Angus Robertson's latest trivial drivel
The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Angus Robertson (or more likely one of his underlings), has penned another fluff piece in The Edinburgh Evening News, this time on the presence of foreign consulates in Scotland’s capital.
Robertson touts that “among non-sovereign state capitals in the world,” Edinburgh hosts “one of the oldest and biggest consular corps.” The 32 diplomatic missions encompass Embassies, Consulates and High Commissions. Apart from renewing passports for foreign nationals living in and visiting Edinburgh, and lobbying for an occasional university chair, it’s not clear what else these foreign outposts in the UK’s northern vassal nation actually do.
I was curious what other UK cities have foreign diplomatic missions:
Glasgow - 11
Manchester - 20
Birmingham - 9
Cardiff - 9
Leeds - 6
Belfast - 17
So outside London, that tallies to 104 foreign diplomatic outposts, of which Scotland has 43 (41%).
Of course, the capital city of sovereign nations hosts the most important and numerous diplomatic missions. London has 168 Embassies, Consulates and High Commissions and 222 abroad. By contrast, Scotland has nine offices abroad, co-located within UK embassies and high commissions, and the Scottish Administration’s website states:
Ambassadorial and diplomatic services for UK citizens are reserved functions and are provided by the UK Government Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The sovereign state of Norway, which has a population and resource base similar to Scotland’s, has 57 Foreign Embassies and 88 Consulates on its territory and 90 abroad.
Rather than publish trivial drivel boasting about the number of foreign consulates in Scotland’s capital, Angus Robertson and the rest of the devolutionistas masquerading as a ‘government’ in Scotland should focus on extricating their nation and its people from the unionist prison.
Then Scotland, like Norway, could resume its place amongst the world’s sovereign nations.
"Robertson touts that “among non-sovereign state capitals in the world,” Edinburgh hosts “one of the oldest and biggest consular corps.” "
Suffering Jesus!
Why doesn't he just go the full Jack McConnell and run a "Scotland is the bestest littleist country in the whole wide, wide World" marketing campaign?
He could bring back the Tellytubbies to front it.
Talking about Norway, let's not forget, a few months before the October 2014 referendum, Norway closed its Edinburgh consulate. In case anyone one was too dim to understand what was going on, they helpfully explained it was because 'Scotland wasn't a real country'.
It took them 70 years but hey, they got there I the end. I'd love to know it it was their initiative. Perhaps Cameron promised 90% of farmed Salmon, extra North Sea licenses + Rosebank and Jackdaw. Although their consulate is now back, Norwegians will be the last European country to welcome Scotland's liberation. Nor can't I see them accepting any Scottish application for EFTA. They are our friends, the same way as were the Vikings.