Short note on nationalist rhetoric (redux)

Sorry (again) but there’s a new (to me, anyway) and annoying strain in nationalist rhetoric which says in effect that the choice facing the Scottish people in 2014 is not nationalism vs the Union but rather what kind of nationalist do you want to be – Scottish or British?

 Nations and states have developed independently of one another and while the nationalist view is to see the marriage between the two as part of the natural order of things, not only is this not essential, historically it hasn’t been nearly as common as nationalists tend to assume. It certainly hasn’t been the case with Britain, which is of course not a 'nation-state' but a multi-national one.

 There is a political party in the UK whose disagreement with this simple fact is embodied in the very name of their party, which rather tends to reinforce the impression of them being a bit thick as well as bigoted. I’m talking, of course, about the BNP. Scottish nationalists should really be showing a better understanding of history and basic political concepts and stop this tiresome nonsense about how everyone who disagrees with them is a ‘British nationalist’.