[0762]

After a whole day of bbc Truss-Tory "propaganda" broadcasting to a cynical Scottish audience, one must say, "God help us when the Queen passes"!! It has to be a long holiday somewhere far away for me or I'll seriously "lose my marbles". Briefly listening to Truss talking about a "strong Union" and yet nothing else on the subject mentioned at all in her whole speech o/s 10 Downing Street - a joke!! There's an old Mark Twain barb from years ago when he said, "It's easier to con people than convince them they have been conned"! This is an appropriate analysis of Brit Unionism's lazy and ludicrous propaganda system. What this ideology stands for is the right of Unionists to "line their pockets" and appoint cronies. They have an inflated sense of entitlement and privilege and their modus operandi is to use the institutions of the British state for their own personal gain. The need to constantly lie about this and the system has set the seeds for its own destruction. Energy prices are set to destroy about half of all businesses while the owners of these enterprises have looked to the Tories to take care of them. No longer the case btw!! Tory Unionists are deliberately setting out to put large numbers of the middle class in penury. Hence, Tory-supporting Unionists are about to learn the harsh lesson about the nature of the "free market" ideology. Today at Balmoral, an elderly monarch who has never been subject to any democratic accountability will meet/invite a woman who is chosen by nobody in Scotland to govern. Truss has been anointed by mostly elderly, racist, fascist Tories down south. This farce is what passes for "democracy" in Scotland. The Unionists preposterously claim Scotland is not a colony. The best weapon the imperialist has is the mind of the colonised people btw. This needs to be redressed before Scotindy becomes a reality and it is achievable with the proper campaign methods as the days of the Union are indeed numbered IMO. The Unionists have sown their own "seeds of destruction"!!

[hibeejim21]

The tories don't see Scotland as a colony, they see it as literally a part of England.

[0762]

Years ago I never really "twigged" why the North British Hotel in Princes St, Edinburgh, was actually given that name. Walked past it many times and didn't perceive how politically significant it was from the point of view of some rich politically inspired Tory-Unionist(s) who actually named it that way to emphasise or "rubber stamp" the British presence in Scotland. There are many other examples of this extreme practise in Scotland where these bastards must impose their superiority in some way. Indeed, New Elizabeth House in Edinburgh is a classic case of "Look!!! We, the British govt are here competing with your devolved Scottish govt. We are your masters"! Although Tory morons like Alistair "Union" Jack would never utter such a statement of superiority and intent to usurp our devolved govt. And yet their leaders don't mix with the Scottish public at all and they play to a stage-managed audience full of Tories on the few occasions they visit Scotland, knowing full well they are not welcome!! Needless to say, the North British Hotel changed its name decades ago to The Balmoral Hotel. I guess somebody with a wee bit of savvy realised how inappropriate such a name actually was in a progressive country like Scotland. Independence is normal!! We need to gain our self-determination as soon as practically/politically possible and get away from these fascists.

[ritchiebaby]

I always understood that the hotel was named after the North British Railway, who owned Waverley Station.

[0762]

That's interesting, but if true it still confirms that Brit govt sentiment at that time of Scotland being North British eh!! The term has hardly been used for a very long time and IMO the reason for that is linked to the change in the political landscape when many Scots wanted constitutional change and pushed for it albeit the end result was devolution and not Scotindy YET.

[ritchiebaby]

It is true - the North British Railway was a Scottish company based in Edinburgh and it's funding chairman was John Learmonth from Edinburgh. It had nothing to do with the British Government.

Learmonth wanted to fund railways in the Central Belt and the Scottish Borders to link with the English railway lines at Berwick and Carlisle. They also laid lines in the North of England to connect Carlisle and Newcastle. The company also built both Tay Bridges and the Forth Bridge. It became part of LNER in 1923 and the hotel name was changed in 1991 after extensive refurbishment.

[St Charles Owl]

0762, I admire your passion but not everything done in the name of Britain or the UK was done just to piss off the Scottish!! From a marketing perspective calling something North British gives it the chance to exist in Scotland and Northern England without upsetting either side of the border, maybe wouldn't work now but they obviously thought it would then. And however you want to phrase it, from a geographical perspective the country of Scotland is in the North of Britain along with quite a bit of England as well, but as you say its a regional name that never took hold or was simply never used except by a Scottish company.

Politicians have always played to a sympathetic and stage-managed audience, every one of them does it, especially these days!! The Tories only meet with Scottish Tories, no chance they are going to let in anyone else with the vetting they have for these events, and neither would any other party.

[hibeejim21]

Actually the Balmoral was originally called the "north british" hotel.

But its untrue to suggest the north british railway had nothing to do with the british government or that it was exclusively scottish, its entire purpose was to link with english railways at berwick/carlisle with the aid of parliament and presumably to enrich a lot of associated people and companies, who helped prevent branch lines falling to competitors like caledonian. I'd suggest Learmonth as a tory had a lot of friends in parliament and government.

That said he had a big influence on Edinburgh, particularly with its architecture and i believe he was lord provost too.

[0762]

It is true - the North British Railway was a Scottish company based in Edinburgh and it's funding chairman was John Learmonth from Edinburgh. It had nothing to do with the British Government.

Learmonth wanted to fund railways in the Central Belt and the Scottish Borders to link with the English railway lines at Berwick and Carlisle. They also laid lines in the North of England to connect Carlisle and Newcastle. The company also built both Tay Bridges and the Forth Bridge. It became part of LNER in 1923 and the hotel name was changed in 1991 after extensive refurbishment.

Learmonth also a Tory politician and dare I say it - I'm totally unsurprised re that fact either (after perusing his history of vg contribution to the railways), sadly attached to Tory Unionism like a huge percentage of individuals of his ilk and wealth at that time. Has it even changed now come to think of it!!? One cannot ignore the techniques deployed by lots more cynical political people beyond Learmonth to impose this message of "we own you", the message of absolute power (that they lost greatly in 1997 and still can't come to terms with it!!) to Scotland and the Scottish people. It's one of the reasons (one of many!) why we are where we are now politically in Scotland AND ABOUT TIME TOO!! The name title, North British.. still says a lot re the political period when Scotland was effectively "under the thumb" of the Brit establishment and Empire was still "ticking over" nicely - all gone, over, although we are listening even now, in the year 2022, to certain Tory-Brexit morons down south "banging on" about a return to such a period of greatness, BUT lets not forget the "darkness", the macabre practises, attached to that period of history as well eh!! Lots of it conveniently ignored by these morons btw.

[ritchiebaby]

jim, the NBR Co was a private company and it's only connection with the British Govermment was that it required Acts Of Parliament to proceed with it's plans, just like the English companies. The fact that it had numerous rich shareholders who no doubt were in it for profit did not stop it being a Scottish company, and although you mentioned the word "exclusive", I did not.

I have no doubt that Learmonth being a Tory helped greatly in getting the permissions and backing required. Don't forget too that all the major engineering works of the period were only built because of rich people spending money. Equally they were only built with the toil of poor people and it's that (unequal) partnership that gave us iconic sights like the Forth Rail Bridge.