Murdo’s World

As the starting gun for the independence referendum is fired (sort of) the predictable positions are taken and well-rehearsed lines are paraded. Except for the unfortunate Murdo Fraser who has misspoken on the deranged set of GB News as interviewed by a man who looks like what would happen if Robert Peston and Nigel Farage had a baby, and refers to ‘Chairman Sturgeon’ and her ‘Highland Goulags’.

It’s all very strange.

Then when asked why the rest of the UK shouldn’t just eject the recalcitrant Jocks Fraser goes into a wonderfully revealing soliloquy (from 1:48):

“We lose … roughly 1/3 of the land mass of Great Britain, probably about half of our territorial waters, we lose the magnificent resource that is Scottish fishing waters, we lose the opportunities from North sea oil and gas (still there despite Nicola Sturgeon’s best efforts), we lose the potential for renewable energy from Scotland’s coasts in the North Sea and the Atlantic, we lose access to barrier-free trade for scotch whisky and scotch salmon, all these fantastic exports, and the opportunity to study at some of the world’s greatest universities … and the joy of having Scots as part of the great British nation … why would you want to throw all that away?”

As a statement of abundance and a prospectus for independence, Fraser’s statement can’t really be matched. What a country!

If we turn all this around and say ‘we gain’:

“roughly 1/3 of the land mass of Great Britain, probably about half of our territorial waters, we gain the magnificent resource that is Scottish fishing waters, we gain the opportunities from North sea oil and gas, we gain the potential for renewable energy from Scotland’s coasts in the North Sea and the Atlantic, we gain access to barrier-free trade for scotch whisky and scotch salmon, all these fantastic exports, and the opportunity to study at some of the world’s greatest universities”.

Such bounty! It’s all magnificent to behold.

But the statement is horribly revealing for Murdo on a personal and a political will. Fraser’s use of subject pronouns is really odd. Who is the ‘we’ in the sentences about loss? It is clearly the Britain which he identifies with, and who in this scenario is assigned ‘ownership’ of these resources.

The next time Scotland is described as a blasted heath, a poor mendicant nation, propped up by the generosity of our southern neighbour, just quote Murdo!

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Comments (10)

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  1. Joseph says:

    What a load of old tired old codswallop from a man who does not even live in the real world, a typical tory unionist if ever there was one, talks a load of Shhhhite.

  2. Tom Ultuous says:

    ROFPML.

  3. Hector says:

    The truth at last
    He will be handcuffed shortly and sent off to Rwanda

  4. Chris Ballance says:

    Mike, how do you manage to wade through so much shite on our behalf?

    I mean to come across a wee gem like this, the amount of crap you must trawl through…. We are all truly grateful for the pain you inflict on yourself in pursuit of journalism. I don’t think I could handle 5 minutes of GBNews without therapy.

    Thank you!

    1. LOLs ‘I watch GB News so you don’t have to’ …

  5. D Campbell says:

    Or, he could well have added to, “why would you want to throw all that away” if there was a chance you could exploit and squander it for years to come? Another Murdo gem.

  6. meg macleod says:

    Great article…is the hangman’s noose tightening yet…? Too many folk holding his feet from the abyss I fear…the corruption,in my modest opinion lies deep beneath the ground where it is well hidden…..who? WHO?…ARE MY GOODNESS..who are these guys ruling your world while we eat sleep and play…..

  7. Tom Ultuous says:

    The Express has just regurgitated its “Sturgeon’s independence hopes brutally crushed as economic reality dawns on SNP leader” article on MSN where they claim her dream is ripped to shreds by none other than yer man Murdo Fraser. I’ve pretty much cut and paste Mike’s article into the comments section.

  8. Alasdair Macdonald says:

    And yet, on Good Morning Scotland, on Newsnight, on STV on Ch4 News etc when the ‘interviewer’ feeds him his prompts about Scotland being too wee and no very good, he will make no mention of these positive things, now will these interviewers even raise such matters with any of the Better Together moaners.

    In today’s opinion piece in the Guardian about the forthcoming Bye-elections in England, in which the editorial is urging voters in Wakefield to vote Labour in Wakefield and LibDem in Tiverton, it goes on to say that it will be electoral poison to allow the SNP to be admitted to a ‘progressive alliance’. And, yet, the same smug, bombastic Guardian eschews colonialism except in the cases of Scotland and Wales. Strangely, it does not appear to have any reservations about the reunification of Ireland.

  9. Colin Mccartney says:

    poor Murdo, the lights are on but nobody is home

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