everything from rockets that don’t work , Aircraft Carriers without aircraft , Test’n Trace that wastes £35+ billions , to medical masks that are as useful as Ruth Davidson in the HoL !
Yup, it’s funny(-peculiar) how these people are always busily firing at their friends and never at their supposed enemy. (Y’know, the people from whose clutches they’re supposedly so keen to escape.)
Can’t help but wonder though who their friends really are.
Are you the same person who the last time we had a language debate even denied that there was a Scots language, and when I replied in Doric you didn’t have a clue…?
As for your doubts and insinuations, I guess anyone would be depressed if they’re expecting Alba to free them. (Oh, and have you never wondered who’s funding them?)
It’s jealousy. Others groups of people or nations have an idea, or at least an inkling of an idea of what their national identity is, or was. A separate language is a clear-cut, unmistakable example of this.
Not most Brit Nats. They don’t have the first scooby. For them, British identity is doing what you want, where you want (read, be obnoxious to others). As the empire shrank, the places available to them to do what they want shrank too. Now they can do what they want in their own backyard, but with a well practised legal system present, so they still can’t for the most part.
It’s a scary world, having to obey the laws and recognise other nations, languages and people as equals. It’s not enough that 5% of the world speak English (in some form or dialect or another). It’s not enough that many international codes, and many European nations adopted it as a second language.
Churchill wouldn’t have stood for it.
No, he would have gone to the US and begged for help. Ho hum!
P.S. – When I saw the name ‘Linda’, some part of me saw ‘Karen’. 🙂
Unfortunately I don’t see Gaelic as part of my national identity, any more than I do Cumbric or Early Welsh, which was spoken in South-west Scotland prior to the tenth century. After all, By the mid-14th century what eventually came to be called Scots (at that time termed Inglis) emerged as the official language of government and law. Scotland’s emergent nationalism in the era following the conclusion of the Wars of Scottish Independence was organized using Scots as well. For example, the nation’s great patriotic literature including John Barbour’s The Brus (1375) and Blind Harry’s The Wallace (before 1488) was written in Scots, not Gaelic. By the end of the 15th century, English/Scots speakers referred to Gaelic instead as ‘Yrisch’ or ‘Erse’, i.e. Irish and their own language as ‘Scottis’ (Thanks to Wikipedia for that)
So what’s so special about Gaelic, especially here in the east where I live? For centuries Scots has been the local language here and we still enjoy the rich local dialect of Doric. Why on earth should we bother ourselves with Gaelic which has little to do with our heritage and even less to do with daily life, and which even those in the traditional Gaelic areas are abandoning? If those who have an interest in it want to bother, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean that I have to support it.
Because it’s not about you ?
Silly answer, Bob, presumably because you couldn’t think of a better reply to the points I made and the questions I raised.
Probably, I didn’t ask you to promote your “silly” point did I ?
Dio tell me what’s silly about my point(s) then, Bob. After all, you didn’t have to answer it at all.
Who’s “Dio” ? You didn’t make any point(s) DaveyTee, as previously…
Dt – spoiler alert. In any language you wish.
There’s nothing quite like half an understanding. Gaelic-speaking people from the west of Scotland from back in history were known as “Erse” by lowland Scots, just as the latter in reverse were always known as “Saxons” (“Sassenach”). Both simply because of their cultures. So your argument about some supposed decline on that basis is pure tosh.
And anyway, why do you need to care so much, one way or the other? You seem badly exercised about this, and it’s usually only BritNats who desperately insist on a forced monoculture. Nobody is exactly forcing you speak it, are they?
Almost every place name in the North East is Gaelic. This area was the stronghold of the Celtic speaking Picts. Apart from the new towns built by English speaking landowners, if you live in Scotland you live in a Gaelic named place. Enjoy! Go visit the stone circles, Pictish carved stones and early Celtic churches and marvel at the ingenuity of your ancestors.
Gaelic is as important and Scots and Scottish standard English (Scotland doesn’t actually speak / teach the same English as England).
These are just the main languages used and none are more or less Scottish than the others. All are linked to Scottish national identity.
In fact Scotland is quite unusual in that Scots tend to mix more than one language on a regular basis, e.g. Scots and Scottish Standard English within the same sentence. Or Gaelic, Scots and Scottish English. Whatever works for how you want to express yourself / who you are talking to.
Scots speak a multitude of other languages too. In my house, we use French due to my wife being French and so our daughter Scots-French. So french is a native language to Scotland, albeit only spoken by a minority these days.
Robert de Brus spoke Norman French, so there’s a tradition here. We might wonder where ‘dinnae fash yersel’ comes from given that fâché means to be angry….
What is objectionable is the idea that Scots should be forced to speak English rather than what they choose.
Unfortunately brits don’t have a great record on learning a bit of the language of the countries they visit, Scotland included. Interestingly, I’ve noticed Europeans who live in Scotland readily using Scots, but it’s rare for English folk to do so, although there are exceptions and it’s very much welcomed, just as it is when you go to France and attempt some French with the locals.
(Yes, and interestingly, “fâcher” in French is intransitive, so – as you undoubtedly know – it’s always “se fâcher” when applied to oneself rather than somebody else. Which is exactly what the Scots also does: “dinna fash yersel“, an unusual construction in a Germanic language; eg. in English it’s simply “being annoyed”.)
Also ‘san fairy Ann’, grizebard, a corruption of ‘Ca ne fait rien’, reportedly brought back to these shores by serving military after WWI.
My maternal grandad often exhorted us greetin’ weans to ‘dinnae fash yersels’.
‘Linda’ is one of the colonial Scots who found that the only way to get on in the Scottish colony if you were a subjugated native, was to embrace all things English, including developing a ‘posh’ (in Glasgow it used to be called a ‘Kelvinside’ accent) Anglophone delivery of speech.
There are countless examples in public life of native Scots who saw the light.
Jackson Carlaw, Annabel Goldie, Alister Jack, Lulu, the gaggle of wee lasses who were brought down from Lewis and Harris by Donalda MacKinnon as ‘weather girls’ who soon lost the mellifluous burr of their islands’ acccent, as Plantation Quay coached them in BBC Regional quasi Anglo enunciation of ‘proper’ English broadcasting.
We are a colony of England, with every organisation, Finance, Education and our very cultural heritage, managed by English incomers or obliging Uncle Tam field bosses.
We are militarily occupied, and the symbol of Johnson’s Right Wing fascist Fourth Reich with their butcher’s apron, England’s swastika, plastered everywhere that they can get away with.
On the six o’clock English news last night, they spent the opening 12 minutes on the Olympics and @team GB’ triumphs. ‘God Save the queen’ belted out twice, and the butcher’s apron fluttering ‘proudly’ for those patiently waiting for actual ‘news’.
The scowling lass on Distorting Scotland banged on about ‘Team GB’ too.
We are a subjugated colony of England, and fed this Imperial junk into our very living rooms by all media now.
It is time to fight back now.
Ban blood sports now, and reclaim 18% of Scotland’s acreage for the people.
Offer the belted earls and ex Daily Mail editor £1 an acre.
I have more, 100’s more, things we can do now, to wrest back our country from Imperial Engerland.
I am beilin’ at the moment, and it’s not all down to the heat wave and my Oa knees.
That Dross can claim (unelected by the people) an MSP salary, a top up for being ”leader’ of the Jock Blue Meanies, and a MP wage, plus expenses, and run the line for the Brit Nat SFA, whereas Carling, Davidson (Baroness Rape Clause now) and Annabel Goldie thought being an MSP and Leader was ‘getting on with the day job, a full time job on its own, serves to illustrate how corrupt and depressed a colony we have become.
Money for nothing just to fly the Jack for his English Masters.
Similarly Kenny McAskill…Stood on a SNP ticket, won, left the party, joined Alba, and bad mouths his previous party, while still taking MP wages on the back of an SNP ticket.
These men have no principles and are motivated by hoovering up as much cash as they can.
Does the National pay McAskill for his ‘articles’?
Is the ‘National’ now the Alba ‘paper?
Go on . McAskill, resign, and stand as an Alba candidate, against the SNP.
No?
Some would call you a coward, but I couldn’t possibly comment.
I urge Scotland to boycott goods branded with the Jack.
If, say, several million of us stop buying supermarket junk plastered with the symbol of the Fourth Reich, no amount of back handers from Johnson’s Cabal to the clearly coordinated supermarket Brit propaganda would compensate for the massive drop in sales Up Here.
It’s comin’ yet for a’ that.
What’s so special about English? It’s a form of communication, just like Gaelic. What’s so special about Gaelic to those who speak it and want to speak it? Cos it’s their chosen language.
Supermarkets branding foods with the Union Flag is in the same vein as unionists trying to suppress Gaelic .
I refuse to buy items with this logo on them .
I will happily purchase English cheese with an English Flag , Scottish beef with a Scottish Flag , Welsh Laverbread with a Welsh Flag etc… as this is simply denoting the country of origin .
The Union Flag labelling is simple and abhorrent propaganda !
Yep.
Cheddar is a rarity where I live, but until about 2-3 years ago Galloway cheddar was available in Lidl with Saltire branding and even here was a big seller, then it all suddenly changed. It became “Valley Spire” from Cookstown County Tyrone and a poor substitute it was, with an occasional special of mature cheddar which didn’t actually bounce.
Recently I’d noticed the union flag branding disappear and grew curious, but learned from friends across Europe they’d boycotted it and Lidl saw sales plummet, hence demanded change. The loss of such a huge customer was suicide, so the union flag was gone. No surrender ?
Scotland appears to be the last frontier for this Union Jackery Bowie inspired nonsense…
Perhaps time Scots wiped the smirk off his face…
Ni-living-in-S-England daughter-in-law had a complete meltdown when she realised our fire engines were silver instead of the proper colour, red. Rather like discovering our grass was purple instead of the proper colour, green. Weird. I still like her! xxx
Sent from my iPad
Hi Grace,
I was once shocked and mortally offended on first discovering that American light switches (among others) flip up to switch on instead of the way they are properly supposed to be. After sitting in the dark for an hour I got over it. {wink}
To my shame I don’t speak hardly a word of Gaelic, but then again I don’t speak Punjabi Urdu Hindi Polish and tons of other languages now spoken in Scotland
Does all this upset amongst the English British Nationalists mean they’re coming back to Scotland with their wee army to bayonet *all* of us this time round for refusing to speak *Lahk wot thiy do innit guv*
Beattie on bbc RS news drive. Rude ignorant interview over the poor drownings at the weekend.
It’s all the government fault. Even brought on an individual who was in a similar incident years ago. Couldn’t swim.
Wheres the lifeguard? where’s the warning signs?
The obvious question ignored. Why did you go into a cold water loch when you couldn’t swim?
For that you don’t need signs or life guards just forethought.
Some people don’t learn to swim by choice as well as for social, religious, economic or other reasons.
Still in the 80’s the closure of pools across the U.K and recent austerity measures have not helped.
Sad all round.
I don’t often call people names but Beattie is a ( insert bad name here )
May I guess ?
B*stard , Cnut , Sh*t , T*ry ! Or really vile – a BBC shortbread journo !
Listening to that ‘prick wi lugs’ would give a ‘dog’s erse heartburn’.
I just received a letter from the DVLA because I recently changed my car and the envelope was written in Welsh, the return address was in Welsh and you know what, I wasn’t offended at all
Yaay !! proving I’m not a Britnat demanding my subjects speak Engerlish under threat of bayonetting, and when Scotland becomes Independent I won’t demand foreign English folk speak Scots ,,,,,,,,I’ll speak it though, and as my stepdaughter says, they’ll just have to listen faster
I’d imagine that language isn’t just a means of communication. It’s part of who you are. It helps shape and define your world. If someone removes a cornerstone of your personal identity forcibly, or worse yet thoughtlessly, then you lose a sense of who you are. Your past and your future become less certain. Your place in the world an unknown. You may feel that you have no sense of belonging.
When it comes to ending a language, mibbies some folk should be careful what they wish for. Some day it may be their language, their history, their identity.
Worth a thought.
To attack Gaelic is to attack the notion that we are different. The britnat Eton monoculture is all consuming arrogance.
That’s why I am suspicious of those who attack it from the East !
Is their life beyond Glenmavis? Is there a strange beast called a fettes in the east. How about east of east? Keep going and I end up where I am. If I head south do I need to have a Bath?
Tomorrows English version of the Telegraph (not available in Scotland) reports on how England cannot survive Brexit without Scotlands oil just as it couldn’t survive the financial crash without that same oil and how Europe also depends upon it and why Boris Johnson must secure Scotland to keep Englands hands on it
FM Nicola Sturgeon has laid out the Independence plans to her cabinet in preparation for Indy
Inside info. Brill
I’ve always found it weird how some leave voting folks demand strangers use a language they understand when having a private chat on e.g. the train. What business is it of theirs what folks are talking about privately?
Sure it is polite and practical to switch to a common language as needed if you speak to someone directly, but private conversations are that.
If my Scots-French daughter speaks in her native mother tongue French with her parents, will she be told to ‘Speak English or go back to where you came from!’ by the brexit brits?
“BBC Scotland Misleading ” it’s Audience
Distorting voices on Radio Scotland
Ever since Humza Yousaf became the health secretary every time he is interviewed it sounds as if he is talking over a very poor Skype line. At times his voice is extremely high pitched and scratchy . . . I find it impossible to understand his message. Whilst the interviewer appears to have no problem.
This morning Ivan McKee was interviewed by the lovely Laura Maxwell. As usual Ivan was excellent. Often LM would talk over him when he was talking. . . This didn’t put off Ivan who continued to finish his point. In my opinion his voice was interfered with then the volume was turned down giving the impression that he had stopped talking.
Whilst over on Radio2 Ken Bruce’s Pop Your Clogs Master the callers voices are never distorted, clear as a bell.
Yet according to the BBC. They are doing well. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57906060
I do wonder if the Independence leaning staff, if there are any left, are just fearful for their jobs. The TU’s are very quiet.
Personally If the bbc were just impartial would be nice.Still as they tout the Brit Olympics on the tele etc who actually believes them anymore?
Notice how on STV they have Independence supporting journalists when they have a panel on talking about events like Shona Craven and Ruth Wishart, but the BBC never present both sides of the argument with Independence journalists
Even in England on SKY and BBC news they have their Press Previews where a Tory and Labour Journalist present both opinions, but never on Scotlands BBC
Can you imagine for example STVs Colin McKay being employed by the BBC? he’s far too fair and there’s no way BBC Scotland would allow fairness
The best viewing figures reached by the BBC in the last few years have been Nicola Sturgeons Covid briefings that attracted figures of over 250.000 per day
The BBC channel 9 viewing figures are abysmal and only held up by shows like Still Game and Scot Squad, if it weren’t for them BBC channel 9 would only have about 14 people a week looking at the damn thing with their repeats of releasing baby hedgehogs that are probably long dead of old age by now
Link’s from Ann
This the reason Scottish Labour, Jackie Baillie in particular, are talking bs and spreading disinformation. Scotland vaccination programme deserves praise and recognition, not senseless sniping.
https://mobile.twitter.com/IndigoFast/status/1419651729583448073
The claim about a ‘missed target’ is downright inaccurate – no vaccination targets have been missed. All adults have been offered first dose appointments – and 91% of over 40s have had both doses. But vaccination is voluntary, so we continue work to push uptake even higher. https://mobile.twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1419685556267716609
Will Covid become a disease of the young? The world is watching England to find out. Devi Sridhar
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/26/covid-young-people-england-virus-spread-uk?__twitter_impression=true
NicolaSturgeon. I will give a Covid update today at 2pm (later time due to Olympics coverage) covering latest case/hospital/vaccine numbers, and assessing progress ahead of next week’s review of restrictions. I’ll be joined by
@jasonleitch
. Tune in if you can.
What Johnson and co. haven’t realised is that supermarket supply management is starting to prioritise core goods as the crisis deepens with road haulage. If you start noticing a lack of booze on supermarket shelves this is why. Thread. https://mobile.twitter.com/garius/status/1419573124589309956
Five ways Westminster’s Covid business lifeline failed Scotland
https://www.businessforscotland.com/five-ways-westminsters-covid-business-lifeline-failed-scotland/
Global Britain struggles to engage business in trade talks
https://www.politico.eu/article/global-britain-struggles-to-engage-business-in-trade-talks-liz-truss-post-brexit/
I Am Not A Number’ – long read from The Orkney News.
Prof Robertson is still Talking up Scotland
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/blog-feed/
Much more on Indyref2
https://indyref2.space/forum/topic/links-tuesday-27-july-2021/
On the matter of the SNP money secreted away to the Caymans, courier saying just 60 folk have asked for a donation refund.
If we assume the average donation was a tenner, that would mean just 0.1% have requested and been given a refund. This hardly counts as ‘widespread’. If like 1/4 had been unhappy, that would be notable. Even 10% would be something of a story, but 0.1%? That’s probably just all the Alba voters.
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/politics/scottish-politics/2407372/snp-finances-what-are-the-allegations-and-what-has-party-said-in-response/
Jeez, if a large orgnaization has a 99.9% satisfied customer rating, that’s nothing short of amazing.
This story smells to me like the ‘Sturgeon broke ministerial code a gazillon times’ one. Seems ‘SNP insiders’ in Bath are just not that reliable. But hey ho, we shall see in good time.
If Police Scotland find nothing untoward, then I wouldn’t want to be one of those who pushed this story, as they’ll be forever walking around with a ‘I’m a liar, you cannot trust what I say now’ stamped on their foreheads, just like those who cried wolf about sturgeon and the code have.
It’s why I’ve always preferred to wait and see what authorities find in such matters before finger pointing, be that in the case of Salmond in court or Sturgeon and Hamilton’s judgement.
We all know that Nicola spent the money on a designer coffee making machine. They refurbished their offices with £800 rolls of wallpaper and Marie Antoinette chaise longues. I bet there’s a Smeg fridge freezer in the bijoux kitchen where Nicola stores her Greggs sausage rolls.
Thanks for posting that in-depth analysis. I note that he refers to the Poileas as “cops”.
“Nicola Sturgeon fails Scotland by not making the vaccination compulsory”
Will Jackie Baillie and her cohorts of texters dare to write that headline? Is this the official Labour party policy on vaccinations?
“We can’t go round everybody’s house to vaccinate people, that would be impossible” says the FM
And if they did Jackie Baillie and her cohorts of texters would be first to complain of fascist dictatorship style pressure would they not
Jackie Baillie tries and tries to back the FM into a corner then by her own words condemns herself and her little band of, insert names here (………………….)
Well, some of these comments have certainly made me chuckle…I wonder if Linda from Grantham has realised the error of her racism and, quite simply, slapped hersel aboot the heid fir bein an eejit 😂
Many, many years ago (50?) on radio, I heard a woman panellist (Isobel Barnett type if not actually her) take a Highland panellist to task when he promoted the use of Gaelic by asking him ‘If Gaelic is so great, what is the Gaelic for ‘Spaghetti Bolognese?'” He immediately replied “I haffn’t a clue madam but iff you giff me the Inklish for it I will attempt a translation.”.
I had a similar experience myself some years later when a Scottish work colleague who queried the merit of my learning Gaelic asked “So why does Gaelic need to borrow so many English words?” “Like what?” I counter asked. “Like ‘Helicopter’ he proffered. After laughing for about a full minute I explained to him that ‘Helicopter’ is portmanteau word borrowed by English from two Greek words. He went bright red with embarrasment.
Great post again, WGD.
I’ll just leave you this here.
Regular posters know I’m a professional (Welsh mother tongue) linguist and activist for my language, together with an MA in Celtic Studies.
https://nation.cymru/news/i-didnt-teach-him-that-bryan-habanas-welsh-language-reaction-to-lions-win-surprises-s4c-presenter/
Does anyone know what the Gaelic for Troll is?
Well … , ‘troich’ /trɔç/ is ‘dwarf’.
(I await wittier responses from fellow Duggers.)