Quizzes & Puzzles1 min ago
Scottish Nationalism.
5 Answers
BBC Parliament are showing the programme that was broadcast on the night of the General Election 1979.
The SNP didn’t do very well, and it made me wonder when did they become so popular that the country seems more or less split down the middle these days?
What was the catalyst for the upturn in nationalism?
I lived in South West Scotland from 88-93, and I don’t recall any talk of nationalism amongst my friends and neighbours.
I would’ve posted this in the politics section, but it’s showing as no questions posted, with no box to post a question!
The SNP didn’t do very well, and it made me wonder when did they become so popular that the country seems more or less split down the middle these days?
What was the catalyst for the upturn in nationalism?
I lived in South West Scotland from 88-93, and I don’t recall any talk of nationalism amongst my friends and neighbours.
I would’ve posted this in the politics section, but it’s showing as no questions posted, with no box to post a question!
Answers
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This academic, from the University of Edinburgh, argues that a rise in support for the SNP isn't synonymous with a rise in Scottish nationalism:
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In my opinion, the article is in some ways correct but, crucially, on nationalistic sentiment I think it is wrong. I think that now for a substantially higher percentage of Scots, especially young Scots, what is referred to as nationalism is something people are less reluctant to express compared to, say, 20 years ago and most certainly 50 years ago,. Nationalism is then simply identifying as a Scot (which, yes, is about as common as it was then) plus putting Scottish interests as separate from English/UK ones (which is much more openly and frequently stated these days). I think this slightly subtle change has come about gradually, perhaps in stages/steps. For me an early sign of an increase came in the early 80s, possibly as a kind of by-product of (Labour) opposition to the then Thatcher government. As in the rest of the UK, people are politically quite partisan and Scotland was famously Labour oriented. The sort of almost religiously devoted opposition was up to a point sensed as opposition to Westminster - England had very substantially voted Tory but not so Scotland.
The increased self-awareness, which then may have been a sort of by-product of the by-product was almost certainly given a boost by the SNP which gained an increased profile with the first election breakthrough at about this time. Once you start to put Scottish issues for consideration separately from the UK's then you cannot ignore the fact that all the main parties in Scotland were at that time branches of the UK/English ones - the SNP was and remains the only genuinely Scottish party. This has then simply continued attracting more attention, interest and following. It was initially slow but accelerated in a perceptible way over decades. When sufficient momentum was created it increasingly accelerated more rapidly. Once the SNP got some power they used it to follow through with a few targeted changes which won them more support. They seem to have caught and inspired the mood and are now well and truly established. When I first heard of them they were derided as crackpots - that was amongst Scots who are the type to stick to the UK-is-best-in-the-world formula and voted against independence in 2014. The next step may have occurred recently because now among the same contingent there are those who say they would vote SNP (as opposed to either Tory or Labour or even Liberal Democrat who have had a fairly loyal support in Scotland) knowing full well that could lead to independence.
The increased self-awareness, which then may have been a sort of by-product of the by-product was almost certainly given a boost by the SNP which gained an increased profile with the first election breakthrough at about this time. Once you start to put Scottish issues for consideration separately from the UK's then you cannot ignore the fact that all the main parties in Scotland were at that time branches of the UK/English ones - the SNP was and remains the only genuinely Scottish party. This has then simply continued attracting more attention, interest and following. It was initially slow but accelerated in a perceptible way over decades. When sufficient momentum was created it increasingly accelerated more rapidly. Once the SNP got some power they used it to follow through with a few targeted changes which won them more support. They seem to have caught and inspired the mood and are now well and truly established. When I first heard of them they were derided as crackpots - that was amongst Scots who are the type to stick to the UK-is-best-in-the-world formula and voted against independence in 2014. The next step may have occurred recently because now among the same contingent there are those who say they would vote SNP (as opposed to either Tory or Labour or even Liberal Democrat who have had a fairly loyal support in Scotland) knowing full well that could lead to independence.
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