SCOTLAND has become the first country in the world to enshrine the right to free period products in law.
Perhaps predictably, people with Union flags in their Twitter bio and far too much time on their hands are furious.
The eye of the storm was an innocent enough tweet from SkyNews, which posted on Sunday evening: “Scotland to become first country in world to provide free period products.”
“It’s not free. English taxes paying for Scottish fannies again,” one annoyed social media user wrote in reply.
“Sponged from the English taxpayer,” another added.
Paid for by the UK. You’re welcome.🇬🇧
— Andrew (@Andrew_R33) August 14, 2022
The whole "paid for by England" thing was a running theme through a lot of the angry posts.
“Paid for by the UK. You’re welcome,” a more original user wrote, adding a Union flag for good measure.
But that Unionist generosity was quickly undermined by another, who wrote: “Please let the rest of the UK vote in the next independence referendum, I don’t want to pay for all of these Scottish ‘freebies’.”
"What's the point," another, predictably a man, asked.
He went on: "If they vote to leave UK, all these freebies will have to go and dare say more besides."
Yet another – whose rage may be misplaced – wrote: "All at the expense of other British taxpayers who don’t get this advantage. So Scotland can have it but not Wales, England or Northern Ireland! Are their girls and women not deserving?"
Apparently viewing themselves as a sensible voice in the argument, another Twitter user commented: “Completely agree with this – should 100% happen – but this should read: ‘Scotland to become first country in world to provide free period products, paid for by England’.”
Others were less annoyed about imagined constitutional unfairness, and more about a gender-based one.
“Lads should get something free as well then,” one social media user offered.
The replies to that went about as you’d expect.
It must be said though that, among the silliness, there was a wide international recognition for Scotland's move, with many calling on the governments in their country to follow suit.
Let's focus on that shall we.
In BC we are spending $750,000 to figure out how to do this. Hopefully some conversations can happen with Scottish officials so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. https://t.co/GYiwqsxKDf
— Dr. Jennifer Baumbusch (she/her) (@GERONursing) August 15, 2022
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