A GB NEWS host has been forced to delete a pair of wild claims about the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon, and the Scottish Saltire.
Colin Brazier, who left Sky News to join the fledgling channel in 2021 and (unlike some of his famous colleagues) hasn’t quit yet, said that the SNP had the Saltire altered in order to make it look less like the Union flag.
He also bizarrely claimed the First Minister wanted to change the Scottish rugby team’s kit for the same reason.
The TV host made the unfounded assertions on Twitter.
READ MORE: Andrew Neil tweet provokes public spat with former GB News colleagues
Sharing an image of the Union flag, Saltire, and EU flag alongside one another, he told his 59,000 followers: “The SNP has lightened the blue in the Saltire, to make it less like the blue in the Union flag.
“Look at the blue of the Union flag and it’s still what you see in the Scotland rugby shirt, which presumably [Nicola] Sturgeon would change, if she could.
“That’s what you call flag s******.”
We haven’t censored that. Brazier wrote out the stars himself. Presumably he wanted to say “shagging”.
We’re not sure where he dug up the “information” presented in the rest of the tweet, but we’ve asked GB News.
The blue in the saltire is officially Pantone 300, an azure, or sky-blue. It had been unofficial until 2003, when the Scottish Parliament’s education, culture and sport committee took the decision to make it that colour.
Until then, the blue of the flag had varied widely, from a dark blue through to a light shade verging on turquoise.
The sky-blue colour reflects the legend that in 832AD, Angus mac Fergus, High King of Alba, prayed to St Andrew for aid in a battle against the Angles and Saxons, and saw the white cross appear above the battlefield.
After the victory, the Saltire became Scotland’s flag, one of the oldest in the world.
The blue of the Union Flag is Pantone 280, a much deeper shade. The Scottish rugby kit’s colour (above right) looks deeper still, but we haven’t been able to find its exact designation.
Brazier's tweet has now been deleted. That's probably for the best.
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