26/07/2012 Newsnight Scotland

medals, it probably have come down Tonight on Newsnight Scotland:

After hearing the sports minister there, is your Geiger counter are

going zoink at maximum volume? Is Olympo-mania north of the border as

intense as in London? And his Olympo-scepticism irrational

reaction to the hype or deeply unpatriotic? And thanks to the

Jubilee and Olympic celebrations, the Union Jack is everywhere on our

high street. Will it make Scotland a feel more British?

But perhaps you feel -- packs you agree with Boris Johnson that the

Giga cancer will make Olympo-name you go zoink. What are the

qualities of zoinkiness? Big economy is sliding deeper and

deeper into recession. Is there any room for scepticism or is it deeply

unpatriotic? Here is Catriona Renton.

If you do not like sport, you had probably better look away now. In

fact, you might want to leave the country for the next 2.5 weeks.

After 69 days of torch relays and back-to-back run-up chit-chat on

the TV, you might even already be sick of the build up. Or have

scenes like these that she did you up, momentarily distracted you from

the mundane, lifted you from the gloomy summer? In a week which has

brought some of the worst economic news we have had since the Second

World War. The Prime Minister is hoping the Olympic spirit will make

us all feel good about ourselves. Of course, this is the time of some

economic difficulty for the UK but look at what we are capable of

achieving as a nation, even at a difficult economic time? Are we

ready? The mayor of London certainly has enormous enthusiasm.

And I have never seen anything like this in all my life. The excitement

is growing so much, I think the Geiger counter of Olympo-mania is

going to go zoink off the scale. seems that everyone who is anyone

is getting into it. From some of our best-known sporting faces, to

one of the UK's most famous octogenarians. The royal family and

huge crowds on the streets of London. And the First Minister has

sent a video of his own good luck message to Scottish Olympians which

the Scottish government have captured -- casually dubbed the sq

go Olympians. By wish London 2012 the best of Scottish luck. So this

really is the final countdown to what will seem like saturation for

some, and to sporting heaven for others on the box. Will this cheer

us up and make us spend more on the associated paraphernalia all will

you be running for the hills? I am joined now by Dr Greg Philo

from Glasgow University Media Unit and by the journalist Katie Grant.

I suppose if Scotland are scare Olympians then we... And trip

Olympians for the Isle of drippy. What is the question? Are we

looking at happiness here or promoting the the economy? I think

it does promote the iconic a bit. Than are you excited about this?

Truth filly, no. To be honest with you, it has not been well organised

in the sense that it could be a people's Festival. They should have

by now realised that the great bulk of this is for television so it

does not matter which city you have got it in. They should have

disbursed the Games right the way through the country. Had the

cycling in Manchester or whatever, moved it right the way out through

the country. The fact that you then have billions of people watching on

television, really doesn't matter to the people where it is going on.

But you create a people's festival. To be fair they would say they did

it by running round the country with the Olympic torch. That is

pathetic! Why not have the actual games throughout the country.

of them are. And little bits of the mark, that is right. Are you

excited? Well, I am trying to be excited. I am not a great sporting

fan but I do know once it gets going I will certainly watch it. I

think the build-up has been a bit hysterical. If I hear the word

amazing once more, I do not know what I will do but we will. Said an

1,000 times! We have defined a new word. -- 7,000 times. I do think

the Olympics has generated, would you like sport or not, has

generated good feeling. Look at the way the torch was greeted. You may

not like it but thousands of people turned out in Scotland, England, in

the pouring rain and terrible weather. I did not go but lots of

people did go. And they tell the opinion polls that they want to

watch the Olympics as well. I mean it is pathetic compared to what

they should have done. They could have really disbursed it and had

millions of people watching up and down the country. Hasn't Katy got a

point. Isn't this becoming one of these issues that it is fashionable

for the chattering classes to be sceptical about it. But in missiles

on people's routes. The bottom line is most people think it is great.

will watch the table tennis or beach volleyball. There are things

which will be nice to look at but my point whizz it is not being done

in a way which has actually involved the nation -- my point is

it has not involved the nation. nobody expected the crowds when

they had run round with the torch. But what if they had dispersed it.

You could have had all the major centres all with their Olympic

Games going on. But the Olympics does not work like that. It has to

be focused on a city. You have some enthusiastic like Boris Johnson,

who whatever you think of Boris Johnson, has got out there and

really sold the Olympics and for London, it is a great thing.

Glasgow will have its turn at the Commonwealth Games. Four cities, it

is better for the athletes. I do think the Olympic Committee

something which does leave me a bit cold when the head of the Olympic

Committee said when he is staying at the Hilton, we have got to stay

somewhere. That is like me having a Porsche and saying, I have got to

have a car. We can snipe away at that but I think the generation of

enthusiasm has been great. I think that the money figures that it will

supposedly generate are wishful thinking. But you think it could

provide some sort of economic boost? Any spending money will. It

is a Keynesian argument that if you bend -- Berry money in the ground

and let people did it up then you increase. The problem is we have

already had a large part of it by building the facilities. You still

stimulate demand and spending. They could have spent it much more

wisely. The amounts of money that they spent are probably pretty

small in terms of what is needed to get the British economy going.

was curious about that. Do you think the economic effect will beat

that there are thousands and thousands of people coming to the

UK and they will spend money here. I suppose what the government would

like to see his it was that plus an effect on the morale of the

population of that we should rush out and buy something. I think the

way they have done it will not get back. If you had had it in

different places, you would have had masses of tourists going to

different places. They have focused on London, overstretched the

facilities there so you have warnings saying don't go to London

because there will be no where to stay and they have had a fall in

tourist bookings. Don't go away because we will bring you back

later. The tomorrow night, the man who is

arguably Scotland's greatest ever Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy, will lead

the British athletes through the stadium proudly carrying the Union

Jack. There may not be any political intent but the flag has

become the symbol of the summer. Might this sense of pride in

Britain start having an unintended consequence on the future shape of

the United Kingdom? Seeing a flag you were not quite

expecting can have all sorts of unpredictable consequences. Indeed,

this seems to have become a theme of this Scottish summer. At the

Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The Olympic Torch Relay. And even

backing Andy Murray at Wimbledon. The strongest visual symbols has

not been prominent in Scotland for many years. Many companies are

using the Union Flag in their marketing. People have a problem

because they thought it was associated with the Empire. The

Scottish left have more of a problem than the British are left.

They have all but luggage and then the nature of Unionism and seeing

the Tory Unionist story narrative as the dominant one. But there is

no doubt we have seen far more of the flag recently, in a completely

benign and non- threatening way. Just head for any Scottish High

Street. I have just been outside doing a spot of shopping. Let's see

what is in this carrier bag which you will notice has plenty of Union

flags on it. First of all, I thought I would have a sandwich for

my lunch. Then for dinner tonight I quite fancied a cottage pie, all

washed down with a glass of a soft drink. And I am very grateful to my

colleagues and I thought I would Might this positive use of the

union flag bolster the campaign to keep the Scotland in the UK or help

finally separate the debate about the best constitutional

arrangements for Scotland from the It's possible with an independent

Scotland and I believe in an element of Scottishness and

Britishness. In the last couple of decades, all of us, we have over

simplified this debate in talking about the Scottishing of Scottish

identity and culture. There has always been a majority British

identity in Britain so far. I think that will continue into the

foreseeable future. The issues on how it's represented? Can they put

together a progressive modern future of Britain? It's fair to

presume many of the people responsible for the union flag

marketing aren't thinking of Scottish politics. It's getting

harder to exclude Scotland from any UK-wide advertising campaign.

still possible to treat Scotland as a discreet market that the big

issue is whether or not it's cost effective. It's easier for big

buyers in London to buy big campaigns, in terms of targeting

big populations they want to target as big a population as possible

because it's cost effective for them to do that. The union flag has

been fashionable before, if not, perhaps, in Scotland. Remember the

Cool Britannia craze in the late '90s. If you think flags have no

real importance in the modern world, well just ask the North Korean

women's football team. We're joined now from London by

Graham Bartram, Chief Vexillologist at The Flag Institute.

You are an expert in flags and not in making people upset? That is

right. Sometimes we do both. Let's get the Koran thing -- Korean thing

out of the way. It is obvious why that was wrong? Two countries at

war and you swap their flags. One of the problems is, in the Olympics,

North Korea and South Korea aren't called North Korea and South Korea.

It's not so obvious what the difference is when you see it that

way. They could have looked at one of your catalogues on the internet

and they would have found out. in the Olympic flag manual.

right. Are flags really important? I don't just mean about Korea.

There have been other rows like this. Are they manufactured rows or

do you think people do really feel deeply about these sort of things?

People get really upset about this. I mean, imagine if you have just

won the 100 metres or 200 metres and your National Anthem is playing

and they raise your flag upside down. It's not really on, is it?

People do get upset about getting flags wrong. I'm trying to think

what would happen if someone in Team GB won and they hoisted the

French flag, apart from initial gasps people would think it's funny,

wouldn't they? I suspect two countries who aren't at war would

find it an amazing mistake. The athletes themselves might not be

quite so amused. The audience might be happy to laugh it off. When you

have two countries at war you need to be more careful. I'm interested

in your thoughts on this widespread use. We have seen, not just for the

Olympics, but for the Jubilee celebrations as well, a number of

Union Jack every where up this side of the border that is not normally

on public display. On buildings, in events that communities have

organised in packaging in shops. Does that surprise you? It does

slightly. Scotland has, until this year, been fairly sol tire, sort of,

centred. You don't tend to find many union flags north of Newcastle.

I see no problem in having a British identity and a Scottish

identity. I'm a Scot. You know, I have a strong Scottish identity. I

also have a British identity. I can't see why you can't have both.

You nailed your colour to the mast there. Thank you very much. Do you

think this will have an effect on any broader debates about

referendums? Contingency probably will, yes. It sends a clear message,

doesn't it, that a big country does better, in the sense, of a small

country. Does it? In what sense? suppose the UK comes forth in the

medals table. That is from a huge national effort from... Supported

by the National Lottery. The comparison is with Rangers football

club or the Royal Bank of Scotland really. No-one who is in favour of

independence will vote against it because Scotland wasn't in the

euros? In the euro football Championship. I don't understand

the argument? If you are a big country you can sustain shocks much

better, as in the case of the Royal Bank of Scotland, or you can

organise a regional policy for sport or for the economy which has

60 million behind it instead of five million. That makes you

stronger. Countries of five million don't have a lot to say in the

world. That is the truth. Have you been surprised by the prevalence of

Union Jack. They say they do big national marketing campaigns. If

there were objections to this in every supermarket that you go into

these days, I'm pretty sure the supermarkets would have changed the

policy quickly? I think it's been great. I don't think it will have

any bearing in what happens in 2014 or with the independence debate.

People separate out sport from everything else. People have been

happy this year, in this miserable weather, to get behind things that

seem positive. This year it happens to be UK-wide things. The Jubilee

and the Olympics. I think people have lifted themselves up and

thought, we will get behind it. Scots do get behind, you know, UK

things. That is what we do. I think it's been great to see. As for it

having, sort of, bigger political implications I don't think it lfplt

the Olympics will be gone in a forth night. You were talking about

the big country thing. Do you think that Union Jackish will have any

effect at all? I do, not just the pictures of the Union Jack, the

sense of it being a national effort and that a big country that is

united does very well. I think that makes a difference in people's

minds. Yeah, I do. I think it does. You saw that the last time around.

When the cyclists did well and Chris Hoy was talking about how

brilliant it was working in Manchester. That does make a

difference. Everyone will have forgot been this in a couple of

year's time? Not necessarily. I think it carries over with a sense.

There is a strong sense in Scotland that it is one country. That

underneath all the... I think you find that amongst a lot of people.

That Britain is one country? Britain is one country stkpwhrufplt

think, no. You think... I think people will forget. I think they

will go back to thinking just like they did before. It might have a

tiny effect, I don't really think that people are going to think of

the Olympic Games and the Union Jack when they think of the debate

on Scottish independence. We will have to leave it there. Thank you

have to leave it there. Thank you very much. The front pages : The

The Guardian: That is all we have time for this week. We are back

again on Monday, until then, good Hello, the Olympic Park looked

amazing in the sunshine this week, that is set to change on Friday. A

risk of showers pushing in across the south-east of England. Showers

to the north-west of Scotland. Many places will be dry with sunshine.

Temperatures across northern areas struggling, 21 degrees in Yorkshire.

In the south, 23 degrees in London as opposed to the 30 we saw a

couple of day's ago. Sunshine coming through to the west of

England. On the north coast it will be cooler. That is the case across

Wales. A fine afternoon with patchy cloud and sunshine. You will have

to dodge the showers in Northern Ireland being pushed in by the wind.

The showers will merge to give longer spells of rain across north-

west Scotland particularly to the north of the Great Glenn. On Friday

16 in Inverness. On Saturday showers will become more widespread.

Further south a lot lower. Bristol going from 24 on Friday to 19 on

Saturday. The bulk of England and Wales having a dry day on Saturday.