AS is often said Scotland can have four seasons in one day, but it’s not just the weather that’s mercurial. For some folk, it’s the best country in the world, for others it’s the worst and that’s shown with the stooshie over racism, where some have us portrayed as an oasis of tranquillity and others a den of iniquity.

The report, revealed in The Herald this week, provoked some ire but seemed perfectly logical; rejecting its findings is not just denying reality, but history. That doesn’t mean that Scots are innately racist because we’re not. Progress has been made in addressing racism, with great credit going to the current Government but also past administrations of different political hues.

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Scottish exceptionalism on immigration is a myth and something I’ve never bought into, though neither do I believe that we’re worse than any others. On this issue, as with so many, we’re just folk the same as others the world o’er – capable of kindness to visitors but equally of showing hostility to strangers.

Scots aren’t less racist than our English cousins. It’s simply that the pressures on their society and in their communities are greater, though there is a difference in the attitudes of the respective governments. Contrasting declining crime statistics here with rising ones there is a classic political case of comparing apples with pears.

Given the situation some English regions face, Scotland might and very well would react likewise. After all we’ve pockets experiencing the same pressures and some of our own who have moved south will be fuelling some of the ills down there. A look into our past and even not so ancient history shows some dreadful attitudes, not least towards the Irish.

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Equally, it doesn’t mean that we should beat ourselves up unduly or go into a deep depression. Great progress has been made and good things are happening. However, in that we’re neither exceptional nor can ignore that racism does happen here and, sadly, all too often. But the recent welcoming of refugees is still something to take pride in.

A few weeks back, I was reading an interesting article on racism and the rise of populism in Sweden, which is a country I know well and admire. I suppose as some bought into Scottish exceptionalism, I was persuaded of Swedish exceptionalism.

After all this was a country where 10 per cent were born abroad and migrants were actively welcomed from the war-torn Balkans, though it has to be said that much of that was predicated on the needs of a nation with an ageing population and an assessment that European migrants, even Muslim ones, would be easier to assimilate. But it continued over the years and as the refugee crisis arrived Sweden responded admirably, in contrast to many countries including Britain.

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Yet a backlash came from within and their government has had to respond. The far-right Swedish Democrats have been polling 20 per cent and even higher amongst working men in a country I revered for its social democracy.

There have been racist incidents but neither Swedes in general nor Sweden in particular are racist. It’s simply that pressures have caused tensions in many areas and the government has had to respond. It’s not easy but the social democratic government and the overwhelming majority of the people are trying to address it.

The article based on academic research showed that the real problem, other than for a small racist minority, was the labour market, not race. Indeed, Sweden was not more racist than before and arguably much less so as migrants had arrived and attitudes had softened in what had after all been a very homogeneous country.

Investigation showed that areas with most immigrants and those who lived cheek by jowl with them were in fact less hostile or racist than those who had few or lived distant from them. The vote for the populist Swedish Democrats was often highest in areas with little or no immigration.

It was the fear of unemployment or reduced earnings that drove antipathy in many marginal and deprived communities, not racism. That’s understandable as they have most to fear from worklessness or in the consequence of lower pay. In those areas it was that which drove support for the far right.

I found that apposite with similarities south of the Border, that a few have berated for apparently innate racism. Many metropolitan areas in England are remarkably multi-ethnic and though racism exists it’s driven by economic fears more than hostility.

I can’t believe that folk in Stoke or Sunderland are more racist than in Stoke Newington or Southwark; or even Stirling or Stockholm. The Brexit and Ukip vote in many areas was driven by poverty and economic marginalisation.

Of course, similar pressures have occurred in many areas in Scotland but the blame, with some justification, has gone to Westminster and the constitutional dimension has soaked up the angst. Had it not been that way then the political issues faced in those marginalised English communities would fall on our own, as votes for Ukip have shown in some elections.

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Exactly as England has now to wrestle with institutional racism, Scotland displayed it in the past. The prejudice towards the Irish was shown not just in votes for Protestant Action but reflected in institutions from the Church of Scotland to the trade union movement. Thankfully, both those establishments have changed and rightly apologised for past misdeeds.

So, Scotland’s no different to Sweden or England in attitudes to migrants. There are a minority everywhere who are racist and others who can be driven into the arms of racists through economic fears.

We’ve a few who shame the nation but most don’t and the Scottish Government condemns racism and rightly supports migrants and refugees.

Scots are neither better nor worse than other people, Scotland has simply faced fewer pressures. We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns the world o’er.