By Bonnie Banks, Our Culture Correspondent

Following revelations in the Daily Express over the weekend that children are being taught to sing for separation, our London-based culture correspondent pays a visit to Scotlandshire to go undercover and investigate the propaganda being used by separatists. 

It was a shocking revelation: the naïve and innocent children of Scotlandshire were being pumped full of propaganda by way of separatist and left wing songs.

Hate-filled, nationalist anthems such as “A' Jock Tamson’s Bairns”, which urges people to welcome asylum seekers as family and “Both Sides of the Tweed”, promoting love and respect among people, even across a border were among the songs listed in an “educational” website promoting Scottish “culture” within schools. However, BBC Scotlandshire can exclusively reveal the SNP's propaganda tools have also been put into operation far more widely than just in schools.

In my first ever foray to Scotlandshire outside of the Edinburgh Festival, I ventured outside that city for the first time to find out what else the Scottish government has been encouraging. What I discovered is troubling. The SNP have created a vast network of cultural re-education camps that stretch from schools, out to higher education generally, and into communities. Hidden under names like “feis” – a word so hideously foreign the BBC Scotlandshire computers don’t even have the symbol that should sit atop the “e” – the propaganda of these gatherings are not always obvious to us London based journalists.

But these are events where separatists meet to drink and propagandise via the mediums of music, song, story and dance. Such gatherings may even be conducted in a foreign language the Natz call “Gaelic”, but which is clearly not a Scottish or British language. It cannot be. As Lord George Robertson said only last week, Scotlandshire has neither its own culture, nor its own languages. For this reason, he pointed out, it cannot claim to be “culturally repressed” in the way other separatist regions such as Catalonia and Quebec are.

I must admit the enemy territory of the “feis” gave the outward impression of warm hospitality. It was a cold weekend and the event was held in a local hotel. The well stocked bar, roaring fire and wild music looked inviting as I stood outside watching my breath freeze. However within minutes I was dragged in bodily by some burly man who said I must, “come awa inside doll fir you’ll catch yir death fae the cauld oot here”, whatever that means. Once inside the propaganda was equally insidious. Beer and whisky from Scotlandshire were on open display and the separatists were keen to promote this to a stranger under the guise of a “welcome”.

There was a feeling amongst people I spoke to at the event that there was something of a cultural resurgence in Scotlandshire. The launch last week of the Glasgow branch of Nationalist Collective - a group of wide-eyed young idealists who’ve swallowed the myth Scotlandshire has culture and her people are capable of creating great art, music and literature - has been mentioned as a part of this new confidence within the region.

All of this suggests the reach of such propaganda is growing. Another concerning trend was the increasing use of history and the idea that there is a “story” that weaves through history, the present and the past and that history has relevance to what is happening now.

Clearly this is nonsense. We have been in a union for over 300 years and that, along with the wars we fought together in that time, can be the only history that matters. Thankfully Cameron’s government will be ramming home this message to the separatists next year with the celebrations of the start of World War I

Because the fact is, this kind of propaganda has power. As my first night infiltrating the pretend Scottish culture created by the SNP over the past two years wore on, I found the tactics used by separatists had almost seduced me. At some point early in the morning I even found myself dancing and singing along to one of the nationalist anthems – Both sides of the Tweed – mistakenly believing the lyrics were about us being Better Together! I remember very little after that. This is the hypnotic spell such alcohol and music driven propaganda casts and it can be hard to resist its lures. As such, it must be kept far from the general population

After a short recovery period of a couple of days, I spoke with Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet secretary for “Culture and External Affairs”, a post clearly designed to perpetuate the nationalist myth that Scotlandshire has culture. Ms Hyslop said she believed all communities should, “benefit not just from the great cultural heritage of this nation, but also the world’s.” This clearly shows an intent to steal culture from elsewhere to make up for the non-existence of it in Scotlandshire.

Arch dictator Salmond himself has been keen to visit places with a long history of culture, such as the USA, to stress the strong links with Scotlandshire. This is a blatant attempt at cultural theft and explains why he has been at pains to associate himself with such American culture as fiddle music, Highland games, clan culture, golf and even that most American of pastimes, Halloween. However, it is the stated aim to ensure such propaganda events – feisist events, one might call them – are embedded within communities which is of most concern.

Because my investigations led me to uncover an even more sinister post, that of Alisdair Allan’s - “Minister for Gaelic and Continuing Education” as well as for something called “the Scots leid”. The attempt to conflate continuing education with Gaelic is even more concerning than that combining an imaginary “culture” with external affairs. Will the price of the SNPs “free education” policy be that anyone wishing to learn must do so in Gaelic? Perhaps while singing songs of freedom?

I put this question to Mr Allan, who was unable to supply a satisfactory answer because he was laughing too much. He did however supply a written statement later which said, “Anent oor spier theday, Ah hiner ye willnae tak it sair.  It wis braw crack. Forbye, Ah hinnae lauched sae muckle in a lang while.” I have sent the message to MI5 for decoding.  

Isla Valassie, cultural spokesperson for Better Together as well as head of the Scots Cringe Preservation Campaign and the Kenneth McKellar Appreciation Society said, “Lord Robertson is correct.

"There is no culture or language in Scotlandshire, only propaganda. People in Scotlandshire have always created propaganda dressed up as daft wee songs, for example "Ye cannae fling pieces oot a 20 story flat" which is nothing but a whinge about housing policy. That’s all it ever is with Scotlandshire, whinge and chips on the shoulder.”

Thankfully however, to counter all the lame nationalist attempts at culture, it appears the British Ministry of Defence has come to the rescue and is performing a series of good British cultural events in Paisley this week. It is unclear what the MOD has to do with culture but after the hell I have experienced undercover, it is clear the UK government needs to use all the firepower it can to destroy this “cultural renaissance” some people in Scotlandshire like to think is happening. So hopefully this “Mod” event will look less like a “feis” and more like Britain’s year long Armed Force day. Now that is real culture for you right there!

---

Related Articles

Express : Scottish pupils taught to sing for separation

Lord Robertson :  Abertay Debate

Comments

Due to the huge number of complaints, comments are no longer banned on BBC Scotlandshire News pages.

Comments or no comments, it's still OUR job to tell YOU what to think - NOT the other way around.