The British government has removed images of Lego figures enjoying the possible gains of Scots rejecting a vote for independence, after the Danish toy maker complained about the use of its characters in a online campaign.
The government produced a list of 12 things Scots could buy with the extra £1,400 pounds (€1,700) a year it said they would have if they voted to stay part of the United Kingdom in a September referendum, using figures made from Lego to illustrate the options.
The choices, posted on social media site Buzzfeed and an official government website, ranged from taking a holiday outside Scotland, with a Lego woman sunning herself on a beach, to watching soccer club Aberdeen play all season with a few pies thrown in.
Other suggestions included traveling between Edinburgh and Glasgow 127 times by bus, scoffing 280 hotdogs at the Edinburgh Festival and paying a year’s worth of household utility bills.
But not all Scots were amused by the campaign. The ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) decried it as typical of the attitudes of London-based lawmakers.
“This is the kind of patronising attitude to Scotland we have come to expect ... presumably the establishment elite think we spend all our time eating fish and chips and pies,” SNP Treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Lego said the company had asked the government to remove the images.
“We wouldn’t give permission for our stock images to be used... We maintain our position as being a politically neutral company,” she said today.
The UK Treasury could not immediately be reached for comment but the Lego characters were no longer featured on the government website and have been removed from Buzzfeed.
The economy has emerged as a key issue ahead of the referendum, with the UK government hoping to sway voters by saying they would be £1,400 better off staying in the union. Scottish nationalists, however, say independence could benefit each Scot to the tune of £1,000 pounds a year.
Opinion polls show voters remain reluctant for Scotland to end its 307-year union with the United Kingdom, although support for independence has risen this year.
A poll by Populus published in the Financial Times today found 47 per cent of about 500 respondents wanted to stay in the United Kingdom, 40 per cent wanted independence while 13 per cent remained undecided.
Reuters