April 1st post:
Scotland in Union can reveal today that there is a secret Scottish Government project to design a new Scottish flag, and that at least some of the options use the SNP’s yellow and black colours.
A civil servant who works in St Andrews House has passed pictures to SIU which appear to show a presentation from branding consultants, and minutes from an internal meeting to discuss flag options.
The civil servant, who naturally wishes to remain anonymous, told SIU: “Working with the SNP over the last few years has been a terrible experience, not least because their note-keeping and diary entry management seems to be all over the place, and whenever we return to a topic the ministers always seem to have forgotten previous events. I’ve kept quiet until now, but when I saw these documents on a desk, they were the final straw - and I felt I had to do something. I hope my pictures are useful to you.”
The source’s pictures show a presentation from an external branding consultancy which is labelled ‘Project Bratach’ and which sets out flag designs. It appears there are many options in the presentation, with the options shown being variations on the saltire.
Of even greater concern is another document, which appears to be the minutes of a meeting to discuss the project, and specifically the design options. In this document, we can assume ‘AD, from DmY LLP’ is the branding consultant presenting the options, and we can identify government ministers and officials in the abbreviations used (such as ‘MinEID’ referring to the Minister for Europe and International Development, and ‘CSecCEEA’ the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs).
The discussion shown in the extract in our source’s picture shows clearly that this confidential Scottish Government Steering Group has been discussing and refining options for a new flag, which we can assume is to be adopted by the Scottish Government. There is even a disturbing comment that yellow and black presents a ‘clean break’ from the colours of the union flag.
Commenting on this information, Alastair Cameron, Scotland in Union Director, said: “It is almost unbelievable that this month, during a pandemic, Scottish Government civil servants are spending time on this kind of divisive project. These incredible pictures appear to show a disturbing project to pursue fundamental changes on a partisan agenda. I can only imagine what this might have cost already, and it needs to stop now. The SNP must think they can get away with playing us all for Fools.”