Money well spent...
Daniel Finkelstein kindly links to my piece below. Oh dear, I hope this doesn't look like returning the favour, because I was about to write about it anyway...
Daniel links to this ridiculous piece of waste by Alex Salmond:
Ministers have come up with a "vibrant" new message to greet tourists arriving at Scotland's airports.
The new greeting, "Welcome to Scotland", will replace the previous slogan proclaiming Scotland to be "The Best Small Country in the World".
First Minister Alex Salmond was highly critical of the old phrase, launched by the previous Holyrood administration.
Opposition MSPs were sceptical about its replacement, but the SNP government said it was about more than a slogan.
Indeed. It's called a greeting. Such as I have seen at every airport I have ever been to.
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Jonathan
November 27th, 2007 5:49pmSeems fair enough to me. 'The best small country in the world' really is hopeless. Roughly translated, it means: 'This country might be a pathetic little waste of space but some of us are OK really.' The money wasted was the money given to the consultancy that came up with that one.
Colin Henderson
November 27th, 2007 7:46pmAlmost unbelievable. Imagine the scenario - "We're looking for a new slogan...what do we want? Well, this is Scotland - and we want to make visitors welcome - I know! Let's try 'Welcome to Scotland'". Let's hope they didn't spend more than £12.50 on the PR people and focus groups.
Andrew
November 27th, 2007 9:20pmYou have to agree with Jonathan "the best small country in the world" is so embarrassingly twee, you'd pay any money to get rid of it
Ben
November 28th, 2007 1:46pmI agree with Jonathan and Andrew that the Scottish Government is absolutely right to replace the signs greeting arrivals at Scottish airports.
"The best small country in the world" is really quite a mad claim to make. I am wondering which is the second best small country in the world? Is Switzerland small enough? Slovenia? Singapore?
Teesbridge
November 28th, 2007 2:41pmOld story. The message used to appear at Departures, where someone had written "Scotland? You're welcome to it"
Frank
December 2nd, 2007 9:23pmWho reads airport greetings anyway?