Scotish Winter Festival - Sneak Preview

I thought I'd take a little look at the Scotland.org site, which the government uses to promote Scotland and in particular at the Scotish Winter Festival part of the site. This is the page dedicated to St. Andrew's Day. They claim to have found a Mexican visitor who said "Everybody sad that the streets would be full of people laughing, having a good time - it's awesome!"

This was on St Andrew's Day?

On the far right yellow box it says "St. Andrew's Day is also celebrated around the world in many countries and in cities such as - Stuttgart, Sydney, Chong Qing and Pskov." No details are given as to what these celebrations are about.

Even better is the Burns Night page. There's a link to the Burns Festivals that are on offer. First of all it says Burns Festivals 2007, I think they've already gone and we should be looking to 2008. Nevermind there's a link so that I can explore by region. Living in the South East of Scotland I thought I'd see what was available. This is what it says.

"The unique Scottish experience starts the moment you cross over into THE BORDERS from England: the accents are different, the beer in the pubs changes, and you find yourself in 1,800 square miles of spectacular countryside and woodland. The Borders is rich in golf courses – no fewer than twenty-one – and, with the RIVER TWEED flowing through it, also provides some of Scotland's best FISHING. The Borders is home to textile industry giants like PRINGLE and LYLE & SCOTT, and there are mills and shops dotted all over the area where you can find beautiful tweeds and knitwear. Another major source of revenue is the so called 'hidden economy'; which encompasses countryside management, sports, tourism and maintenance and which employs over four thousand people and contributes £41 million per annum to the local economy."

Underneath is a link to 'Weaving Stories' and it's dated June 2003! I've probably missed that - and no mention of any Burns celebrations.

Apart from the fact that the description is somewhat fanciful and fails to mention how rich the area is in history and beautiful landscape (except in passing) it reads like tourism tosh.

This is what the government is spending our taxes on! This is their manifestation of a Scottish Winter Festival