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Andrew Mycock: Nationalists facing a Scottish identity crisis
ATTEMPTS by the Conservatives to secure a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty suggest a commitment by the party for public engagement on all matters constitutional in the UK.
However, opposition to a referendum on Scottish independence suggests inconsistency and provides ammunition to the Scottish National Party (SNP), who view the likely succession of the "English" Conservatives to power in Westminster next year with a mixture of excitement and anticipation.
But Scottish nationalists north of the border continue to be fixated on winning the independence war rather than coherently planning for a post-independence peace.
Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, has suggested that independence will mean Scotland will become a "good neighbour" to England rather than a "surly tenant".
Salmond has, however, shown a lack of sophistication in his failure to acknowledge the sensibilities of Scots who continue to invest in a British national identity regardless of constitutional arrangements with the rest of the UK. Though Salmond has acknowledged Scots have multi-layered identities, he has described Britishness as "narrow, bland and boring" when compared to Scotland.
Salmond's view that British identity is "fundamentally out of date" denies the legitimacy of those who express a sense of Britishness, even though a recent study suggested almost 20 per cent of the SNP membership felt somewhat British. Moreover, Salmond conveniently overlooks the impact of independence on Wales and Northern Ireland, particularly the views of the majority of people in both nations for the continuance of some form of Union with England. It would appear that the SNP consider Welsh and Irish attachment to some form of Britishness is irrelevant or misguided.
One area that provides some insight into how an independent Scottish government might approach issues of identity is the teaching of history.
Since coming to power in 2007, the SNP-led government has placed great emphasis on the Scottish history curriculum. Education Minister, Fiona Hyslop, has argued that there is a need to "reclaim the past" in understanding the Scottish national identity.
Such moves are positive as they challenge an established Anglocentric British historical narrative that has traditionally failed to fully acknowledge the contribution of Wales, Scotland and Ireland (as well
as the former empire and Commonwealth). Proposed revisions to the Scottish history curriculum have rightly sought greater focus on the
pre-Union period.
However, the re-imagining of the national past requires care to
avoid simply moving from one extreme position to another. The notion that Scotland has been "denied" its history suggests that British history is not in part Scottish history; it is a product of the Union with England that has somehow undermined Scottish identity.
Bradford University academic Tom Gallagher has questioned the extent to which the SNP has revised the Scottish history curriculum in order to emphasise conflicts with England.
The danger is that, in over-emphasising the distinctiveness of Scotland's national past through its medieval origins, the Scottish government perpetuates a sense of Anglophobic "victimhood" that is historically inaccurate. Such an approach could devalue the significant contribution of Scotland to the history of Britain and is potentially insensitive to positive constructions of Britishness that many Scots still hold dear.
However, the SNP appear to have finally conceded that separation will be complex and potentially detrimental to some Scots. A recent policy document admitted that Scots would be allowed to hold dual Scottish and British citizenship after independence. This position is not universally supported, as some Scottish nationalists seek to break all ties with the rest of the UK.
Those seeking Scottish independence would profit from consideration of other painful separations such as that between Ukraine and Russia. Here, efforts by the Ukrainian government to articulate a distinct Ukrainian national identity and history have provoked tensions with the country's Russian diaspora that have proven politically and socially divisive.
Conflict has been particularly intense over how the Soviet and pre-Soviet past is remembered and taught in schools. Although Scottish society is not riven by the same ethnic divisions as post-Soviet Ukraine, it provides an instructive lesson in how myopic nationalist rhetoric can exacerbate schisms.
It is instructive that Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams recently acknowledged there would a place for the Orange Order in a re-unified Ireland, suggesting that Irish Republicans are slowly recognising the complexity of identity politics and the enduring nature of British identity. The SNP should put more effort into articulating a clearer and more coherent view of post-independence citizenship and multiple identities rather than demanding a referendum, therefore considering implications for the rest of the UK and how to accommodate the shared British past, present and future.
Dr Andrew Mycock is senior lecturer in politics at the University of Huddersfield. On December 4, the university is hosting a lecture by Professor Christopher Harvie, who is an historian and SNP MSP, on the future of Britishness in a post-independence Scotland.
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