I love this Mexican news report on the opening of the Queensferry Crossing. Despite describing it as joining the Capital, Edinburgh, with the “Cuidad de Feefay” (City of Feefay – which I admit gave me a chuckle), it still does a far better job of reporting the opening of this wonderful bridge than the BBC did.
La inauguración del Queensferry Crossing al este de Escocia, el mayor puente atirantado del mundo, es la#ImagenDelDía con @YuririaSierra pic.twitter.com/SXKyXkOmi4
— imagenYuri (@imagenYuri) August 29, 2017
The Mexican coverage clearly portrays the monumental achievement that this bridge is. Contrast that with the lacklustre coverage on the BBC, where the only thing worth noticing was the liberal peppering of the word “British” wherever they could fit it in.
It really has come to something when foreign news outlets, as far away as Mexico, provide far more sensible and balanced coverage of Scottish events than our own, supposedly national broadcaster.
Let’s be clear. The Queen may be officially opening the bridge on Monday (which is something I would have fought tooth and nail if it were up to me), and it may well be festooned with union flags for the occasion, but that implies far more “British” claim to the bridge than they deserve. Britain did not commission or fund this bridge. Britain is no more responsible for this bridge than Outer Mongolia is. Britain blocked funding for it, and British and unionist politicians called it “unnecessary”, and “a vanity project”.
Unionist trolls have been all over Twitter putting the bridge down. Apparently it isn’t Scottish at all, because it was built with the help of European workers, foreign companies, and Chinese steel. Putting aside the obvious stupidity of those statements, and the fact that we had to use Chinese steel because the UK Government closed all our steel mills (the remaining mills are finishing mills, not rolling mills, and couldn’t possibly produce the steel required), what is actually wrong with these so-called Scots? Is the cringe so strong in them that they can’t even bring themselves to celebrate this amazing national success story?
No, they hate it. They hate it because it was built without British money. They hate it because it represents Scotland achieving success without British help. They hate it because it shows we don’t need British help. It proves that we can achieve great things even with one hand tied behind our back. It proves we can do great things independently, bring them in more or less on time, under budget, and without any dodgy PFI nonsense.
For that very reason, and because, well, it’s magnificent, I love it, and I’ll think of that every time I cross it going to and from my home in the wonderful Kingdom of Feefay.
Fear Is Worse Than Fighting 