Have you noticed how much talk of "Britain" and "British" there is all of a sudden? Not just from the Scottish Raj and English quislings in the UK Parliament, but on TV and in magazines, even in Sainsbury's. Yep, Sainsbury's is doing a "Best of British" promotion which seems to consist of things formerly known as "English" being called "British" and things formerly known as "Scottish" being called... er... "Scottish"...
My sister and brother-in-law weren't taking it lying down when they visited a Sainsbury's branch on Friday. Over to them...
We’ve been greatly distressed by Gordon Brown’s actions in formally (and undemocratically) abolishing England into Statelets of the Scottish Empire.
On going to Sainsbury’s today, we saw “British” everywhere - a huge “Best Of British” promotion, including a large ad suspended from the ceiling for “British Strawberries”.
Having challenged Sainsbury's (and Tesco) on such issues before, we had no fear. We collared a manager, who explained that Sainsbury’s “lumps” England, Scotland and Wales in together as the “UK”, or “Britain”.
“So what’s this, then?!!” Quick as a flash, we whipped some Sainsbury’s Scottish salmon from the fridge.
The manager was very good: “Well, salmon is a great Scottish delicacy..”
We were better:
“Another great delicacy is ENGLISH strawberries.”
At the end of the day, the guy was simply towing the company line and actually seemed to be in agreement with us as we talked on.
But like most of the electorate in England, it seems he can’t be bothered to speak up when it matters. Apathetic was not the word. Is the government putting something in the water? It’s Caledonian water at Sainsbury’s, by the way. And Highland Spring. And French. But not English.