# data[].attributes.headline
I wouldn't say we hate the English...but there is some rivalry (which goes back a long time in history), so of course we like it when some other team beats them at football :p:But, we don't really have anything against them personally (i.e. we wouldn't not speak to someone just because they are English...well i wouldn't anyway since 2 of my cousins are half-english.Although, i've noticed we just don't really associate ourselves with England...lots of scottish people would call themselves "Scottish" instead of "British", including myself, because we like to be part of our own country! Silly really :p:

# data[].attributes.subject
I wouldn't say we hate the English...but there is some rivalry (which goes back a long time in history), so of course we like it when some other team beats them at football :p:But, we don't really have anything against them personally (i.e. we wouldn't not speak to someone just because they are English...well i wouldn't anyway since 2 of my cousins are half-english.Although, i've noticed we just don't really associate ourselves with England...lots of scottish people would call themselves "Scottish" instead of "British", including myself, because we like to be part of our own country! Silly really :p:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Really, whether Scotland or England, it's all UK. What is this harted all about? And the unusual is that the Welsh also have a dislike for the English. But when England plays at a Football world cup, the Welsh do show support for England. The Scottish always support the team that plays against England.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1587 Mary, Queen of Scots was executed for treason on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I, after she feared she was planning to steal the throne from her. If Elizabeth took an extreme action against Scots nobility here in her lifetime, however, her death, where-after she did not leave an heir, meant that King James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown. This brought the two countries together under one monarch. Later, in 1707, the Act of Union brought the English and Scottish parliaments together. This was to be the most lasting and influential moment between the Scots and the English: It created the new state of Great Britain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dr Kathryn Bates is a graduate of archaeology and history. She has excavated across the world as an archaeologist, and tutored medieval history at Leicester University. She joined the administrative team at Oxford Open Learning twelve years ago. Alongside her distance learning work, Dr Bates is a be…

# data[].attributes.body
Are the Scots anti-English? Are the English anti-Scots? No, not on the whole. But it's worth asking why we always talk about the former when there is far more evidence for the latter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jubilee crowd - but what do the people of Britain think of each other?/National Collective
There was an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman. The Irishman did something stupid, then the Celtic Tiger thing happened and we stopped making jokes about them. The Scotsman was stingy but these days is more notable for his diet. But what about the Englishman? Well, he's the one telling the joke.

(The Welsh, of course, are mocked alone, while the Cornish, Manx and Channel Islanders face the ultimate school yard peril, and are ignored.)

As a Scot in England as our referendum approaches, I have had questions about whether and how much the Scots hate the English. It seems it's not just me. Andrew Marr said recently " There is a very strong anti-English feeling (in Scotland), everybody knows it, there always has been". I think he missed a more important point.

I lived in Scotland the first 24 years of my life. In that time, I had, for reasons I will come to later, an accent most would describe as English. Yet I can only remember one occasion when someone who, on thinking I was English, reacted negatively. Speaking to my brother about this, who has the same accent and who lives in Dundee, he said the same. But he pointed out something else too.

Earlier this summer, comedian Marcus Brigstocke did a series of jokes about the Scots. Apparently our bagpipes and obesity are still funny. I pick on Brigstocke because he is the sort of stand up who tends to avoid making punchlines from those less powerful than him.

Among the English comedians more prone to mocking the weak (to steal a line from the great comedy commentator Stewart Lee) the joke about the (implicitly working class) Scots and our tartan rapped heroin dunked deep fried Mars Bars is more common these days than any laughter at the supposedly ill-educated Irish. I googled the names, for example, of the first three prominent English stand ups of this type who came to mind. I was able very quickly to find such jokes made by all of them. In fact these types of joke have become so predictable that Stewart Lee has a sketch in which he parodies the mocking of Scots by English stand up comics. Or, at least, that's what I think he's doing.

The Scottish equivalent of Brigstocke or Lee is, I suppose, Armando Iannucci. So, as my brother asked me, here is the question: can you imagine him doing anti-English jokes (or parodies of anti-English jokes)? Of course not. Nor Billy Connolly, Rory Bremner, Fred MacAulay, Elaine C Smith, Susan Calman nor Janie Godley.

Now, there certainly is an anti-English sentiment at some level in Scotland. It's just that it doesn't seem usually to take the form of widespread nastiness to English/English sounding people (though I'm sure this sometimes happens), or of regular jokes from comedians surfing the undercurrents of society.* But I think form matters.

There is one exception to the comedian trend, and I think it casts a clear light on what the rule is. Frankie Boyle has a joke that goes like this: "In Scotland we have mixed feelings about global warming, because we will get to sit on the mountains and watch the English drown".

The parameters are clearer when you consider the most common type of Scots anti-Englishness I can think of: Argentinian football memorabilia. Walk around any Scottish town during a world cup for which Scotland hasn't qualified (every one since 1998) and you will soon find that the dark blue of England's neighbour has faded to the light blue of their great rival.

What does all this tell us? That Scots anti-Englishness is contentless. Scots will say that we support 'anyone but England'. But there is no English stereotype we pick on. Whilst American films have a clear set of oft represented English characters, Scots culture doesn't. Because that's not the point of it. Supporting 'anyone but England' is not a comment on them. It's a comment on us.

Likewise, the punchline of Frankie Boyle's joke is not the drowning English, it's the heartless Scot. These laughs are part of the same national in-joke which includes see-you Jimmy hats, kilts without boxers and haggis hunts. It's about Scots accepting a parody version of ourselves and repeating it. Baudrillard would be proud.

The anti-Scots sentiment among the English takes a very different form. For a start, there certainly are comedian stereotypes: Scots are pictured as heroin-using deep fat fryers, bedecked in a set of bizarre traditions of which we are sentimentally proud. We are Rab C Nesbits who dream of being Braveheart. As Stewart Lee astutely implies there is no female form. In many ways, the Scots represent an identifiable but distant version of the working class about whom middle class English comedians can make jokes without being seen to be snobs. But we mustn't ignore a nationalism that sits comfortably with classism.

And there are other anti-Scots sentiments found in England. There is the bitterness you sometimes hear about Scots free public services. This found ridiculous form in Matt O'Connor's 2008 London Mayor broadcast, but is an opinion I have heard voiced more often - much more often - in the four years I've lived in England than any anti-English argument I heard in 24 years living in Scotland.

And then there's the discrimination that comes from ignorance. Scots publisher Kevin Williamson describes how "If a writer is from Kenya, Canada, Italy, Belarus or Mexico City there is more chance of them getting a book deal, effective distribution, nomination for major awards, or national media reviews in England than there is for a new emerging voice from Scotland".

Lynsey Hanley, in an otherwise good piece on snobbery and regional accents, wrote: "I interviewed a young band from Dundee who believed that the best way to show me how rough - how authentic - they were was to ensure that not a single word they said into my tape recorder was intelligible. I suppose their message to the kids was that they hadn't got one".

A little research would have shown Hanley that Dundonian Scots is a sufficiently different language from her native Brummie that it's no surprise they couldn't understand each other. Implying they're stupid is just cultural imperialism. But it's nothing new.

It is important also to understand who the "English" the Scots are supposed to hate are. And in order to get our heads around this, I find it difficult to ignore a particular strand of history - one which entwines me. There is a reason, you see, why my family sounds like we are English. The Scottish land owning elite, of which my family have long been members, has been heavily, and intentionally, anglicised.

At the school I went to - in Scotland - everyone spoke like me. It was founded by Gladstone to bring the English public school system to Scotland, and is, apart from its geography, English in every way, from the exam hall to the cricket wicket. The school was designed to build an imperial elite. Key to this was continuing the broad process of building Britishness examined by Linda Colley and the specific project of anglicising the Scottish aristocracy made explicit in the 1609 Statutes of Iona. If this is all new to you, think about the fact that George Osborne's family is Irish.

When considering Anglo/Scots conflict, it's important to consider the attitude found among these anglicised Scots. It is perhaps best summarised with the fact that the ultimate insult at my school - 'Scoit' - was reserved for those who had a hint of a Scots accent, until it was bullied out of them. And this isn't just school children. Recently, I was told by an adult of this background that Scots are lazy. When referring to Scottish people, it is common for the class in which I grew up to talk about "them" rather than "us". They are Scottish. We are British.

Scotland's aristocracy appears from the outside to be English - and to be the most loudly anti-Scots of the English tribe. For this reason, it is very hard to disentangle English/Scottish sentiments from perhaps class antagonism. I don't think that when the angry football fan shouts about "English bastards" or equivalent, she or he is referring to Geordies or to Brummies.

And this allows us to understand Scottish anti-Englishness and English anti-Scottishness much better. Because 'the English' whom we are told Scots hate are, in practice, a fusion/confusion of the Scottish aristocracy, the English middle and upper classes and perhaps much of the population of the South East. And this broad group are those who control, and patrol the boundaries of much of our culture.

This has specific ramifications. This group gets to be the norm against whom everyone else is compared. And if you define what's normal, then no one will mock you for it, because comedy is about contrast.**

Let me give one example. In a country with equal power relations, no one would think they had an accent - everyone thinks the way they speak is normal. It's others who have accents. But I have lost count of the number of times people have told me that I am the one with no accent, whilst they have a regional accent. I speak 'BBC English', so I am 'normal'. They are something other than normal.

People, almost always, are kind to strangers. I have rarely met vitriol on either side of the border, and the Scottish independence referendum has nothing to do with national animosity. But this doesn't mean that there isn't a power dynamic, played out every day, and best understood through the comedian's microphone and in the banter of football matches. In this imbalance, the White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant speakers of BBC English are the norm. The Scots - in common with Northerners, Irish, Welsh, French, Jews, black people, and anyone who is 'different' - are the punchline: the butt of both the jokes made by the English and of their own.

Are the Scots anti-English? Are the English anti-Scots? No, not on the whole. But it's worth asking why we always talk about the former when there is far more evidence for the latter.

*Of course, people like the Spectator's steerpike tell us that it does take the form of SNP MSPs. I can only assume that this is a different kind of joke.

**It's worth noting that this also applies within the ruling elite. Michael Howard and Ed Miliband (Jewish), George Osborne (Anglo-Irish), William Hague and Eric Pickles (working class), and Gordon Brown & Michael Gove (Scottish) are all in some way depicted as a little odd. No one ever asks 'odd compared to whom?'. Callaghan, Thatcher, Blair, Major and Cameron, on the other hand, all fit neatly into the 'South East or posh' category.
Liked this piece? Please donate to OurKingdom here to help keep us producing independent journalism. Thank you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jubilee crowd - but what do the people of Britain think of each other?/National Collective There was an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman. The Irishman did something stupid, then the Celtic Tiger thing happened and we stopped making jokes about them. The Scotsman was stingy but these days is more notable for his diet.

# data[].attributes.body
the English laugh at the Scottish, patronise them, look down on them, don’t care about them, etc, etc. None of this is true. The English Left have always admired the Scottish, and used to think of Scotland (and to an extent Wales) as the backbone of British Socialism. The English Right, on the other hand, also admire the Scottish, and think of them as the backbone of the British army.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Answer (1 of 41): I grew up in Scotland, spent a year studying in Cornwall (SW England), and now work in London. The English are viewed in a lot of different ways. The one thing they all have in common is that it's based on dislike - but each to different degrees.

# data[].attributes.body
It exists very different people that love Scottish guys ,I love Scotland and its people. I’ve been up a bunch of times and hosted a few guests and always felt welcomed, safe and involved. I felt like the people really made an effort to include me in what ever was happening" or who don't like them so much,,Cranky, grumpy, hard drinking, sweary, rude…opinionated…incomprehensible".
In my opinion, they have the same culture and values, just slight variations in accent and sense of humour.

# data[].attributes.body
I’m English, and I’ll probably be called a c*** and told to **** off, but I’ve noticed a change over the last ten years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Answer (1 of 41): I grew up in Scotland, spent a year studying in Cornwall (SW England), and now work in London. The English are viewed in a lot of different ways. The one thing they all have in common is that it's based on dislike - but each to different degrees.

# data[].attributes.body
Most of them treat the Scotland-England relationship like brothers. They will always be the first to insult and try to put down the other, never allowing each other a compliment unless absolutely necessary. At the same time, if a stranger was to come and oppose either of them, they’d be the first to stand up for each other.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Answer (1 of 41): I grew up in Scotland, spent a year studying in Cornwall (SW England), and now work in London. The English are viewed in a lot of different ways. The one thing they all have in common is that it's based on dislike - but each to different degrees.

# data[].attributes.body
The number one thing that grinds our gears about our neighbours is that they are always banging on about winning the World Cup in 1966.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
THE TOP reason why Scots hate the English has been revealed - and it's not too surprising.

The number one thing that grinds our gears about our neighbours is that they are always banging on about winning the World Cup in 1966.

The research was conducted for HISTORY® TV show Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate The English? which comes north on Monday.

Exactly a quarter of Scots polled said they actively dislike our southern neighbours, while almost half quoted 1966 as a reason for that.

Number two is also football related as hooliganism annoys us, while their perceived arrogance comes up next.

With winter approaching the country will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the Beast from the East - but England's inability to be prepared for the snow each year is next on our list.

Voting for Brexit despite it not being what Scotland wanted unsurprisingly features high at number five.

Alcohol plays a big part in our dislike - with binge drinking, beer bellies and singing loudly and drunkenly in the streets all credited.

Wearing socks with sandals, the Royal Family, moaning and, hilariously, wearing orange fake tan in winter were also mentioned.

It's not all bad though and Scots noted the fact that the English can laugh at themselves as one of the good things, along with great music and a good sense of humour.

But the Anglos were not self-aware when asked what they reckon folk dislike about them - with the 66 World Cup not even making the top 20.

They did correctly guess Brexit and football hooliganism in the top five, while they thought expecting everyone to speak English would be top.

In Al Murray's new show the comedian travels to his country's nearest neighbours to try and find out why everyone hates them so much.

In the fourth episode he is joined by Fred MacAuley to identify what we reasons we Scots have.

Al has already been to France, Wales and Ireland, while next Monday will show what happened when he went to Germany.

We told how a German company had launched a map of Europe with an independent Scotland in it- and IndyRef 2 fans were loving it.

And Gerard Butler earlier revealed that he has to thicken his accent whenever he returns home to Scotland after years of living in the US.
We pay for your stories and videos! Do you have a story or video for The Scottish Sun? Email us at scoop@thesun.co.uk or call 0141 420 5200

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The top reasons why Scots hate the English REVEALED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
THE TOP reason why Scots hate the English has been revealed - and it's not too surprising. The number one thing that grinds our gears about our neighbours is that they are always banging on about winning the World Cup in 1966. The research was conducted for HISTORY® TV show Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate The English?

# data[].attributes.headline
In one sentence … monetarism required strict control of the money supply and that meant a lack of public investment in industries which desperately required it, and those mainly heavy industries were the key linchpins of the Scottish economy – shipbuilding, steel, coal, engineering, manufacturing of everything from cars to textiles.Thatcher cynically and deliberately set out to favour the financial sector, the City, above all, and began effectively decimating the industrial and manufacturing capacity of the UK because the companies and the nationalised steelworks and mines could not get investment they needed to remain  competitive

# data[].attributes.subject
In one sentence … monetarism required strict control of the money supply and that meant a lack of public investment in industries which desperately required it, and those mainly heavy industries were the key linchpins of the Scottish economy – shipbuilding, steel, coal, engineering, manufacturing of everything from cars to textiles.Thatcher cynically and deliberately set out to favour the financial sector, the City, above all, and began effectively decimating the industrial and manufacturing capacity of the UK because the companies and the nationalised steelworks and mines could not get investment they needed to remain  competitive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This is the truth about how Thatcher devastated Scotland

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
LAST week we looked at how Saint Margaret as Malcolm Canmore's queen changed the face of Scotland by Romanising the Christian faith of this country, for which she was rewarded by being the only Scottish woman to be formally canonised by the Pope.

# data[].attributes.headline
Perhaps some of the most enduring ill-feeling between the two countries came as a result of the English, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, performing the Highland Clearances. This involved English landlords evicting their tenants to clear the land for sheep, cattle and mining. Many families were burnt out of their homes

# data[].attributes.subject
Perhaps some of the most enduring ill-feeling between the two countries came as a result of the English, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, performing the Highland Clearances. This involved English landlords evicting their tenants to clear the land for sheep, cattle and mining. Many families were burnt out of their homes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dr Kathryn Bates is a graduate of archaeology and history. She has excavated across the world as an archaeologist, and tutored medieval history at Leicester University. She joined the administrative team at Oxford Open Learning twelve years ago. Alongside her distance learning work, Dr Bates is a be…

# data[].attributes.body
Most Scots think the English are just fine. For a long time, the populations of the two countries have engaged in friendly rivalry when it comes to sport, just like adjacent cities or even adjacent districts. Sometimes, fanatics, ‘fans’, have taken things too far. Someone always does. However, as two highly integrated populations working within and contributing to a single economic and political Union there is immense day to day interplay between them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Answer (1 of 41): I grew up in Scotland, spent a year studying in Cornwall (SW England), and now work in London. The English are viewed in a lot of different ways. The one thing they all have in common is that it's based on dislike - but each to different degrees.

# data[].attributes.headline
"That the UK’s union of four nations is under strain is not new to anyone who has been paying attention. But the combined impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the Conservative government under Boris Johnson are driving an increasing wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK – or, more accurately, between Scotland and England."

# data[].attributes.subject
"That the UK’s union of four nations is under strain is not new to anyone who has been paying attention. But the combined impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the Conservative government under Boris Johnson are driving an increasing wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK – or, more accurately, between Scotland and England."

# data[].attributes.body
https://fedtrust.co.uk/scotlands-england-problem/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
That the UK's union of four nations is under strain is not new to anyone who has been paying attention. But the combined impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the Conservative government under Boris Johnson are driving an increasing wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK - or, more accurately, between Scotland and England.

Two recent Panelbase polls have put support for independence in Scotland at 54%. Other polls earlier in the year also indicated backing for independence pushing past the 50% mark.

Many commentators focus on whether the UK will survive its current fracturing as a state. Some speculate whether Irish reunification might precede not follow Scottish independence, others muse about the political, social and cultural, as well as economic, case for the union today and why it is mostly not well made. Meanwhile, the Tories, enmeshed in ideological denial, pretend there is no problem - 'global Britain' is on the rise. And Labour, under Keir Starmer, continues to talk the language of federalism without ever quite, so far, explaining what that would look like and what problems it would solve.

Scotland's Problem with England

Looked at from a Scottish perspective, it is rather clear that Scotland has an England problem - perhaps a helpful perspective for understanding why the union is under strain. English voters, with some help from Wales, voted for Brexit. English voters then put Boris Johnson into power: the Tories, despite their 80 seat majority, not only losing seats in Scotland at the general election last December but only winning a majority of the votes in England, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all heading in different political directions. The SNP increased their number of MPs at that election to 48 out of Scotland's 59 seats, and Labour fell back to having just one Labour MP again. And on current polls the SNP looks set to do very well at the Holyrood elections next May, returning a larger number of MSPs than now - though there's much water to flow under the bridge before then.

In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, there is currently a relatively muted political debate in Scotland. But the Coronavirus crisis is also deepening England-Scotland divisions. Nicola Sturgeon fatefully went along with Johnson's disastrously late lockdown. Yet the divergences are now getting stronger. Johnson, in his implicit role of first minister of England, has stopped daily press conferences on the crisis (that were anyway headed up by a incoherently changing cast of ministerial characters) - and eased lockdown substantially ahead of Scotland. Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon continues to head up a daily press conference, with her approval ratings, for managing the crisis, hitting 74% (in a recent Sunday Times Panelbase poll of Scottish voters) to Johnson's 21%.

Scottish deaths - as in Wales and Northern Ireland - are now very low, often zero on a daily basis, while England is still at shocking levels of up to 150 deaths in a day, with estimated infection rates lower in Scotland too. From 10th July, masks are mandatory in shops in Scotland - and cafes and restaurants will only open indoors from 15th July. The sense of two different trajectories between England and Scotland is currently very strong (though how this plays out in the weeks and months ahead is yet to be seen).

But it's fair to ask whether this is a generalised problem with England then from a Northern Ireland and Wales as well as Scottish perspective? To some extent, yes. Wales, though, did vote for Brexit in 2016. And Northern Ireland is now on a different trajectory given the 2019 UK EU Withdrawal Agreement that means it stays in the EU's single market for goods and effectively in the EU's customs union. Despite Johnson's denials, there will be a border between Britain and Northern Ireland, fracturing the UK's internal market.

Deliberate Undermining of Devolution?

Yet neither Theresa May nor Boris Johnson, post the 2016 leave vote, would even discuss Scottish government proposals to keep Scotland in the EU's single market or to devolve some migration powers to Scotland given the importance to its economy and society of EU citizens and free movement of people. Brexit, as pursued by May and Johnson, has meant a re-centralisation of powers in many ways despite existing devolved structures.

This has been underlined in the faltering Brexit talks since March. There has been almost no serious or strategic consultation of the Scottish government - aside from some very granular discussions with officials on some specific areas. Even information-sharing has been at best patchy and late.

The supposed consultative structures of the Joint Ministerial Committee (European Negotiations) have barely operated at all - certainly the UK government never had the slightest intention of attempting to get to a joint position across the four nations on the type of future UK-EU relationship to target. Calls from opposition parties (but not Labour) and from Wales and Scotland's first ministers to extend the Brexit transition were dismissed out of hand in June.

And now a renewed clash is brewing over so-called common UK frameworks in some devolved areas. The Financial Times has reported that an upcoming UK internal market bill, this autumn, may instigate a new power grab of devolved powers. This will set light to a new constitutional stand-off. Devolved powers in areas including agriculture and environment were already contentious and led to a stand-off between the UK and Scottish government in 2018. The UK government argued then that EU powers in those areas could not all go back to the devolved governments or the UK's internal market would be fractured (a little ironic given the Northern Ireland protocol, and Irish Sea border that Johnson signed up to). In the end, a compromise was agreed with the Welsh government but the Scottish government refused to sign it off (but was then ignored and legislated around) - and until now, common frameworks have not been set out. But common frameworks are relevant too for any new trade deals the UK signs with other countries now the end of transition looms - trade policy is reserved but does this mean devolved policy in these areas will be trumped by deals on chlorinated chicken or other standard-lowering agreements? It would seem the UK government will argue trade powers dominate.

The Scottish government has already indicated that it would aim to keep environmental and other devolved legislation in line with EU legislation as far as possible even after the end of transition. With a strategic goal of independence in the EU, and a commitment to tough climate goals, this looks like a reasonable aim. But it may well fall foul of this upcoming constitutional clash if environmental powers are re-centralised for the UK's internal market in the context, in part, of upcoming trade deals. On top of this potential further undermining of devolved structures, the more the UK deviates from EU legislation (whether in reserved or devolved areas) the longer it would take an independent Scotland to adjust its laws back to EU ones if that scenario comes to pass.

For Scottish voters who are pro-EU, pro-independence and/or pro-devolution as currently structured, this all looks highly problematic and driven by a Tory, England-focused UK government. Northern Ireland after all will not be able to sit within many 'UK' common frameworks given it will be in the EU's single market for goods. But for Wales and Scotland, the UK government looks only too happy to re-centralise and to engage in political stand-offs not least with the Scottish government.

England's Politics Dominating

Neither under Theresa May nor under Boris Johnson has there been any effort to overcome the fractious splits in the union the Brexit vote provoked. Johnson appears to be most focused on appealing to those English voters, including in the north of England, who gave him his majority in December, and perhaps to keeping the Tories' current share of the Scottish vote through deliberate confrontation with the SNP government.

There is nothing in the UK government's current behaviour that suggests any serious strategy at all to mend the divides in the union or even any serious political thoughts, given the Conservatives are a unionist party, on how to lessen support for independence (beyond flag-waving over UK government projects). This is perhaps not surprising - Brexit, and Johnson's populist government, is driven by an ideological and nostalgic form of English nationalism. A modern approach to reconceiving the meaning of the UK and its four nations would be anathema to that ideology. The UK government's incompetence in the face of the massive, systemic Covid-19 crisis has only added to this retro-English nationalism ideology versus modern nationhood and multiple identities stand-off in ways that are adding to the UK's existing fractures.

Labour's Opportunity?

That should leave a big opportunity for Labour to step into this debate, to defend devolved powers, to promote a closer UK-EU relationship, to re-think the union in more modern terms - to show that is it not leaving the defence of devolution in Scotland to the SNP and Scottish government alone. But Labour is in a very awkward position in Scotland. Labour's dramatic slide in Scotland in the last decade does not look easily reversible. Labour had 42% of the vote in Scotland at the 2010 election, 24% in 2015, and came third behind the Tories, with just 18.6% in the 2019 election. The SNP, in 2019, had 45% of the vote and has been in power at Holyrood since 2007; Labour has been supplanted.

Keir Starmer has called for 'radical federalism' but what this means is yet to be determined - or how it would surmount the old problem of the dominant size of England. Starmer has also chosen to move quickly in setting out Labour's opposition to another independence referendum. This should have been a decision that warranted more time and reflection.

Not only is there now a 54% majority for independence but almost two-thirds of voters under 55 years of age (in that same poll) support independence, as do 46% of Labour voters. If Labour wants to win back support in Scotland, it surely needs to engage with younger voters. And it may struggle to win back those pro-EU/remain voters who have shifted to supporting independence. Labour has no clear policy for now on what the future UK-EU relationship should look like; and Starmer deliberately chose not to call for an extension of the transition period. This may play well to some of his target voters in England, not least in those 'red wall' seats won by the Tories. But it is not a strategy for winning back Scotland - English voters perhaps being prioritised here as Starmer establishes himself. As a result only the SNP, and Scottish Greens, have a clear policy of rejoining the EU - through independence. And Labour is indistinguishable from the Tories in positioning themselves against a further independence vote.

And if Labour does come up with a clear and compelling vision of radical federalism, it is going to jar with the refusal to consider another independence referendum - and it will need a clear stance on UK-EU relations (and on wider foreign policy). If Starmer wants some form of constitutional renewal for the UK, but isn't prepared to put that vision as a choice, in Scotland, between a renewed, radically decentralised UK and independence, then that doesn't suggest an openness to debate and to a shared, democratic decision on different constitutional futures.

And the EU is a real stumbling block here. If Starmer wants substantially more devolution and decentralisation, then is this back to 'devo-max'? But, in that case, how do the UK's relations to the EU and foreign policy fit in here. With the UK outside the EU, then Scotland's only route to be inside the EU looks to be through independence - unless Labour comes out with a 're-join' position, which is currently unlikely or unimaginable. Again, for England, Labour wants to be seen to be accepting Brexit - Brexit has happened. That doesn't look like a positive or relevant European policy for many in Scotland.

Re-imaging Relations Across these Isles

There is a further underlying problem here little addressed by either side of the independence debate. That is how relations between Scotland, England and Wales are and could be best structured across their multiple dimensions - and their relations as well to Northern Ireland and to the Republic of Ireland. On the pro-independence side, there is a regular insistence that England would be Scotland's friend, and certainly an important neighbour. But little beyond this. Starmer has yet to elaborate his ideas. And the Tories appear to have no wish to deal with this problem beyond a centralisation agenda. Yet relations across Britain, and across these two isles deserve more consideration than that (something the Irish government is only too well aware of).

How Scotland might get to a second independence referendum, in the face of Johnson's refusal to consider one, is a topic of considerable debate on the pro-independence side. But with a current majority for independence in the polls, and with those under 55 years clearly supporting independence by a substantial majority, it is surely time for some serious consideration in England and Wales of what pan-Britain relations might look like in an independence scenario, even if it's not the preferred scenario (albeit a recent poll, as discussed in a Yorkshire Bylines article, suggested English Tory voters are split on whether they want the UK to continue at all).

The question of relations across Britain, and the island of Ireland, is more challenging in the face of Brexit than it would have been if there had been a 'yes' vote in the 2014 independence referendum. An independent Scotland's border with England would be an EU external border - as the Republic of Ireland's sea border with the UK now is too. But with an independent Scotland in the EU, there would still be much need for cooperation on a range of issues with England and Wales (and with Northern Ireland too but it now requires its own separate analysis from England and Wales given its post-Brexit differentiated status). And there might be some significant if partial overlap in what that cooperation might look like between the scenarios of radical federalism and Scottish independence. But that would require a more open political debate than currently exists (albeit some interesting academic analysis is opening up on this).

Scotland's Political Future

In the midst of the Covid crisis, and the uncertainty over the damaging economic effects of that and Brexit combined, where Scotland's politics may go next is unclear. The Scottish government, and the SNP, are currently in a strong position but how voters react to the unfolding economic crisis and to where the Covid health crisis goes next (including a second wave or not) is uncertain - will it reinforce support for the SNP and independence or will a turbulent, continuing crisis weaken that support. And the Holyrood inquiry into how the Scottish government handled complaints against Alex Salmond is set to dominate headlines as it calls witnesses in the months to come - with Salmond's book due out before long too. SNP infighting may not impress voters. But for now voting intentions for next May's Scottish parliament elections look set to underline those polls that show majority support for independence. Brexit, Covid, and the Johnson government are not the only drivers of support for independence, but they are all, for now, helping to increase that support.

It could be said that Scotland's England problem is really a problem with the Conservatives. The Tories drove Brexit; they played fast and loose with devolution. But Brexit has happened. And Labour, having struggled so much with positioning itself on Brexit in the last four years, has no clear ideas, for now, on UK-EU relations, nor the courage to face up to a more open debate on independence. England needs to reinvent itself - though not in the way that Johnson and his apparatchiks imagine (as incoherent and destructive as that appears to be). But it is not for Scotland to drive that English reinvention.

More broadly, Scotland, and Scottish politics, with all its tribalism and multiple faults (like any democracy), looks like a relatively normal, small country European democracy. The same cannot be said of its larger neighbour England. In Scotland, voters chose to stay in the UK in 2014 and in the EU in 2016. It could be said that voters chose the mainstream status quo. But the Tory Brexiters have, quite deliberately, upended that status quo - it no longer exists. And that is Scotland's England problem.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
That the UK's union of four nations is under strain is not new to anyone who has been paying attention. But the combined impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the Conservative government under Boris Johnson are driving an increasing wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK - or, more accurately, between Scotland and England.