Just how global a city London is is laid bare at almost every newsstand one walks past. Available to buy are typically Le Monde, The Irish Times, La Gazetta Della Sport and El Pais but can I get my hands on a Scotsman or a Herald? No way, José.
The tipping point for my mild frustration arrived yesterday when I saw Irish regionals available at a distinctly un-Irish tube stop with the Leinster Leader and Tipperary Star sticking in the memory. I don't know what the Scottish diaspora residing in London amounts to but surely it beats Tipperary's?
We wonder why some UK party leaders can sound so out of touch when talking about Scotland, we marvel at how Cabinet Ministers can call our First Minister 'John McDonnell' and we trust (or some of us do) that our nation is truly an equal partner in a United Kingdom.
But we're not even on the radar down south and if the union dividend doesn't even extend to the newsstands, what real hope can we have that it truly extends to the economy and effective political representation within intra-national bodies?
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17 comments:
You get Scottish papers at the stations Jeff. Euston and Victoria. You won't get them anywhere else.
Oh and get used to being mistaken for Irish, or perhaps the East coast accent isn't so easily confused.
You may have more luck with the Sundays... Scotland on Sunday prints a small run in the Isle of Dogs for London (though they may have moved printing presses again to Kent) and gets a few thousand sales from it. The daily Heralds and Scotsmans of this world don't bother because of distribution costs.
I don't know what the Scottish diaspora residing in London amounts to but surely it beats Tipperary's?
Such was the scale of emigration to England from Ireland, especially in the 50s and 60s but really for most of the time since - and so few emigrants, especially from the older generation, returned, that I would be surprised if the Tipp/Scotland exilic ratio wasn't close enough to one. I would imagine Scots exiles found it reasonably easy and cheap to get back.
in relation to Irish emigrants this is worth looking at - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215865/
Seamus,
Emigration from Scotland to England - particularly the south and London - was every bit as large, probably even larger than that from Ireland to England, especially during the 1950s and 60s and again during the 1980s. The difference is that I guess it was never seen as a 'proper' type of emigration.
Some may well have returned to Scotland in the better economic times, but I'd certainly think there are probably more Scots in London than Irish at the current time.
But it is also true that now there is more migration from England to Scotland than vice versa
I moved to London in '88 and could only get a paper at Euston or Victoria. By early '89 I could get the Herald every day from a wee shop on the corner of Pembridge Rd and Nottinghill Gate. I stayed in Kilburn and worked in Kensington so this was ideal for me. I had to lock my bike up outside in those days as it didn't fold... and that one still doesn't.
I could also get IRN-BRU from the off licence on the corner of Nottighill Gt and Campden Hill Rd. It was also available from Safeways. Caramel Logs and Wafers were found in supermarkets but not Teacakes.
Observer is right - go to the stations for your best chance of getting the home blatts.
WH Smith in Victoria always has the Post, Mail and SoS on a Sunday. During the week the Record is fairly ubiquitous. However, you can get the Scotsman and Herald at King's X, or at the newsagents on Horseferry Rd just up from Millbank/Lambeth Bridge.
Jeff,
In my neck of the woods you can get The Mail, Post and Hootsmon - I find it easier just to read online, I wouldn't even light my fire with any of them!
Most Londoners are interested in London, maybe the SE of England, that's fine by me but I get very upset that Westmidden thinks it knows best, when clearly it does not...
Could it be that any dearth of Scottish papers in London is more down to economics - i.e. a lack of demand - than any real manifestation of ignorance? How well would English regionals sell in, say, Edinburgh? And how many 'national' papers have editions purely for England as they have for Scotland?
Besides, those Scottish papers are out there in the Big Smoke - you just need to know where to look!
It is annoying. I've actually seen the SoS for sale in the Isle of Dogs and that was pretty galling as worked for the Sunday Herald at the time.
The Herald has stopped distributing print copies in London now because of the expense and the print timings. Not just a shame for ex-pat kilties it also diminishes the Scottish civic voice in the UK. The letters page just isn't the same kind of read online.
But guess what, the Daily Record is available at most good retailers. Smudge my byline there.
Thanks for the valuable folks, I did have a backup place out in Miswell Hill that has 1 SoS each week but it's more the principle of your own country not selling your national papers when it sells van loads of other titles which should, in theory, have a narrower sales base. Then again, it may highlight the apolitical nature of Scots and/or the lack of ambition from our main titles.
I will reluctantly call off the great Sunday Herald search though.
"but it's more the principle of your own country not selling your national papers"
Is it not a case of another country not selling your national papers?
Or even your country not selling its regional papers?
I used to get the Scotsman every morning at Ealing Broadway tube station and it was fairly easy to get in the West End. The Herald less so. SOS - no problem.
In the case of the Irish, I expect that the large numbers of papers available in London reflect the fact that the Irish feel themselves to be foreigners. Not so much the case for many Scots. My Irish ex-boss used to be strongly opposed to his being able to vote in British elections. The implication was, he claimed not unreasonably, that the "Brits" didn't really see the Irish as being properly independent. Didn't stop him voting Labour though!
David,
I was working on the assumption that the UK was the "country" and Scotland was the "nation".
So my country (UK) doesn't sell (many of) my national papers. No big deal really, i do personally read most stuff online as Daisy kindly suggests, but it's just plain weird when there's so many foreign titles available at every turn.
I've only been here a fortnight so maybe, as you suggest, they are more widely available than I'm giving them credit for.
I would say its more difficult to buy Herald/Scotsman in London today than 20 years ago.
Mind you, you will struggle to get a Herald in Montrose at 9am!
Sorry Observer, but when was the last time you were in London?
The only place to get Scottish papers is at Euston and Victoria? What absolute rubbish.
You can get them all over the city. Except the Herald that is, which no longer sends any copies down here.
I have struggled to buy Scotsman at Heathrow and not seen a Herald there. In the last year.
Sadly you can get our very own Gazzetta dello Sport- the Daily Record - anywhere.
I guess the Spanish people buying El Pais don't mind paying £2.50 for a three day old paper in a language that they can read. I don't think I would pay that for a 3-day old Herald, never mind a Scotsman.
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