¡No esta permitido!

The above flag would be something that Heralds would refuse to sanction. This because they will refuse any achievement of arms where yellow appears on white or white appears on yellow.
Why?
Well you see, back in the day – 1066 and all that – they did not have metallic paint. When William of Normandy wanted a new paint job on his chariot he could have a black one, a green one or a blue one. Even a red one. But he could NOT have one in metallic silver or metallic gold.
Why?
Because it was the 11th century and poor old William would really have been very old when metallic paints arrived in the paint stores in the 20th century!
Thus heralds adopted white as representing silver (argent) and yellow as representing gold (or). The heralds established a rule, called the rule of tincture. This was that a metal (white or yellow) could not be applied on top of the other. There was one person who insisted that they were exempt from the rule of tincture. The Pope. This because the Pope regarded himself as having a special relationship with God and consequently he was a special case. Of course, that’s more than likely not God’s understanding of the matter!
One of the quirky things about living in Cornwall is the park and ride system in Truro. If you are travelling to Truro by car, I thoroughly recommend it! There are two large free car parks; one to the north of the city centre and one to the south. The buses are regular and clean and get you to where you want to be.
So, what’s quirky about it? You ask.
This: Anybody who had travelled by public transport in the UK during the 21st Century will have come to accept as ubiquitous the recorded announcements that have taken the place of human beings at stopping points. The Truro buses are duly equipped. However they are completely useless to 99.99999999% of the passengers!
Why?
Because the announcements are in Cornish! And only a tiny minority of folk understand it. Now that would in and of itself need not be a complete disaster because like the Spanish title of today’s post, if one cannot speak the language, in many cases one can at least make a decent stab of translating it! Thus those of you who cannot speak Spanish – Yes, Emily Maitlis, I know you can – can at least figure out that it means something like “not permitted”.
The Liberal Democrats in Cornwall (for it is they who spent the cash on recorded announcements in gobbledegook) are not the only politicians to do stupid things.
North of the border we have the seriously disturbed Ms Nicola Sturgeon apparently Hell bent on building her own massive political funeral pyre of demanding another Independence referendum from our esteemed and dearly beloved Prime Minister!
Has nobody in Scotland told this woman that her project is doomed?
One would have thought that any Scottish person with at least two functioning brain cells would have figured out the obvious:
#1: Were Scotland to become independent the EU will NOT offer the new sovereign state membership. This because Spain, Italy and Belgium – for their own internal political reasons – will vote against any such application! Thus although the Germans and the Poles will only be too pleased to welcome Scotland as a member – which is probably the one thing (apart from water is wet and Antarctica is a cold place) Germans and Poles can agree on – each EU member has a veto on any new member applying.
#2: Spain, Italy and Belgium vetoing Scotland’s membership will of course NOT prevent Ms Sturgeon from enabling Scotland to benefit economically from an association with the EU. The EU will offer Scotland what Ms Sturgeon and her acolytes will attempt to describe as a Comprehensive Free Trade Deal.
Hmm…….
That’s rather like King Henry VIII informing Queen Anne Boleyn that he had come up with a permanent cure for her headaches.
That is not that much of an exaggeration as the Comprehensive Free Trade Deal will do for Ms Sturgeon’s political career what the headsman’s axe did for Anne Boleyn’s life expectancy.
You see, the so-called Comprehensive Free Trade Deal will essentially be membership of the EU with all it’s freedoms and access but with NO say in ANY of its decisions! This will reduce Scotland to de facto dependent territory status.
Scotland will have it’s own Foreign Policy, it’s own Defence Policy and it will be able to obtain United Nations Membership – as well as Commonwealth Membership. NATO membership would also be on offer – but I’m guessing the UK and USA would have that as conditional upon Faslane being available to the RN’s SSBNs!
This is of course why our esteemed and dearly beloved Prime Minister is being so reluctant to grant Ms Sturgeon that what she apparently so desperately wants!
You see, when the excrement covered tartan hits the Holyrood fan, Boris does NOT want to be standing anywhere near it!!!!!! It is not he who is going to end up covered by the smelly substance!
Therefore when it comes to adopting a new flag I reckon that the image at the top would be suitable for Ms Sturgeon’s Colonial era Scotland. Because it breaks the rules.
You see Nicola, tradition has it that one ONLY signs an instrument of unconditional surrender when one has fought and lost a war. When it comes to peacetime Sovereign states simply DO NOT surrender their independence to another sovereign state! It’s just NOT DONE!!!