People, mainly Scots, complained to the BBC after the former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, made anti-Scottish comments saying that the Scots are now so Socialist they have to live on handouts given to them by the hardworking and productive people of England, mainly the South East of England. He believes that Scotland - the nation that once produced great inventors such as the inventor of the TV, the telephone, Tarmac, the US Navy, the Bank of England - is now no longer entrepreneurial and can only live on English handouts.....
Outrage over Kelvin MacKenzie's Scottish slurs
By Nicole Martin Digital and Media Correspondent and Auslan Cramb
13/10/2007
The Telegraph
The BBC was inundated with complaints after Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of The Sun, made disparaging comments about Scottish people on Question Time.
MacKenzie, who is notorious for his forthright opinions, provoked outrage after he claimed that the Scots lacked entrepreneurial skills and enjoyed spending but not making money.
MacKenzie is notorious for his forthright opinions
He was shouted down and booed by the studio audience as he attacked Prime Minister Gordon Brown (a Scot) for being "a socialist Scot who wants to spend every single penny you earn. Never forget that."
Challenged by another panellist, Chuka Umunna of the think tank Compass, Mr MacKenzie went on: "Scotland believes not in entrepreneurialism like in London and the South East.
"He [Brown] could not find anybody who could carry his bag better than another Scot, so he grabbed Darling [The Chancellor] from wherever he was.
"The reality is that the Scots enjoy spending it, they do not enjoy creating it, which is the opposite of down in the South."
His comments, which were made on Thursday evening, drew 200 complaints to the BBC and were condemned by Scottish businessmen.
Duncan Bannatyne, a Scottish entrepreneur and panellist on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, accused Mr MacKenzie’s of attacking "the character of the Scottish people."
He said it was "plainly wrong" for him to assert that Scottish people do not understand business and enterprise.
"The spirit of Scottish enterprise goes back hundreds of years," he said.
"Adam Smith was the intellectual who explained markets and free enterprise, Robert Dunlop brought us Dunlop tyres, John Logie Baird brought us TV, Alexander Bell gave us the telephone, John MacAdam gave us Tarmac and it was even a Scot, William Patterson, who founded the Bank of England."
But Mr MacKenzie, who has a column in the English edition of The Sun but not the Scottish version defended his position.
"Scotland used to be a great nation of industrialists and entrepreneurs who stamped their authority on the world. That is no longer the case," he said.
"The infrastructure of Scotland exists solely on the handouts of the clever English generating wealth in London and the South East. They [the Scots] are no longer the great wealth generators they once were."
The BBC (which itself has often attacked the Scots) said it would invite Mr Mackenzie back on the programme despite his outspoken views. "Kelvin MacKenzie is a high-profile former tabloid editor with very strong opinions," he said.
"We consider him to be a suitable panellist since the programme is committed to including a wide range of views and perspectives. His views are controversial but robust argument is what Question Time is all about."
telegraph.co.uk
Outrage over Kelvin MacKenzie's Scottish slurs
By Nicole Martin Digital and Media Correspondent and Auslan Cramb
13/10/2007
The Telegraph
The BBC was inundated with complaints after Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of The Sun, made disparaging comments about Scottish people on Question Time.
MacKenzie, who is notorious for his forthright opinions, provoked outrage after he claimed that the Scots lacked entrepreneurial skills and enjoyed spending but not making money.
MacKenzie is notorious for his forthright opinions
He was shouted down and booed by the studio audience as he attacked Prime Minister Gordon Brown (a Scot) for being "a socialist Scot who wants to spend every single penny you earn. Never forget that."
Challenged by another panellist, Chuka Umunna of the think tank Compass, Mr MacKenzie went on: "Scotland believes not in entrepreneurialism like in London and the South East.
"He [Brown] could not find anybody who could carry his bag better than another Scot, so he grabbed Darling [The Chancellor] from wherever he was.
"The reality is that the Scots enjoy spending it, they do not enjoy creating it, which is the opposite of down in the South."
His comments, which were made on Thursday evening, drew 200 complaints to the BBC and were condemned by Scottish businessmen.
Duncan Bannatyne, a Scottish entrepreneur and panellist on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, accused Mr MacKenzie’s of attacking "the character of the Scottish people."
He said it was "plainly wrong" for him to assert that Scottish people do not understand business and enterprise.
"The spirit of Scottish enterprise goes back hundreds of years," he said.
"Adam Smith was the intellectual who explained markets and free enterprise, Robert Dunlop brought us Dunlop tyres, John Logie Baird brought us TV, Alexander Bell gave us the telephone, John MacAdam gave us Tarmac and it was even a Scot, William Patterson, who founded the Bank of England."
But Mr MacKenzie, who has a column in the English edition of The Sun but not the Scottish version defended his position.
"Scotland used to be a great nation of industrialists and entrepreneurs who stamped their authority on the world. That is no longer the case," he said.
"The infrastructure of Scotland exists solely on the handouts of the clever English generating wealth in London and the South East. They [the Scots] are no longer the great wealth generators they once were."
The BBC (which itself has often attacked the Scots) said it would invite Mr Mackenzie back on the programme despite his outspoken views. "Kelvin MacKenzie is a high-profile former tabloid editor with very strong opinions," he said.
"We consider him to be a suitable panellist since the programme is committed to including a wide range of views and perspectives. His views are controversial but robust argument is what Question Time is all about."
telegraph.co.uk