David Leask: Row about anti-English Scottish nationalism is shamefully shallow

But he did not want to be mistaken for an Englishman. “We like being un-English,” the statesman wrote of Scots in the now defunct News Chronicle back in 1952.

Elliot in his piece was moaning about “the metropolitan and popular press” and how it was ignoring the latest attempt to answer the Scottish Question, the Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs. Sound familiar?

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The old newspaper article tickled James Mitchell, a professor at Edinburgh University and scholar of the Scottish independence movement, who dug it up in his research years ago. “Elliot was prone to put down English colleagues (in his own party too) who dared intervene in Scottish debates in the Commons,” said Mitchell.

Elliot’s small-n nationalism was typical of the mainstream unionism which once prevailed in Scotland.

But how would it go down today? How would the pro-UK warriors of Twitter react to a senior Scottish politician saying they “liked” being “un-English”? What would columnists print in the rightist parts of the London press?

Would they claim Elliot hated the English? They might, you know.

There has been a spate of media and social media commentary about anglophobic Scottish nationalists over recent weeks. It has all got a bit silly.

The latest row was started by a couple of stupid tweets. One was by one-time Herald writer Ruth Wishart who joked, unfunnily, that readers of The Telegraph, a pro-Brexit and Conservative broadsheet, were not wanted in Scotland’s islands.

The other was by an SNP councillor in Glasgow, Rhiannon Spear. As Britain collected nil points at Eurovision, she gaffed. "It’s ok Europe,” she microblogged. “We hate the United Kingdom too. Love, Scotland”.

Do some Scottish nationalists hold The Telegraph in contempt? Yes, I am afraid a few do. Do some strongly dislike the British state. Yes, definitely. Is this evidence of anti-English racism? Not really.

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I don’t think we are very good at talking about Anglophobia in Scotland. And this kind of shallow internet-grade row does not help.

There are unionists – many of whom are every bit chauvinistic as the worst of their “nationalist” opponents – who want to big up the issue. And there are nationalists who want to minimise it.

That makes a conversation about the problem – or even its scale – almost impossible.

Scotland does have its real anti-English bigots, of course. Some even criminally so. In the last year for which there is any data, 2018-2019, some 230 racially aggravated hate crimes were directed at victims coyly categorised as “other white British”.

According to Scottish government statistics, in 68% of these cases “the prejudice shown by the perpetrator was against those from the English community”.

That is horrible, but rare. Other minorities – people of colour, the disabled, LGBT – are far more vulnerable.

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Prejudice is not just about crimes, of course.

And there will no doubt be some Scottish nationalists who hide their anglophobia under expressions of dislike for “Tories”, “Westminster” or the “British state”.

But most Scots, pro or anti-independence, who claim to hate the Tories are saying exactly what they mean.

A Telegraph columnist this week talked of “nationalists’ anglophobic rhetoric” as if this was something that was easily documented. In fact, pro-independence politicians will bend themselves in to absurd shapes to avoid saying anything that could even be remotely construed as anti-English.

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Why? Because even the perception of hostility to an ethnic group would damage their cause – and the economy.

Take tourism? A newspaper and social media row about English-hating nationalism does have the potential to sting the hospitality industry, even if it is totally out of proportion with the reality on the ground.

English holidaymakers are highly unlikely to encounter anybody north of the border who is remotely phased by their accents. (Hundreds of thousands of English people live in Scotland).

But people considering a UK staycation might well read about alleged Scottish anglophobia, including, as it happens, in this week’s Telegraph.

Might that put them off coming to Scotland? Ironically, the pretext for some of the flimsier “SNP hates English” stories is concern about hotels and restaurants. I am not sure such businesses will be delighted with the coverage.

Prof Mitchell knows the rank and file of Scottish nationalism better than most. Does he think they hate the English?

“Anglophobia is probably no more prevalent in the SNP than in Scottish society which, of course, doesn’t make it defensible,” he said. “Politically, anti-Tory attitudes can mutate or at least manifest themselves as anti-English attitudes. This is common in relations between neighbours especially a larger, more powerful neighbour. I don’t think we have seen a growth in Anglophobia but we are more aware of it.”

So is the SNP, he added.

“The party and pro-independence mainstream has long been hyper-sensitive to accusations of being anti-English,” he said “It has taken steps over the years to weed out the worst culprits.”

So what explains the latest row about anglophobia? I’m not sure. Some of it will just be the way social media generates outrage, even about what amount to a couple of ill-judged jokes. But there might be more to it.

There are a lot of people who struggle to understand the rise of support for independence over the last decade or so. (I’m one of them, this is a hellishly complicated societal change). Maybe blaming “bigots” is an easy way to avoid thinking about how to reverse the trend?

Me? I think unionists, especially those south of the border, should go back to Elliot. If you really want to save a multi-national state it might be worth finding out how the old “nationalist unionists” did so, about how they liked being British but also un-English.

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