Saturday 16 July 2016

Scot Nats good, UK nats bad

This was an early issue in the constuction of a discourse about Brexit, readers will recall. The BBC wholly approved of Scottish nationalism but not of English or UK nationalism,mainly on the grounds that the former must be good because it seemed to support remaining in the EU.

Deborah Orr in the beloved Guardian points out another difference. SoctNats are wholly good and honest because they expressed their views in an election as well as a referendum, voting the SNP into power. English nationalism, on the other hand was cowardly and lying when (not if) it led to Leave -- it was all driven behind the scenes by UKIP.

There are problems of course. SNP is a respectable mainstream party, or so the media constantly tell us,whereas English nationalism is confined to the loony fringe. What might be called in mediaspeak 'moderate' English nats have no mainstream party to vote for since all the main ones supported Remain. UKIP migh tbe the nearest equivalent,but they were kept well away from the official Leave campaign --perhaps they operated surreptiously, using their extensive networks of secret operatives to leave pamphlets in town squares in the middle of the night, and address meetings of workers in the woods


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