Mystery of the Red Smoke: Red Arrows in Apparent Show of Support for the Union

The Red Arrow aerial display team added red smoke to their fly-past at last night’s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in what will appear to some to be a show of support of the Union.

According to the official media guide for the ceremony, the display team were only supposed to trail blue and white smoke – the colours of the Scottish flag – as the Queen arrived in the stadium.

However, on the night, they also emitted a trail of red smoke, giving the colours of the flag of the United Kingdom instead.

The change was only spotting this morning, after BBC Scotland correspondent James Cook posted an image of the media guide on Twitter:

Although some users claimed the guide had simply not been updated after a Scottish Government request for only blue and white smoke was rejected, there is, as yet, no evidence that this is the case.

Scotland is due to go to the polls in September in a referendum on whether to break away from the UK and become an independent country.