The latest outburst of British unionist propaganda that I have come across is the Minister for Arts Heritage and Tourism, Rebecca Pow, proclaiming the Edinburgh International Festival to be a “massive British showcase of our arts, our culture, our performers, our musicians, our actors , our writers” she then goes onto describe, amongst this self-styled Brit fest, without a hint of irony,  the military tattoo as the “piece de residence”. Apparently amidst our great British culture we just don’t have the words to describe how good it is. What annoys me about this propaganda, is that it’s lazy. It’s a poorly thought out attempt to stick a Union Jack on an event hosted in Scotland that is proud to involve countries from around the globe. What makes the festival great is its internationalism, its diversity. It was created as an arts festival in 1947 to bring countries together. It was a festival conceived to heal the wounds of war through the languages of the arts. It has grown to include jazz, literature, theatre, drama and at every turn has been decidedly non-competitive. So it’s sad to hear a minister of the United Kingdom Government proclaiming Britain being best at all this art and culture stuff. It’s typical of the narrow-minded nationalism that is the Brexit movement. And yet we in the SNP are criticised for being a national party even though our mantra is for an inclusive Scotland that welcomes immigration and embraces diversity. With a newly found budget of £100 million to sell Brexit to the electorate, sadly we can expect a lot more of this Union Jack nonsense. Let’s recognise it for what it is. It’s an advertising campaign just like many others trying to sell you something you either don’t need or already have.

While the Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, finds new ways to rip the United Kingdom out of the European Union causing maximum damage to trade, the economy and international relations, his opposition counterpart, Jeremy Corbyn does what he does best, nothing. When the Labour Party leader should be raging against the machine, he is asleep at the wheel of a juggernaut careering off the cliff edge. The clues in the title. Opposition leader. His job is to hold the UK Government of the United Kingdom up to scrutiny. Question it, hold it to account, constantly ask it to consider other, better options. Instead he is busy fighting off the members of his own party. With May gone and Johnson in place, the Labour Party are considering who their next leader will be and the used to be politicians and the wanna be politicians are manoeuvring to be in the right camp. Many will be looking to progress their own careers and fixing your line to a rising star is one way of climbing the greasy pole of politics. The hard bit is deciding who that star is. It wasn’t that long ago that the Labour Party, if not the parliamentary Labour Party, declared Jeremy to be the answer. Now they don’t even know what the question is.