A 22 year old woman, originally English but living in Scotland for the last 18 years, has been visciously assaulted by a Scot in Aberdeen for having an “English” accent. She has been left with two black eyes, a broken cheek bone, severed nerves in one of her eyes and the possibility of needing plastic surgery. Grampian Police said “Whilst this is clearly a despicable act, it is still unfortunately not uncommon for racially motivated incidents to take place”.
Beaten up for being English
Back in 2006, a 7 year old Scottish boy was punched in the face by a Scottish man in his mid-twenties who did it because the boy was wearing an England football shirt. When the boy’s father confronted the man he punched the father in the face as well. At around the same time as this incident, a 44 year old disabled Englishman was dragged from his car and beaten up in Aberdeen, leaving him with breathing difficultues.
When the video from three years ago came out the other day showing Prince Harry referring to a member of one of his platoon as “our little paki friend”, politicians and racial groups lined up to condemn him and demand an apology. The first politician to condemn Harry for using the word “paki” was David Cameron. The same David Cameron who, back in 2006, said that the English are ignorant of the Scots, citing the regular portrayal of Scots on ITV’s “the Bill” as drunken yobs as evidence of our ignorance.
Where is David Cameron’s condemnation of this latest racist assault by a Scot on an English person? Or are his laughable ambitions for a Conservative resurgence in Scotland too important to risk upsetting the Scots? If there is English ignorance of Scotland and the Scots then it is amongst the out-of-touch, British political class typified by David “I’ve got Scottish blood coursing through my veins” Cameron.
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The sad thing is that it only takes the despicable actions of a handful of people to cause all the trouble.
The real problem is that this handful are not constrained by the majority simply because anti-English attitudes are considered normal – even Jack McConnell, the former First Minister of Scotland thought nothing of making public announcements during the World Cup stating not that he wanted Scotland to do well, but that he wanted England to do badly. Most politicians are very careful in what they say and avoid causing widepsread offence. McConnell’s comments of course met widespread approval. And therein lies the problem.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:47 pmGrampian Police said “Whilst this is clearly a despicable act, it is still unfortunately not uncommon for racially motivated incidents to take place”
Of the 429 racially aggravated crimes in Aberdeen in 2008 only 25 (around 5%) were directed against the English. Since the English make up by far the biggest “minority” in Scotland this would suggest that the Scots are very tolerant of the English.
Where there headlines in the Daily Mail when the other 95% were attacked.
There’s more to this story than meets the eye. I find it pretty unbelievable that someone who has live in Scotland since they were four still speaks with an English accent.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:58 pmI used to live in Scotland with my wife – she is English, I am Scottish. While she was never assaulted, she was often sent to Coventry or left out of things for no discernable reason other than being English. In Scotland, they’re very up on equal rights and against racism – but if the racism is white on white, they don’t want to know, especially if the recipient is English.
January 15th, 2009 at 9:07 pmYet if you look at the figures for the Highlands and Islands it’s a much higher proportion and in Scotland as a whole it’s about 20% of racially aggravated assaults according to some figures I saw earlier today.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:02 pmWith all the frenzy of harry-charles by the media, social & polictical agendas of organizations festooned with scots, somehow got a bit overlooked.
Proberly the other 95% – not a woman of 24 with fractured cheekbones.
Still never mind, only English, another notch for Brave heart
January 16th, 2009 at 8:39 am“even Jack McConnell, the former First Minister of Scotland thought nothing of making public announcements during the World Cup stating not that he wanted Scotland to do well, but that he wanted England to do badly.”….
Sorry David B. Scotland didn’t actually manage to get to the last world cup – they very rarely do on account that they have crap players with mullet hair dos and ugly girlfriends…
McConnell actually said he would be supporting the teams that England would be playing – whoever they were. These comments were backed up by tennis ace, Andy Murray (anyone but England) and former DJ Radio Five anchor man, Nicky Campbell (Taliban Tam) – who proclaimed he would even support a Taliban XI if they were playing England… Obviously, Campbell’s hatred of England is selective as he has managed to carve out a very lucrative career for years in London.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:15 amIn the Highlands, 27% of racially aggravated attacks are against the English. However 14% of the population of the Highlands are English. The other people of non-Scottish origin make up about 4%. After doing the maths this means that you are ten times more likely to be racially assaulted in the Highlands if you are Polish or Pakistani than if you are English. This just reinforces the point I made earlier
Taking 3 or 4 isolated incidents and coming to some general conclusion about the Scots is meaningless. So is making general conclusions from anecdote.
As for Joke McConnell’s remarks, all that demonstrates is how low the caliber of people are in the Scottish Labour Party.
January 16th, 2009 at 6:40 pm[...] Comments Dave on Racist attacks on English “not uncommon” in ScotlandAlfie the OK on Racist attacks on English “not uncommon” in ScotlandWessexMan on Racist [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 2:19 pm[...] father in the same article if “Anyone but England” is a bit of harmless banter. Or this woman who was assaulted for being English and it wasn’t even in a world cup year. Or you could [...]
June 19th, 2010 at 10:11 pmActually the 22 year old woman has a Scottish accent, I remember the articles that came out when she was attacked. Many people said when you heard her speak you would not of known that she was English Born.
What about the abuse us Scott’s get in England,I lived there, my Mum’s Boss kept asking her when she was going to go back to her own country.
There are many English people living and working in Scotland and most Scots, could not care less what nationality people are. My boyfriend is English and has never had a problem with being English, he loves Scotland as he feels that people are much more friendlier than people in the South.
He also likes the ABC t shirts as he sees them for what they are tongue in cheek, your stupid if you believe that Scott are going to buy them because they and then be incited to go out and hit the first English person they find.
Are you going to complain about the ABF any one anyone apart from France, made for the English market.
June 20th, 2010 at 1:26 am