10 OF THE BEST Greatest Scottish April fools
It’s that time of year again when we like to play a wee trick. So here are some of the best April Fools of recent years. But can you guess which is real?
Good Fellas
The city of Aberdeen is under the control of a mafia crime syndicate – the Naples-based Camorra crime group, which is said to have killed more people than any other criminal organisation in Europe – according to a European Union Transcrime centre report released last year. The report identifies the catering, food retail and property sectors of the Granite city as being under the control of the violent Mafia gang, with the brother of one restauranteur from the city linked to 40 killings in Italy. The city is apparently a good place to launder money as a lot of business being done with the oil industry. It may sound like a joke, but have you ever tried the pizza in Aberdeen?
Do You Think He Saw Us?
Gigantic footprints discovered on the banks of Loch Ness caused a stir in 1992. News reports in the Daily Record said the footprints proved that a dinosaur had once prowled the area and inspired the idea of a monster. David Bellamy confirmed the marks were left by a prehistoric lizard. The news was picked up across children’s television and other papers. Strangely a few days later a new chocolate biscuit was launched in the shape of dinosaurs... MONEY FOR NOTHING
The April before the Scottish Independence Referendum, there was a slew of stories about the measures Alex Salmond would bring in if Scotland became an independent country. Apparently the Scottish pound was going to have the great leader’s head embossed upon it, Scotland was going to switch to driving on the right and the Union Flag was going to be changed to reflect the new set-up outside the Union. Since Scotland voted no, we will never know whether these things were ever serious proposals... THE GLASS BOTTOM FELL OUT
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin group announced the launch of the ‘glass-bottomed plane’ in 2013. The experience of flying in the plane promised to provide Scottish tourism with an unprecedented boost, he boasted. But despite Sir Richard’s enthusiastic blog on the Virgin website, comments posted by a supposed ‘Aero Consulting Expert’ doubted it would work. ‘For one thing, glass or even plexi-glass would be much heavier than aluminum or composite,’ the unimaginative critic wrote.
I scream
In April last year, Mackie’s ice cream announced the public release of their latest eco-friendly product, the ice ice-cream tub, bringing together two of the company’s most competitive enterprises. While this idea did attract interest from shoppers, for some reason it has long since gone down the drain...