Hardline Scot Nats and obsessive Brexiteers are peas in a pod

In three of the country’s biggest supermarkets, chicken packaging is branded with the Union Flag – and Scottish Nationalists are outraged. What a spit in the eye for poor Scotland! The National, an SNP propaganda sheet, dubs it “Union-Jackery”, in an extended whine that epitomises the very worst of Scottish nationalism.

In its hard-line form, Scottish nationalism closely resembles the pettiest and most small-minded Brexiteer nationalism. They’ll never admit it, but they’re peas in a pod. They share that strange contradictory blend in which a cult of victimhood exists in parallel to a swaggering nationalist chauvinism. They both believe their country is at once exceptional and great, but oppressed and bullied. Be it the hated English, or those blasted Europeans, resentment of the enemy is integral to the movement.

They share that craving for grievance that suggests an odd insecurity about their national identity. They both rail against flags on municipal buildings and food products. UKIP used to sell a Union Jack sticker to put over the EU flag on vehicle licence plates, a laughably pathetic protest that one can well imagine a Scottish nationalist lapping up in a different context.  

In criticising the small mindedness of Scottish nationalism, I must acknowledge that many or most Scottish nationalists are perfectly reasonable and moderate. There is nothing inherently unreasonable about a belief in Scottish independence, just as there is nothing inherently unreasonable in Euroscepticism. However, if that vote for independence does come, will the voices of reason win out?

Both referendums were rowdy, messy and bitter affairs. In 2014, Unionists in Scotland couldn’t go anywhere without facing abuse and protests, and anti-English sentiment was prevalent. The 2016 referendum descended into an exchange of hyperbole and the mainstreaming of xenophobia and fear mongering. The social media trolls of both groups are similarly abusive and prone to a mob mentality.

The vote for Brexit unleashed demons that have bitterly divided this country, emboldened xenophobes and chauvinists and empowered the hardliners. The European Research Group purists shifted the Overton Window and then along came Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party to set the political agenda. Now we are in a position where the government has adopted a kamikaze no-deal Brexit as official policy. Why are we supposed to believe that the Scottish nationalist movement will be different?

Brexit is where Scottish and English nationalism meet. Alex Salmond used to say that through Scottish independence England would lose a “surly lodger” and gain a “good neighbour”, which is near identical to Brexiteer arguments about the UK and the EU.

Nationalists echo Brexiteers in saying their hearts were never in the project and the relationship should undergo a mutually beneficial reset. Never mind that Scotland was integral to the expansion of British power and influence and has always played a key role in the Union. Nor that the UK has been a major player in shaping the EU and creating the Single Market – that doesn’t fit the narrative so must be revised.

Nicola Sturgeon has previously said that there was a tendency in Scotland to blame Westminster for all our troubles but “independence means that we take that responsibility for making things better and that national taking of responsibility would be nothing other than healthy”. Yup, I’ve heard that before too. The conclusion of the argument is to say that Brexit/Scottish independence would restore democracy and reinvigorate the country.

Scottish nationalists lost their referendum and still run with this narrative. Brexiteers, on the other hand, are discovering that reality is a lot more complicated and difficult than they had predicted. For a start, they are finding that other members of the political union they are leaving, are not willing to give them everything they want, nor indulge them in their fantasies about how the balance of power operates. Divorce is proving to be a messy and expensive business.

It is baffling how anyone can look at the Brexit process thus far, and think that Scotland leaving a 300-year-old political and economic union will be anything but a messy, divisive, traumatic and expensive affair, which creates a rolling political and economic crisis, draining the life out of us all and diverting energy and resources from every other area of governance. It will turn people in our country against each other to the detriment of us all.

I can see it now – as the doubters fret about the economic costs of the border and trade barriers resulting from Scotland seeking to rejoin the EU and diverging from the UK: “Stop talking Scotland down,” they will say.  “All of these problems can be overcome if we ‘believe in Scotland’”. I grow weary of it already and it hasn’t even happened yet.