Davidson accuses SNP of Orwellian nationalism

However in the first speech by a Tory politician to the Orwell Foundation in London, Ms Davidson acknowledged all parties, including her own, divided people into camps.

The SNP said Ms Davidson, who in 2015 famously sat astride the barrel of a tank flying the Union Jack, was guilty of “double-think” and had made a career out of tribal nationalism.

In her lecture, Ms Davidson said nationalism should not be confused with patriotism.

The latter was pride in a particular place, but “worn lightly” and not imposed on others, whereas nationalism was “a state of mind where one ideology, one myth, must take precedence over all else and which demands people support one camp or another".

She said: “Nationalism is a part of the Scottish psyche and it would be hypocritical to deny it. But the challenge laid by Orwell is how we react.”

She said “the nationalist impulse” had strengthened in recent years across the world.

Referring to Donald Trump in America, Marine Le Pen in France, and the Austrian Freedom party, she said: "Each chose a Presidential campaign slogan setting themselves up as the saviour of the nation, the people, the culture the land.

"Those not of the tribe became - not serious people with differing ideas and policy platforms by which the country could advance – but were portrayed as opponents of progress, threats to nation or betrayers of people."

She said most Yes voters in 2014 acted out of a benign patriotic impulse, seeing it as “the best thing for Scotland”, and she would never condemn them for doing so.

However she went on: "The truth is that the nationalist politics identified by Orwell - the attempt to classify and label human beings into groups marked 'good' and 'bad' - has become a key part of our political practice in Scotland.

"It has to be said this has been pursued quite deliberately, so that many people who do not subscribe to the loudly advanced, so-called 'good' side of the argument feel voiceless and helpless."

She said the 1984 author identified three trends in nationalism: an obsession with itself, and sensitivity over flags and headlines; an unstable latching on to inconsistent arguments to fuel its cause; and and an indifference to reality and refusal to admit problems.

She said: “I have to say, for many of us in Scotland, it all sounds remarkably familiar.

“In Scotland, political nationalism has introduced the idea that only one side of the constitutional divide can be the authentic voice of ‘the people of Scotland’. That only it has a right to be heard. That other voices are by their nature illegitimate and phoney.

“All political parties in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK have been at fault over time in claiming to have a monopoly on the national mood... but I would suggest the modern SNP has made this technique its own.”

She went on: “The implication hangs in the air: those who are not orthodox, or do not follow the right way are foreign, we are alien, we are other.

"This technique has, for a long time, been effective. If people feel bullied and hectored into supporting SNP, I don't blame them."

The Tory leader said that after 10 years of SNP government people had “had enough", such as parents who saw their children's education getting “steadily worse”.

Referring to the Italian fascist leader Mussolini, she said: "That, perhaps, is the greatest rebuke against nationalism. It's that it doesn't actually make the trains run on time.

“Only good governance will do that. My hope is that, in Scotland, our decades-long obsession with the constitution may soon be coming to an end - and we can start using the enormous powers of our Parliament to improve the actual fabric of our country."

Deidre Brock, the SNP candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith, said: “This is a lesson in doublethink from Ruth Davidson, whose own political message could not be more ‘tribal’.

“It is Orwellian to lecture others on nationalism when she's the one who drapes herself in a flag and drives around in a tank.

“Her claim to the moral high ground is totally undermined given the SNP’s vision of an independent Scotland is inclusive, outward-looking and internationalist, while Ms Davidson supports a Brexit Britain turning its back on its nearest neighbours and trying to make enemies of our European allies."

Scottish Labour's James Kelly said: “What an embarrassment Ruth Davidson is. This is the leader who turned our political debate into a shouting match about flags rather than the issues people care about.

“At every turn Ruth Davidson has put the narrow British nationalism of the Tories ahead of what's best for the people of this country. Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said the Tories and SNP were as bad as each other.

He said: "Both are isolationists, both are nationalists, both are damaging Scotland. By attacking the SNP for nationalism Ruth Davidson simply draws attention to her party's own brand of nationalism."