SCOTTISH actor Brian Cox is a pre-eminent performer of the highest international stamp, and I further profoundly agree with him that the post-independence politics of Scotland will be redolent with new political opportunities. However, as one independence supporter to another I challenge him to reassess his antagonism to progressive “nationalism”, in both a Scottish and European context.

Scottish nationalists need to be aware of the unedifying role that Scots had in creating the British Empire, the tragic historic role of Scots plantation settlers in facilitating the partition of Ireland, and the rabid pro fascist role of the Scottish aristocracy in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Yet for all that, Scottish nationalism, warts and all, is an inherently progressive form of nationalism because it asserts the rights of a nation to self government rather than retrogressive British nationalism which denies the rights of nations to govern themselves, primarily now ourselves, Wales, and Ireland. Despite much dubious unionist propaganda to the contrary this was made clear by the early SNP, for example, in 1937 the SNP president, Roland E Muirhead, importantly condemned the rising European fascist dictatorships as incompatible to the aims of Scottish Nationalism.

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Everyone who grew up in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, as Brian Cox did, was obviously affected by the political climate of the times with the trauma of that event still fresh, and that will have affected his perception of anyone calling themselves nationalist.

Yet the long-term significance of European nationalism lies a century earlier when in the late 1840s events in France, Italy, Germany, and the Austrian Empire when nationalism was a positive force against monarchical autocracy and for national self-determination, a trend which did not secure victory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

Context is everything, and nationalism is no more tainted an ideology than socialism or any other corpus of belief. I have been proud to call myself a Scottish Nationalist all my adult life and I will continue to do so confident that it is a description of my belief in Scotland’s independence, nothing more nothing less, and I worry that a fear on the part of some independence supporters to acknowledge this is yet another example of what Richard Walker rightly identifies as the Scottish cringe.

Cllr Andy Doig
Scotia Future

HOW to lie with statistics – I know it is said that you can prove anything with statistics (selective use of raw numbers) and this is how Oliver Mundell was able to say on Debate Night on Wednesday night that more people in Scotland voted to leave the EU than voted for Nicola Sturgeon.

Scotland votes to Leave EU: 1,435,165 Scotland votes to remain in EU: 2,841,561 Votes for SNP in last election: 2,385,578 (constituency 1,291,204 and regional vote (list) 1.094,374) If you simply look at the list vote it might suggest that he is right but it is so obviously a misuse of numbers that even a child could spot the error but its too hard for the Tories. I would suggest it is a downright lie but remember what Ruthie said – get it out there before truth gets its boots on.

Don’t let us forget either that if the Scottish elections were run on only the first-past-the-post system (like Westminster) you would not need two hands to count the number of Tory MSPs. The SNP gained 48 of the 59 seats using the first-past-the-post system.

Winifred McCartney
Paisley