There are two forces going on in human nature, the
desire to unify and the desire to separate. The reason that we have nation
states at all is because people have felt the need to unify with others who are
similar to them. In antiquity each small
village had its own ruler, its own customs and often its own variety of
language. Historical progress across the world has involved the process of
people uniting to form nation states. These are the building blocks of
international relations and without them there would be chaos.
The process of separation has occurred when nation
states have overreached themselves and tried to include people who are too
dissimilar. There is an ebb and flow throughout history. The Austro-Hungarian
Empire broke up into its constituent parts, but the United States was able to
unify much of the North American continent into a single nation state, made up
of many states.
In recent decades we have on the one hand seen the
European Union attempt to gradually form a nation state out of its parts, while
on the other there has been a marked increase in nation states breaking up
since the fall of the Soviet Union. While Germany provides a recent example of
unification there are many more examples of separation.
But where is the optimum? At what point do we say
this nation state is stable? It neither needs to separate nor to unify. One
problem is that modern European nationalist movements want to do something that
is inherently contradictory. They wish both to unify and to separate.
Scottish nationalists think that it makes sense for
Scotland to separate from the United Kingdom, but to remain a part of a
European Union that has the aim of becoming a United States of Europe. But the
problem is this. If Scots cannot make a success of being part of a nation state
called the UK, how on earth are we to make a success of being part of an
eventual nation state called the EU?
The same obviously goes for Catalonia. If Catalans cannot bear to live in a nation
state (Spain) with people who are similar to them, how will they be able to
bear to live in a nation state (the EU) with people who are dissimilar? If
Spain, which has been a nation state for centuries cannot hold itself together
we can have no long term expectation that the EU itself will remain intact.
I think this is why the EU has responded to the
crisis in Spain in the way that it has. Secession has become all too frequent
in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union, but if this spreads
westwards then the EU is bound to find itself going in the opposite direction
to the one in which it intends.
Moreover, if the aim is to have a federal EU what
does it matter if a border happens to be here or there? If the aim is to be
borderless why be so bothered about so called independence at all. A state in
the eventual United States of Europe would be no more independent than Kansas
or California. It won’t matter under these circumstances what is or is not
called a state or where a supposed boundary is drawn.
In this sense the struggle that is taking place in
Catalonia looks like it is about nothing at all. Both Spain and Catalonia want
to be part of the EU. But then they are struggling over the boundaries of a
nation state while at the same time both intending to give up this nation
state.
The problem is that many people have contradictory
ideas about the EU. They think somehow that it will be possible to remain a
nation state while taking part in the process of EU unification. But this is a
form of self-deception. The nation state called East Germany ceased to exist
when it joined with West Germany. At an earlier point in history independent
nation states like Saxony and Prussia eventually ceased to exist and simply
became regions of Germany. For a hypothetical Bavaria to struggle to be
independent from Prussia while both seek to join together to form Germany
involves muddled thinking. It is a fight about nothing at all, a completely
senseless struggle.
The problem is that for the moment it is just about
possible to maintain the illusion that a nation state can remain independent
and sovereign while being a part of the EU. It is this above all that fuels
sub-nation nationalism. The Holy Grail of European nationalist movements is to
argue that life will go on more or less the same, but we will be independent.
We might even get a bit more because we won’t have to share our wealth with
those English, or those Spaniards.
If there were indeed a United States of Europe, they
would in one sense be right. It barely matters at all today that West Virginia
split from Virginia in 1861, because each is now part of a larger nation state
and neither is independent. Borders are not noticed. But being part of a nation
state also means that we share and share alike, so this whole concept of what
is mine and what is yours ceases. It’s not oor oil, because it belongs equally
to all citizens of our nation state. But then as soon as the EU treats all its
citizens as having an equal claim to the wealth of the whole, then the concept
of independence (this is ours rather than yours) ceases. Not noticing borders
in the end involves not having independence.
There are two ways to end the dreams of sub-nation
nationalism. One is to leave the EU. People in England (e.g. Philip Hammond)
with very little real experience of nationalism and only a distant
understanding of what went on in Scotland should cease trying to be clever
about the EU. It’s not clever. It’s thick. Get us out and get us out quickly. It is this
and this alone that will hold the UK together.
As I argued long before the EU referendum, the UK’s leaving the EU means
that the SNP can no longer argue that life would go on much the same after
independence. It turns independence into a radical step, that only a minority
of Scots wish to make. It is for this reason that we will not face scenes in
Edinburgh like we saw in Barcelona.
Spain could leave the EU. That would stop Catalan nationalism very quickly. But this won’t happen and perhaps can’t happen
because of Spain’s membership of the Euro. The second option then is to make it
clear that if Catalonia somehow obtains independence it will be outside the EU
and outside the Eurozone. It will cease to be part of Spain’s internal market
and it will cease to be part of the European Union’s Single Market. It is hard
to imagine that this will benefit Catalonia economically. The issue of how much
it does or does not share with Spain will hardly then arise.
The danger however is that this would involve a
Greek style ejection from the Euro and a shock to the European economy that
none of us would like to go through. These things tend to be contagious. This might
encourage the Catalans into thinking that the EU wouldn’t dare expel them.
Perhaps they are right, but it is a very dangerous game to play.
Scottish nationalists may hope that an
independent Catalonia or indeed an independent Kurdistan might help them towards
their dream. On the other hand scenes of violence or even war may remind everyone once again that nationalism is always a very dangerous political card to play and therefore is best put back in the deck. I suspect though that most Scots who are not already obsessed are not paying
much attention. This will continue unless things get much worse.
Nationalism begets nationalism and no doubt it is in part because of Typhoid Nicola that Scottish flu has spread to Spain. Get well soon Spain. But remember the best way to do this is to relax and be patient. Let the fever subside. With tender care it will. Don’t go bashing people’s heads in. It isn’t the most likely way to persuade them to remain a part of your country. Enforce the law by all means, but far better to simply take law breakers to court and fine them a few Euros, than to do anything more horrible than that.
Nationalism begets nationalism and no doubt it is in part because of Typhoid Nicola that Scottish flu has spread to Spain. Get well soon Spain. But remember the best way to do this is to relax and be patient. Let the fever subside. With tender care it will. Don’t go bashing people’s heads in. It isn’t the most likely way to persuade them to remain a part of your country. Enforce the law by all means, but far better to simply take law breakers to court and fine them a few Euros, than to do anything more horrible than that.
Above all the EU should now explain to nationalists
that if they want to be part of the EU then they will not have any independence.
The EU has tried to achieve European unity in such a way that no-one will
notice and with the illusion that everything will somehow remain as it was. But
this fiction of maintaining independent nation states within a united European
nation state is now fuelling nationalism. It is time to be honest, open and
direct about where the EU is heading. It is abolishing Spain as an independent
nation state and unifying it with all the other European nation states. This
means that to fight for Catalan independence only to later abolish it is senseless.
It is not worth one truncheon, hitting one head. It is time therefore for both
the Spanish and the Catalans to realise that, given they both wish to be part
of the EU, they have in fact no dispute at all and that they are in fact
fighting over nothing.
