Scottish Independence Guide: The Scottophobia Myth

from the Scots Independent

The English have no problem with the Scots. Their attitude to Britishness is another matter.

Contrary to all the stories in this week’s Scottish press the English are not in any significant way prejudiced against the Scots. On the contrary they seem to love us more than we perhaps deserve. This is curious because they are not particularly fond of most other nationalities, including those (the Americans, Australians and Welsh) with whom they superficially have much in common. And all this is despite our export to England of disproportionate numbers of politicians, journalists, football managers and serial killers, none of which categories enjoys high public esteem.

There are as always exceptions but the vast majority of the English population seem completely at ease with Scottish devolution. They may envy the Scots such advantages as free personal care for the elderly and the absence of up-front university tuition fees but the situation inspires more admiration than jealousy. Likewise the existence of blatantly undemocratic anomalies, most famously the “West Lothian” question, gives rise to very little real resentment, despite the seemingly wilful attempts of the current Westminster Government to use their Scottish MPs to force through unpopular policies for which there is no majority in England.

Doomsters have been forecasting an “English backlash” for many years. But, infuriatingly for the opponents of devolution, this threat has never materialised.

Until now, that is. To read the soul-searching articles, the pious and sorrowful editorials and the “I told you so” letters to the editors in our national press it would appear that the people of England have suddenly decided that enough is enough. Scottophobia, a phenomenon once associated with the arrival in London of James VI and I and his retinue of carpetbaggers, is back with a vengeance.

The proof for this is a single opinion poll, by ICM for the BBC’s Politics Show, which purports to show that 55% of English voters think it would be “wrong” for a Scottish MP to be Prime Minister in the Westminster Parliament. At face value this does seem to indicate an English revolt against what Jeremy Paxman has termed “the Scottish Raj”.

This polling evidence is, however, deeply flawed. Apart from the wording of the question the polling took place during a week when the political agenda was completely saturated with the details of the ongoing war for the post of prime minister between Blair and Brown. In this context it is unsurprising if poll respondents interpreted the question as code for “would you prefer Brown to Blair?” And, given that other polling has indicated that Brown is possibly the only politician more unpopular than Blair, it is equally unsurprising that Brown lost. The poll indicates not Scottophobia but Brownophobia.