Dear Richard

I’m heartened to hear some positive press about Nicola Sturgeon, even if I have to read your blog on political economy and fair tax to get it, because it certainly doesn’t come through on the National Press.
I agree with you about the quality of the SNP team at Westminster and how they go about their business. Indeed they are a capable lot and there are many more of them in the Scottish and European Parliaments. As you say, so many of them have previous life experience and it shows. It just amazes me that, despite massive opposition from the establishment, we are sitting at about 50/50 in the polls. This despite the relentless ‘attitude of studied weariness’, as Lesley Riddoch calls it, emanating from lazy journalists trotting out the same old objections to the same stale arguments. The opposition, such as it is, prefer to hark back to 2014, as though nothing has changed in the interim. Meanwhile, as they well know,everything has changed in the interim.

Having been frankly disenchanted with politics for most of my life, I woke up a couple of years pre-2014 when I knew I had a big decision to make. Given that my grandchildren would have to live with the result, I wanted to make the most informed choice that I could. As someone who’s internally motivated with a lot of self belief, it didn’t take me long to back the principle of independence. After all, why would anyone refuse self-determination? It’s a bit like saying you don’t want to grow up. I knew there would a lot of work ahead and so I embarked on a course of self education. It has been a rapid learning curve but I’m not alone. The Independence movement has a lot of grass roots activists who are thoroughly engaged with the issues we will face as an independent country. We are none of us hopeless romantics, but passionate self-starters, pragmatists who believe in our fellow Scots and their collective problem solving ability. We relish the prospect of shaping our future together in a modern, outward-looking democracy.

It surprises me not one jot that most of England is out of touch with Scottish politics. It’s no wonder they have such a skewed opinion of the Independence debate and the Scots in general. The BBC is bound by its charter to promote the union. 70% of the media is owned by 3 news companies.  This obviously creates conditions in which wealthy individuals can set the agenda for what we read, wield huge political and economic power, and distort the landscape to suit their personal views. This is not in the interests of democracy. Instead of quality journalism in the tabloids, there’s a deliberate dumbing down, promoting the kind of escapist attitudes and sensationalism that ultimately reinforces the political status quo. The cards have been stacked against us from day one and the sooner we concede that it’s David versus Goliath the better. (I like to remember how that story ended though and it fills me with hope rather than fear.)

One of the main problems is that the English have a very poor understanding on nationalism in general. In the interests of clarity, we are the Scottish National party -for the whole nation- not the Scottish Nationalist party; a fine distinction granted, but an important one.
To understand where the SNP are coming from, we should make the distinction between ethnic and civic nationalism. The SNP believes in the latter.
Ethnic nationalists, as far as I can see, emphasise exceptionalism, ‘born into’ citizenship, common roots, blood inheritance and so on. Perhaps the emphasis is less on shared political rights and more on pre-existing ethnic characteristics. This would certainly fit the Brit nat mentality. One can see how it readily unites people against a common enemy–as we saw during wartime – or more recently, ‘foreigners’ with the isolationist culture that has taken root in the far right. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help people overcome divisions such as race, gender, class or division of resources. This is diametrically opposed to the ethos of SNP. The last thing the SNP are promoting is exclusivity. If the SNP are nationals, then they are civic nationals. Civic Nationalism emphasises rule by consent, democratic pluralism, liberty and strength in diversity. It provides the framework in law, legislative possibilities and political participation to reconcile differences.

We in the SNP are deeply concerned about Brexit and not just on the economic front. We are worried about the cruel new culture of xenophobia and isolationism that has been unleashed. We welcome and need our European nationals. (I’m embarrassed that I even need to make that statement because it shouldn’t even have to be said.) We are alarmed that we are entering a world that has seen a new and worrying war against human rights with Le Pen and her party’s history of fascism and racism and we are determined to resist the tide of hate. The turn of events in Europe and the US should be a rallying cry for progressives in all parties and none. If we don’t defend our values then they are no better than meaningless.

For those who think the SNP is anti-English, you must think again. This is a deliberate lie carried out by certain sections of the media who are hell-bent on stirring up division between Scotland and England and putting Scotland in its place. We in the SNP, (and we are not the only political group who want independence ) whether we are Scots, English, Canadian, French, German, Dutch, Indian, Irish, Pakistani or any other nationality, believe in progressive politics of inclusivity and the value of interdependence among nations, a view that runs counter to the fear-filled sentiment of the exclusive nationalism of Brexit and the right wing press who dominate the news. Not only that but the extraordinary remarks of the London Mayor at the recent Scottish Labour conference, where he likened Scottish Nationalism to racism, had our collective mouths dropping in utter disbelief. This is mischievous in the extreme and simply fuels further ignorance among the ill informed.

We are going in different directions Scotland and England. We seem to have very different ideas on social justice, from a market driven tax haven, to the privatisation of the health service, we just don’t want any of what Brexit promises. The hand holding between Theresa May and Donald Trump was the last excruciating vision of dystopia. We can do so much better than that.The SNP do not believe that we in Scotland are ‘better’ than any other nation, but just that we can think of ourselves as ‘as good as’ any other nation, something that our masters in Westminster seem to find very difficult to get their imperialist heads round.

In my opinion, siding with ‘Better Together’ and the Tories was a massive mistake for Scottish Labour. Had they joined forces with Nicola Sturgeon they could have lived to tell the tale in Scotland and may have even won back their grass roots after independence. I see some of them have broken ranks and started a Labour for Independence movement. Good on them.
Finally, it’s quite extraordinary that Kezia Dugdale’s father is a member of the SNP. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Not sure I’d like to be around that table for Sunday roast!

sincerely, Grace Sutherland