TJ feel free to educate yourself if you dont believe they are racists, fortunately that’s not my job.

Looking at the numbers of cases, deaths etc we seem to have been consistently running at around 1% of the UK numbers (despite having around 10% of the population) for weeks now. I’m sure the reasons for this are complex

Probably a lot to do with demographics, areas with large numbers of multigenerational households, HMO’s , certain industry types etc seem to have the peaks,

In addition the local authorities probably have better data, it is beginning to appear that the reason why the local data is crap in England is so journalists can’t reverse engineer the national numbers to point out the bollox that has been spread. PHE needs to be canned as incompetent, local heads of public health probably waiting to castigate PHE in the inquiry

superscale – you made the spurious allegation based on goodness knows what
Its up to you to explain it. I understand racism I don’t think you do if you think they were being racist

What waving saltires & dressed in a tabard with the Lion Rampant? Just concerned health professionals.

TJ even the Scottish Justice Minister called it for what it was racist, if you cant see it I certainly dont need to explain it to you. Try Google.

As I said – numpties yes but nothing racist there.

YOu are the one who needs to understand racism not call it in ignorance. BY doing so you devalue anti racist actions.

Me and the Scottish Justice Minister.

TJ – you really need to learn to recognise Trolling. You’ve been on here long enough to know better.

So, a Minister saying something is now the definition of truth? We are doomed. I need help with this too, I thought Scots was a nationality not a race? Unless they mean gingers I guess.

*Doffs cap to scotroutes*

Scots lives matter dude

TJ – if you take the definition of race discrimination in the Race Relations Act (which subsequently has been absorbed into the Equality Act) then treating someone differently because of their national origin is racism. The courts have tested this and antienglish/Scottish/welsh/Irish behaviour is considered to be both racist in terms of discrimination (eg employment) and as an aggravating factor for other crimes.

I’ve just booked a (emergency*) return trip to Stornoway on Calmac next weekend. No hassle or delay.

* Mother in Law is fading fast.

Not so good, Best of luck Scotroutes.

Best of luck Scotroutes. Never an easy thing.

Maybe I missed something but I didn’t see anything targeting anyone for their national origin. There were english people now resident in Scotland on the demo. It’s not racist to say that coronavirus is more common in England than Scotland, any more than it’d be racist for a new zealand resident to be concerned about possible risks from scottish visitors.

Not that I approve, I thought it was pretty ugly regardless, just that unless you know more than I’ve seen in the press it wasn’t racist.

Thats the point Northwind. Glad I’m not the only one.

Scotoutes is also right tho – don’t feed the trolls

We’ve just had our booking for a holiday cottage near Ullapool cancelled.

Apparently there’s a lot of hostility towards tourists, up to and including vandalism of holiday cottages.

Nice. Stay classy Scotland.

To be honest, it’s just as well – looking at the current infection rates, Cambridgeshire is a good deal less infected than the Highlands, so I’m quite relieved we’re not going to the plague lands.

https://covid.joinzoe.com/data#interactive-map

To be honest, it’s just as well – looking at the current infection rates, Cambridgeshire is a good deal less infected than the Highlands, so I’m quite relieved we’re not going to the plague lands.

Highland has only had 377 confirmed cases since the start and it’s been sitting on or about that for ages. Not sure how that map is calulating their data but I’d question it on that basis.

As for ill feeling towards tourists there’s a bit of that but it’s a minority, not all covid related and definitely not something Scotland has a monopoly on.

Apparently there’s a lot of hostility towards tourists, up to and including vandalism of holiday cottages.

That surprises me having moved from nearby to Ullapool a few months ago. Where did you get that info?
If true it seems a bit of cutting off your nose to spite your face, as I would think they would be desperate for tourists. Mind you there are dickheads everywhere.

Best of luck to you and yours Scotroutes. Horrible situation to be in.

Where did you get that info?

From the owners of the cottage, they cancelled on us.

We’ve booked somewhere else near Fort William, perhaps that will work out better.

Northwind,

I was only responding to the “Scots are not a race”. I paid little attention to the handful of nutters at the border but I’d be surprised if they were not motivated by some bizarre anti-English sentiment as the image I saw was only aimed at those coming FROM England not the “Scottish” heading south to get infected and bring it home.

FWIW I’ve seen it suggested that this particular group are almost cajoled into these antics by the media and were the same in 2014…

Surgeon refusing to rule out some kind of English quarentine and is accused of trying to make things political… strikes me the only people that are trying to score political points are the people who are criticising her. She’s not suggesting anything that other countries (us, aus etc) are already doing.

And I say that as someone who had never voted for the snp and didn’t vote for independence.

We’ve booked somewhere else near Fort William, perhaps that will work out better.

Should do. Clyping on accommodation providers (who invariably were only hosting key workers) has all but stopped, and I haven’t seen any negative comments on all the Facebook posts from them about reopening and welcoming people back.

Poly

That was my point. Of course anti English racism exists. I have been on the wrong end of it. Neither I or anyone else claimed that it didn’t. All I asked was that the troll gave his evidence for the foul allegation. His inability to do spoke loudly

poly
Member

Northwind,

I paid little attention to the handful of nutters at the border

It’s fairly relevant when you’re discussing those nutters tbh.

From the owners of the cottage, they cancelled on us.

Even more surprising given that they will have had virtually no income this year. The suspicious side of me wonders if demand is so high they have cancelled and ‘re-let’ at a higher rate.

I really don’t get this anti-English stuff as tourism from south of the border makes up a large % of income and employment + many hotels and B+B’s are owned and run by English anyway. In a couple of years up there my Wife only came across it once, in Oban, which came as a bit of a shock being a Monkey Hanger and generally accepted as an honorary Jock!

Against my better judgement I’ll speak up…

evidence for the foul allegation.

From the photo of the protesters that all the news coverage seemed to run with one of them was dressed as a medieval soldier in a tabard with a lion rampant on it. I (and I assume most people) would associate that with the Scottish Wars of Independence and Scotland fighting English invaders which is I assume what this guy was trying to invoke. In this context I’m unsure how you’d not see that as anti-English?

Or is it semantics? anti-English does not equal racist/xenophobic/jingoistic?

Please don’t shut me down as a troll.

For disclosure: Born in England, moved to Scotland as a kid, consider myself Scottish, I’m not against a quarantine at the border, I think Sturgeon is a fantastic politician who does Scotland proud as leader (exemplified by her calling out the neeps at the border)

I have no doubt a xenophobic / racist tinge in their thinking but nothing actually racist in what they were saying or had on their placards.

The lion rampant is the royal standard and almost never seen nowadays in independence circles – the saltire is more common. The lion rampant in itself is not a racist symbol. I saw no racist slogans or banners.

I abhor racism but calling plonkers like this racist devalues the fight against racism

This quote from The National, admittedly not the most unbiased of publications, did give me a laugh.

Asked about a video circulating on social media, in which a man in a fake hazmat suit and tartan facemask can be heard to say “Stay the **** out of Scotland” to the camera, Johnstone said: “I know that one video and that is obviously the thing that’s going to go viral rather than the peaceful stuff.
“To be honest the word ****, it’s just how people talk, and just because he has used that word it doesn’t mean he was being nasty.

Otherwise the group appeared to be at pains to point out there was no racist element. Link to article here

 The suspicious side of me wonders if demand is so high they have cancelled and ‘re-let’ at a higher rate.

Yeah, this. I’m not hearing of any such hostility. Certainly not around here, and not via friends in the North West.

We had a cottage near Eskdalemuir cancelled on us too after booking. Seems the people in before us wanted and extra week, so we were out.

Got somewhere between peebles and Innerleithen now instead for a week before we head to North Yorks to see family.

It’s a couple of weeks now until schools resume in Scotland – with no social distancing. What are people’s thoughts on this?

Sturgeon basically explained it as a balance of risks and a judgement call

I’ll wait till the details are given tomorrow before speculating.

No social distancing, no idea which plan we are officially going with, no ppe, no information about local shutdown (does it automatically shift to online learning), no mention of testing.
Been told by senior management that not expectation to engage with information until 10/08. To be fair not expecting information until after 10/08.
I’m not overly confident that there won’t be some fairly large and disruptive shutdowns as staff show symptoms. I thought track and inform was.meant to be in place before return.

The real things is we need to get back and I really do want to be back in.

Sturgeon basically explained it as a balance of risks and a judgement call

Tj: was this recently? did she show how the risks were ‘balanced’ – or is it basically just a judgement call?

It was in one of the pressers I watched in the last couple of weeks. she did not explain the detail IIRC but did outline that thee are risks either way of different sorts and that it was a judgement call that she was making. Same as allowing kids to play together.

My judgement as an exiled scot is that you’ve got the prevalence down so low that it’s probably a reasonable decision. Schools haven’t been a major problem in other countries like Sweden and Denmark AIUI. The pupils themselves will be fine – flu kills more of the young and no-one even thinks about closing in the winter.

Situation in England is rather worse where it seems case numbers are already creeping up and there is no room for manoeuvre at all.