Guardsman of the Forth

Rebuilt Royal Scot Class 46115 “Scots Guardsman” approaches North Queensferry with the Great Britain V Railtour ex Waverley headed for Aberdeen, on day two of the weeklong tour. Photo shot from the Gun Battery at Carlingnose Point on North Queensferry.
The economist versus The Economist
So “mad Alex“, the loony-leader who wishes to depose Robert Mugabe and be the Next King of Scotland is all in a lather as his two-bit, tin-pot excuse for a so-called nation of sponging subsidy-junkies and haggis-munchers finds itself on the wrong end of two barrels of home (counties?) truth from those boys down at The Economist. The latest cover of the UK edition has caused an almichty-me fuss this side of Hadrian’s wall by labelling the place that gave the world Adam Smith: Skintland.
Under the foreboding threat “It’ll cost you – The price of Scottish independence” the nation is mapped out under place names including “Edinborrow – twinned with Athens”, “Obankrupt”, “Ben Novice”, “Rum Deal”, “Islay-offs” and my favourite “Shutland – leased to Norway”.
All a good jolly jape, and considering that the article it trails is a modestly more balanced and considered article, what’s the big deal?
Well, quite a lot says Salmond, who slams it as “sneering condescensions”. Which betray how London’s ruling and chattering classes “really regard Scotland.” Other’s too lay in to the tone of the cover, obvious candidates from the SNP along with Leslie Riddoch, Tim Montgomerie and a tweetful of others. Non-SNP politicians are decidedly less offended by the smear, agreeing that it’s all a jolly wheeze to bait the SNP with.
But here’s the rub: It’s wrong. There’s an inescapable, habitual, and chronic behaviour at play here that says “London knows best”, and everyone else is to be talked down to and patronised. There are many cases in history, and in most of them, the sneering patronisation which was “just a bit of fun” is now racism, sexism or bigotry. Knocking the Scots is the latest in a long line of discriminations that we need to call for what they are. Some racist jokes are funny – but they are still wrong.
In essence, this attitude suggests that Scotland just can’t achieve because it’s Scotland. It’s a blinkered value system, that detracts attention from raw realism and eschews considered debate for witty put-downs that shift the publications from the shelves and the attention from the truth. The Economist is an amateur in this game - try reading the Daily Mail to see how the professionals do it! It’s “Allo Allo” humour with a sinister undercurrent and betrays a disdain for Scotland’s credibility as a nation state that detracts from a more considered article in the pages within.
When the Bard himself wrote these prophetic lines, I suspect he was thinking of these days:
O wad some Power the giftie tie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us, An’ ev’n devotion!
Forth Bridge Floodlighting
A welcome return to the South Queensferry evening vista this month, has been the floodlit illumination of the bridge, especially so after the recent removal of all scaffolding on the completion of the new long lasting no repeat paint job.
Cromwell invades Scotland bringing havoc once again
Last Saturday saw the first foray of steam into Scotland for 2012 – if you exclude the permanent residents at Bo’ness and Grantown on Spey – when BR Standard Class 7 No 70013 steamed into Edinburgh Waverley station with the “Heart of Midlothian” tour.
Cromwell, like her republican namesake, brought chaos once again to Scotland on crossing the border. An over exuberant attempt to please the crowd by letting off smoke an steam while waiting in the Berwick loop led to a small fire starting in the neighbouring flora and consequentially sent the East Coast rail network into apoplexy with no less than four Inter City trains running up to 20 minutes late.
The culprit did however, escape unscathed herself from her fire starting misdemeanour to come proudly steaming into the Edinburgh station bang on time. This time, she berthed on platform 20, which allowed a large crowd (generally men of a certain age) to gather on the opposing – and critically longer – platform 2 to snap some classic three quarter shots of the loco, glinting in the sunlight flooding through Waverley’s ever brightening canopy. Previous specials have travelled the full length of platform 2, leaving frustrated photographers little opportunity to snap the subject from anywhere but 30 feet behind on the shorter platform.
After a brief rest, she was diesel hauled out of the station eastwards to drop her train at Craigentinny then west along “the Sub” then north towards a traversal of the Forth Bridge for a week’s rest at in the Kingdom of Fife. Oh how her namesake will be spinning in his roundhead grave!
Next Saturday she’ll return back across the Forth in the morning to make ready for a Carlisle bound lunchtime departure from Waverley under the title “The Auld Reekie”. This promises shots of the train crossing Slateford viaduct and of course, the eponymous ascent of Shap.












