Scottish Independence and the Imperfection of the Nation-State

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/origins-and-implications-scottish-referendum

by JonnieCache • 12 years ago

4 2 12 years ago

cstross• 12 years ago

Insufficient time to post a length comment, but:

While the Stratfor analyst has a point, I think they're failing to see the wood for the trees: speaking as a resident in Scotland, the force driving the pro-independence side in the referendum is more to do with the total loss of credibility of the UK-wide political establishment based in Westminster than an actual upswing in nationalism.

None of the parties in Westminster are seen as having Scotland's interests at heart: the course they are setting for the UK is increasingly diverging from the course Scottish voters seem to prefer (as expressed in, for example, the 2011 Scottish election), and the existing system has no mechanism for correcting this divergence. So from this perspective, the "yes" campaign is as much a vote of no confidence in the current British constitutional settlement as it is a statement of nationalist identity.

collyw• 12 years ago

As a few English have posted in various newspaper article comments, Westminster doesn't seem to have anyone's interests at heart except the bankers and the super rich.

Scottish Independence and the Imperfection of the Nation-State

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