Scottish nationalists frequently talk about the
countries that have become independent and that they never regret it. They list
various new nation states in Europe and places that were formerly part of
empires. But what they never mention is the number of places that were formerly
countries and now are not. They usually don’t regret their unity either.
Countries like France and Spain too were once made up
of formerly independent countries or kingdoms. Being a formerly independent
country is not unusual. Both Vermont and Texas were independent before they
joined the United States and arguably each of the original thirteen colonies
was independent prior to forming “one nation indivisible”.
Scottish nationalists have an idea that there is
something exceptional about Scotland. But there isn’t. The number of formerly
independent countries that have ceased to be independent since 1707 is
enormous. The vast majority of them form countries that don’t have serious secession
movements and are quite happy being part of a greater whole.
While there has always been in human beings a tendency
to secede, often for very good reasons, there has also been a tendency to
unite. If people who are similar had not had the tendency to unite, we would
never have developed countries in the first place, nor indeed would we have
ever had a place called Scotland.
The process by which both Germany and Italy united was
by means of war. Saxony became part of Germany essentially because of the
Austro-Prussian War (1866) where it fought against Prussia, and the
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) which united Germany into an Empire. The Saxons
were not given much choice.
Is Saxony any less of a country than Scotland? It has
an equally long history. The fact that most Scots are unaware of this history
does not change it. Most Saxons are unaware of Scottish history.
Saxons seem to be quite happy to be part of modern
Germany. They were part of an independent East Germany until 1990, but they
were quite happy to reunify with their Western fellow citizens.
Why does no one demand the reestablishment of Saxony
as an independent country, nor indeed East Germany? If places that were
independent as recently as 1990 are happy to be united why on earth do some
Scots demand the reestablishment of an international border that disappeared in
1707?
When there are elections in Germany the different
parts, some of which are formerly independent countries, vote for different
political parties. No one complains if Saxony votes for a left-wing party but
Germany on the whole elects a right-wing Government. If the whole of Germany
voted to leave the EU, no one would say that Saxony was dragged out against its
will if Saxony voted to stay. No one would even say that East Germany was
dragged out against its will under those circumstances. Having decided to be
united Germans, no matter which formerly independent country they come from,
have to accept the will of the majority.
What is the difference between Germany and Britain? What indeed is the difference between Britain
and every other nation state in Europe? The difference is simply this. People
from Germany, Italy or France think of themselves as primarily German, Italian
or French. They do this because they were forced to think this way. Their
education systems emphasised the unity of the nation state and the subordinate
status of the parts that were formerly independent.
In Britain the sense of being British is subordinate
to the sense of being Scottish. Britain never tried to annul the idea that
Scotland was a country as the Germans annulled the sense that Saxony was a
country.
It is for this reason that Scotland kept a slightly
different legal system, which anyway is far from being as exceptional as Scottish
nationalists claim it to be. After all different laws apply in Michigan and
Indiana.
If like the French we had spent centuries annulling
regional difference, we would have no problem with secession now. There is only
one language in France, one education system and one identity. But this didn’t
happen accidentally. It happened by design. The British by contrast were so
confident in ourselves and so liberal that we didn’t see the need to assert
that there was only Britain and that the parts were mere regions. Unlike anyone
else in Europe we celebrated that we were made up of four nations and then wondered
why we had a problem with nationalism.
Scotland is no different from any other formerly independent
country in Europe. We have no more legitimate grievance than Saxons. We have
rather less in fact because we were not conquered but rather took over the
English crown. Our sense of being a separate country with a separate identity
alone fuels our nationalism and desire for separation. But there are no good
grounds for separating people who speak the same language and share the same
small island. The only difference between the British people is an accent and a
tendency to vote for different political parties. If that is the grounds for
divorce then no country, including Scotland, could long endure.