ONE of the favourite arguments of those who campaign against Scottish independence is that being a part of the UK enables Scotland to punch above its weight. As part of the UK, the claim goes, little Scotland wields a global influence that it could never hope to achieve as an independent country. It’s a very fine claim. It’s just a pity that it’s not true.

As far as Scotland is concerned, wrapping itself in the Union flag has the exact same effect as another bit of fantasy that was dreamt up by an opponent of independence.

That would be Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Being a part of the UK doesn’t make Scotland more prominent on the world stage, it makes Scotland invisible.

Last weekend, when Donald Trump was giving an interview to Brown Noser in Chief Piers Morgan, he waxed lyrical about British branding. The UK has a lot of great product, apparently. One of the things that impressed Trump most about Great British product was the fact that there are different names for it. “You can say ‘England’, boored Trump, “you can say ‘UK’, you can say ‘United Kingdom’.”

As far as Trump is concerned, the terms UK, United Kingdom, and England are synonyms. That’s why his White House staff had tweeted on Friday that the president had left the UK and was on his way to Scotland. It wasn’t, much as we’d like to imagine so, a subtle recognition that Scotland is on its way to independence.

It was because for the presidential staff, much like their boss, the terms England and UK mean exactly the same thing. So naturally in their eyes if the president was leaving England, he must also be leaving the UK. United Kingdom, UK, Great Britain, GB, England – as far as the rest of the world is concerned they are all different ways of saying the same thing. For most people around the world, Great Britain or the United Kingdom are the same as England. When they think of British goods, services, products, or cultural phenomena, they think of cricket, tea on the lawn, bowler-hatted city gents or the monarchy. Scotland is invisible.

During the days of the Soviet Union, the terms Soviet Union, USSR, and Russia were all used synonymously by most people outside the USSR. That was despite the fact that the Soviet Union was composed of 15 union republics and an even larger number of autonomous republics, each of which was home to its own titular nation.

Newsreaders and newspapers would refer to the Russian leader, the Russian army, or the power of Russia. There were more than 140 different ethnic groups, languages, and nationalities in the Soviet Union, but as far as the rest of the world was concerned, they were all “Russians”.

No-one outside Estonia’s Soviet establishment ever said that Estonia punched above its weight because it was a Soviet Republic. No-one outside the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ever spoke about how the USSR allowed the Mari people to project their influence on the world stage. No-one outside of Tuva ever spoke about how the Soviet Union provided a greater stage to bring Tuvan culture to the world. They were all just “Russians”, their invidual cultures and identities submerged in that of Russia.

Despite having only a fraction of Scotland’s population, and nothing approaching the wealth of resources and opportunities possessed by Scotland, Estonia nowadays is an independent state and a member of the EU. The country actively shapes its own destiny and the destiny of Europe. It is a prosperous democracy which has more influence over the fate and direction of Brexit than Scotland does, even though Scotland will be directly affected by Brexit in a way Estonia won’t.

Scotland looks on impotently at the Brexit train wreck, powerless to influence the course of events. Estonian leaders are fully involved in Brexit negotiations, they even have a veto on any deal that doesn’t suit Estonian interests.

Scotland doesn’t even get consulted, and will have to put up with whatever deal or no-deal that suits the Conservative party. How’s that punching above your weight working out for Scotland now?

On the other hand Mari-El and Tuva are still theoretically autonomous republics within Russia. Very few people have heard of them, and most would be hard pressed to locate them on a map, or even say anything about them, despite the fact that they are part of great power which supposedly allows them to punch above their weight. Just like Scotland is.

In case you are interested, the Mari speak a language related to Finnish and Estonian and live along the Volga. They’re the last traditionally pagan people in Europe, having resisted centuries of pressures from their Christian and Muslim neighbours and the Stalinist repression which saw Mari pagan priests deported to the Gulag. The Tuvans live in a mountainous region near Mongolia. They are a Buddhist people who speak a language related to Turkish and who are famous for their throat singing. These fascinating nations with their unique histories and cultures are invisible to most of the rest of the world. Just like Scotland is.

I lived in Spain for many years where I worked as an interpreter and translator. The dug is a Spanish dug, found abandoned by an irrigation canal near Elche, and is here on an EU pet passport. Spanish people treat the terms Inglaterra and el Reino Unido as synonyms.

Gordon Brown, when he was prime minister, was habitually referred to as the Prime Minister inglés. It wouldn’t have occurred to anyone to refer to him as a Scottish prime minister. Although to be fair that wouldn’t have occurred to the North British Gordie Broon either.

Trump’s slip of the tongue about England as a synonym for the UK wasn’t merely an example of Trump’s ignorance. It was a reflection of the reality that in the eyes of the rest of the world, Scotland scarcely exists.

That’s the truth that British nationalists in Scotland are unwilling to confront. Scotland doesn’t punch above its weight because it’s a part of the UK. As part of the UK, Scotland is invisible and powerless.