That's not remotely a challenge in Scotland. MEER: Language often underpins a claim to nationhood, especially in the context where there's declining numbers of speakers. All Scots speak English, whereas other separatist nations like Catalonia hang on to their own language. The Scottish National Party sees Scotland as being kind of a rainbow nation, a mosaic, whatever you want to characterize it. MEER: You find in Scotland that ethnic minorities claim a sense of ownership over Scottish national identity. He points to governments in Hungary or India as using nationalism to marginalize ethnic or religious minorities. KAKISSIS: Nasim Meer studies nationalism at the University of Edinburgh. NASIM MEER: Nasty, racially exclusive, blood and soil political rhetoric. KAKISSIS: But that word - nationalism - does carry some ugly connotations. So in some ways, Europe is used almost instrumentally by Scottish nationalists to provide an alternative framework in which Scotland could succeed in the world as an independent nation. He's writing a book about Scottish nationalists.īEN JACKSON: They are trying to define themselves against England rather than against Europe, whereas English nationalism is defined against Europe. KAKISSIS: Unless they're English, jokes Ben Jackson of Oxford University. I want people to feel like this is just as much their home as it is my home. LEO MARWICK: I want people to feel welcome from every corner of the world. would remain in the EU and not turn against migrants. KAKISSIS: Scots voted against independence in a 2014 referendum, but another Aye Aberdeen member, Leo Marwick, says that's because many voters believed that the U.K. was a fair, democratic place which was more welcoming, I wouldn't be so bothered. KAKISSIS: She says Scotland cannot truly live by these words unless it breaks away from the U.K.ĭUFFICY: It's not just independence for the sake of it. But there's a phrase in Scotland, we're all Jock Tamson's Bairns, which means it doesn't matter where you're from. TERESA DUFFICY: There's all the tartan, the bagpipes, the this, the that, the accents, whatever, the history. Teresa Dufficy of the pro-independence group Aye Aberdeen says Scots are very serious about being Scottish. JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: When supporters of the Scottish National Party march for Scottish independence, they dress in tartan kilts and play bagpipes. They say Scottish nationalism reflects an international and inclusive culture. is leaving the European Union at the end of the month against the wishes of many Scots. Scottish nationalists had wanted this vote because the U.K. And after all the arguing and the speechifying and the bagpiping, the Scots are ready to give their answer.Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected the Scottish government's request for another referendum on independence. It's rare that a people get to ask that sort of question so clearly and so formally as they will here Thursday. national debt? Would the Union Jack, the flag that combines English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh elements - need to be changed?īut in the end, the question for the voters here is simple and profound: What does it mean to be Scottish? There are all kinds of practical problems with independence: Would Scotland use the pound sterling as its currency? What would happen to the U.K. Scots have come to see themselves as more European, more socially democratic, and less reflexively pro-American in foreign policy than the establishment that governs them from London. At the heart of the argument for separation from London is a bitter dissatisfaction among many Scots with a trend in the United Kingdom since Margaret Thatcher towards a more market-based conservatism than people in Scotland want. The pro-independence movement goes deeper than all that, though. Holding up a 10-pound note with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on it, Bell savagely crumpled it up in his fist, saying, "Take that!" "Freedom!" hollered David Bell, a taxi driver, in a pub in Edinburgh, Scotland, last night. And there is hope that a dream long deferred is about to come true. "We who vote no love Scotland," Brown said.īut on the other side, there is plenty of passion, too. "And what we've built together in the U.K., we will keep."įormer British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scotsman from Kirkcaldy, seemed almost overcome with emotion as he summoned the ghosts of the United Kingdom's war dead down through the centuries, "Scotsmen, Welshmen, Englishmen and Irishmen lying side by side." "We are Clyde-built," said one shipbuilding worker, referring to the river that this proud industrial town bestrides. #INDEPENDENCE PRO BAGPIPES PROFESSIONAL#In Glasgow, Scotland, this morning, speakers young and old, professional politicians and ordinary citizens, poured out their hearts before a fired-up crowd, urging a rejection of separation from London.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |