Neil Mackay: Toxic culture wars over race starting to infect independence debate

Now race is rearing its head and moving onto constitutional territory. This bodes ill for Scotland – a nation, which unlike nearly all other Western countries, has mostly avoided toxic division over immigration and race. We aren’t France, we aren’t America. We aren’t even like most of the rest of the UK – Ukip for instance was a joke north of the border.

Of course, none of that means Scotland is perfect – far from it, there’s still plenty of problems here when it comes to racism and hatred. However, race, so far, hasn’t been a political card worth playing.

READ MORE NEIL: What are Scottish values?

That seems to be changing though, and the change is coming upon us pretty quickly. After the recent anti-deportation protest in Glasgow, the mood palpably shifted. UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has appeared increasingly belligerent towards the Scottish approach to immigration.

Clearly, not everyone in Scotland supported the Glasgow protest, but a lot did. What happened was a powerful rebuff to the Westminster government and its harsh and unbending immigration policy. The Home Office declared the Glasgow protestors “a mob”. Patel stomped all over the debate, insisting her hardline approach is what “people voted for”. Although obviously Scottish people didn’t vote for Patel and her immigration policy as it’s the SNP which is in power here.

Patel vowed to “continue” with raids and removals in Scotland. That sets up the possibility of a very nasty series of confrontations. One wonders if Patel wishes to be the new Winston Churchill. There’s an infamous piece of fake history which abounds claiming Churchill sent tanks into Glasgow in 1919 against striking workers. It never happened – but perhaps Patel imagines, in her wilder flights of fancy, flexing a little state muscle to quell rebellious Scottish lefties preventing refugee deportations? I joke, of course … sort of.

The Scottish Green Party called for Scots to “actively resist” Home Office measures, which Patrick Harvie described as “brutal and inhumane”. Patel fell back on divisive rhetoric that hardline immigration policies “slam the door on dangerous criminals”. Tough luck for refugees in need.

Priti Patel

Amid this rancour, the SNP unveiled a rather striking package of progressive plans as part of its Social Justice and Fairness Commission, tasked to come up with big ideas for an independent Scotland. Along with decriminalising personal drug use, fairer taxation, and higher state pensions, there’s also a call to “dismantle” the UK’s immigration policy. The Commission says immigration should be encouraged, and that there should be a right to work for refugees seeking asylum.

On the flip side, the Tory party’s Culture War Praetorian Guard at Westminster – the socially conservative Common Sense Group of MPs – produced its effective manifesto called Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age. Alongside chapters like What is Wokeism and How Can it be Defeated by Gareth Bacon MP, and Family Matters – the Case for Strengthening Families by Fiona Bruce MP, there’s three sections battering home the anti-immigration agenda, one by Lord Peter Lilley.

READ MORE NEIL: Should Scottish government back breaking immigration laws?

Another anti-immigration chapter by Nick Fletcher MP – in between banging on about the left hating Britain – makes clear the connection between immigration and the successful Brexit vote. Fletcher is unafraid to follow a well-trodden path of populist anti-immigration rhetoric, which has thrived in the UK since the 1960s. “The effects of mass immigration are most acutely felt by the working class,” he writes. “It is their streets in which the community disappears, almost overnight.”

Fletcher attacks anyone who opposes him as “living in their ivory towers”. Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University, pointedly said that Fletcher, “does little more than update the constituent who infamously complained to Enoch Powell about excrement being pushed through her letterbox”.

Scotland’s own most unpleasant divisions are being drawn into this war over immigration which festers between Westminster and Holyrood. Egregious attempts were made to draw false equivalencies between the peaceful Glasgow anti-deportation protest and the disgraceful disorder by some Rangers supporters at George Square.

This sets up a very unhealthy narrative. We must not allow the bigotry of some football fans to in any way collide with the issue with immigration. The two are separate – mixing the matters is a recipe for disaster.

SNP cabinet minister Humza Yousaf has taken an admirable stand against any form of racism rearing its head in Scotland. Consequently, he’s been routinely targeted for racist abuse, and become something of a lightning rod for the anti-immigrant contingent in Scotland. That the most prominent Scot of Asian descent in this country should be attacked for who he is disgraces the nation. Attack the man for his ideas, by all means. His skin colour and his ethnicity should be of no consequence.

There’s a toxic brew simmering away in Scotland and we’re not really paying attention. It’s inevitable that the Tories in particular will try to shape immigration into a stick with which to beat the Yes movement. Post-Brexit, the SNP has a problem when it comes to answering questions about a border with England, so it’s easy to see how the idea of an independent Scotland, with relatively open borders to the rest of the world, could be propagandised by hardline anti-immigration Conservatives.

The SNP needs to make ready for that attack. Like the party’s many unmade plans – on the economy, specifically – preparation is needed by its leadership to build the case for immigration in an independent Scotland. The argument can be made and won. The simple truth is: Scotland needs immigration, it benefits us. In a culture war, however, as in any war, truth seldom triumphs.

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