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Sunday 2 September 2007

The breakup of the "United Kingdom"

The Scottish Executive has been "rebranded" as the Scottish Government, you can read more on the BBC here. What is this about? It hasn't been renamed because that would require an Act of Parliament so it has just been "rebranded". How much has this rebranding cost? Who is paying for it?

"The new name will be used on all documents, letters, publicity material and signs outside government buildings."
How much has this rebranding cost? Who is paying for it?

"The move came after research suggested the term 'executive' was meaningless to many people."
Many people probably find Secretary for State meaningless as the person with that title is not a secretary. Many people may find National Convener meaningless, many people may find lots of terms meaningless, this is often because many people are thick; if they don't understand these sort of terms then they shouldn't be allowed the vote.

"First Minister Alex Salmond said the time was right for a change, but Labour said the SNP had acted "unilaterally and without consultation"."
Poor Labour, that's how the rest of us feel when you f**k about with the running of this country.

"The administration's legal name will still be the Scottish Executive."
How much has this rebranding cost? Who is paying for it?

"A saltire will replace the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom on the Scottish government's official documents."
If you don't want the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom on official documents then we don't want to keep subsidizing your economy.

"The rebranding is expected to cost about £100,000."
Ha, ha, ha, expected - I doubt it; it will cost a lot more, I am sure.

"Mr Salmond said Northern Ireland was the only other country in the world where the word 'executive' was used to describe a layer of government."
Really, take a look at Wikipedia Mr Salmond - "the executive is the branch of government responsible for the day-to-day management of the state".

I also commend to you Devils Kitchen for their take on this. "'Scotland' has no government - the only entity with a government in these parts is the United Kingdom. But apart from being subprime student antics, a typically infantile and insolent Salmondesque infraction on non-devolved power of the sort that, 200 years ago, would have resulted in the despatch of gunboats, it doesn't really deal with the great big intellectual hole at the heart of his ministry - his Unionism.
Not his British Unionism, for sure - his European Unionism. There just doesn't seem to be any point in leading the nation from the grasping clutch of one Empire right into the arms of another - don't you think?"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am not enitrely sure what it is you are trying to say here. That Scotland is currently part of an empire ('from one empire to another'). That the leader of Scotland single largest party (in both popular vote and seats) is wrong to call those governing Scottish in the Scottish parliament a government (even though Wales, with much, much fewer powers - no real primary legislative powers - calls it that)?

All governments are legally simply the executive arm of parliament. It is kinda silly to say that the Scottish parliament's executive arm is therefore not also a government (steering the ship of the Scottish civic state).