The second chapter examines the campaign for a Scottish Assembly and then Parliament, which began in the 1970s, and concluded in 1997 with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. Modern nationalism in Scotland is made up of two basic ingredients, one best described by the […] 19th-century term, ‘Home Rule’, and the other nationalist in the fullest sense of the term. The failure of the 1979 Devolution Referendum led, in the 1980s and early 1990s, to something of a decline in the level of scholarly interest in Scottish nationalism.
In particular, the success of the 1997 referendum posed important questions about the development of Scottish nationalism in the intervening decades. It can be seen from the assessment of the literature on Scottish nationalism that scholars have invoked the idea of Scottish exceptionalism for decades. An important aspect of the discussion of Scottish nationalism is the role of historical narratives.
Bell’s conception of how mythscapes behave will be examined through the case study of the Scottish political mythscape. 86 Paul Basu, Highland Homecomings: Genealogy and Heritage Tourism in the Scottish Highland Diaspora (Oxford: Routledge, 2007) & ‘Sites of Memory-Sources of Identity: Landscape-Narratives of the Sutherland Clearances’, in J.A. This thesis does not examine the years between the referenda examined in the thesis unless it specifically relates to the events of the referenda.
From Perfect Union to Evolving Union: The 1979 and 1997 Devolution Referenda
The End of Britain (1977), represent two sides of the political spectrum in the lead-up to the 1979 referendum. A direct line was thus drawn between the historical event and the values of the SNP. This is an example of the traitor trope which is another feature of national narratives.
The eighth and final episode of Wolfe’s narrative focused on the Clydeside MPs of the 1920s and 1930s. In Wolfe’s narrative of the Rising, the Scottish land-owning class was responsible for suppressing the insurrection. The difference is that, in Wolfe’s version, these narrative features exist in the narrative of the Scottish nation, whereas Dalyell disputed this.
Two of the historical references included in the debate revolved around the question of identity. The release of the Hollywood blockbuster Braveheart (1995) marked another important shift in the devolution narrative. Scottish Labour also referenced the historic foundation of the Scottish parliament in their campaign material.
Unionism and Welfare Statism: The 2014 Independence Referendum
Whereas Fox constructed a positive image of the British Empire, the Liberal Democrat narrative did not. A striking similarity between the Better Together campaign and the Conservative campaign was their invocation of the legacy of David Livingstone. In particular, the campaign emphasised the role of the Scottish labour movement within the history of the British labour movement.
The Better Together and Conservative campaigns focused their narratives on the early years of the Union in the eighteenth century. However, the party emerged as a dominant player in the discourse of the Independence Referendum, despite being only a marginal party. In the run-up to the independence referendum, the discourse of the Liberal Democrats included elements from both Labour and Conservative narratives.
According to Labour, Scotland’s narrative of the slave trade cannot be confined to the abolitionist movement. Clegg argued that the ‘great liberal qualities of the UK is what makes it great. Cox’s comment must be understood in the context of the wider discourse surrounding the world wars.
In the discourse of the No campaign, Hague and Brown used romance and nostalgia to construct a positive image. In the mid-20th century, the creation of the welfare state played an overwhelming role in giving the union a new purpose. This is another example of the use of silences and blind spots to bolster arguments.
Another recurring feature of the SNP discourse were references to Adam Smith and Robert Burns. Another key feature of the SNP campaign was the negotiation of the confines of historical romanticism. The declaration, which he described as ‘Scotland’s Declaration of Independence’, was ‘the first ever European articulation of the contractual.
In particular, the narrative emphasised the origins, continuity, and timelessness of the Scottish nation and parliament.
Unionism and Europeanism: The Aftermath of Brexit in Scotland
In the wake of the Brexit Referendum, the various Unionist parties had to respond to the upsurge of pro-independence discourse. Although the duration of the Union between Scotland and England had long been part of political discourse, the Brexit referendum. 115 added a new element to the discussion, namely, the historical connection of the UK with Europe.
Douglas Ross, Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party (2020-present) and MP for Moray (2017-present), also addressed the longevity of the relationship between Scotland and the UK, relative to the relationship with the EU in a speech of 2 November 2020. Unlike her colleagues within both the British and Scottish branches of the Conservative Party, May did not compare the UK to the EU. By contrast, the Labour Party highlighted the modern-day significance of the Act of Union.
The Enlightenment also featured in the post-Brexit discourse of the Conservative and Labour Parties. During the 2014 Independence campaign, the creation of the welfare state was attributed to an Englishman, not. Of the five main political parties in Scotland, only the SNP and the Greens supported independence.
However, in the aftermath of the Brexit Referendum the Greens began to play a more prominent role in Scottish memory politics. A recurring theme in the discourse both of the Greens and of the SNP was that sovereignty lies with the Scottish people. This narrative was articulated by co-leader of the Scottish Greens (2008-present) and MSP for Glasgow (2003-present), Patrick Harvie, on 2 December 2016.
Following the Brexit result, this part of the narrative developed to incorporate even more European elements. In her Address to the Seanad of 29 November 2016, Sturgeon used the example of the Book of Kells. The narrowing of the Unionist narrative can be explained by changes to the overall messages of the campaigns.
The Unionist parties were restricted to events which either presented Scotland’s relationship to the UK or the benefits of the Union positively.
Conclusion
The political developments of the 1980s and 1990s, namely the consecutive Conservative governments, led to dissatisfaction within Scotland and UK politics more generally. The increase in support for devolution across the board (barring the Conservative Party) meant that the debate was mainly focused on material concerns, not identity politics. Following the creation of the Scottish parliament, the main actors in the Scottish mythscape were parties from the Scottish political sphere.
Within Scottish politics, the main competition was between the pro-independence SNP and the unionist Labour Party. Despite the political division over the issue of independence, by 2014, the political parties were in agreement about the main events in the Scottish historical narrative, although they interpreted them differently. The dramatic changes to the Scottish historical narrative which followed the Brexit result were likely the result of political upheaval.
Prior to 2016, the Scottish and UK parliaments had co-existed in relative harmony with few disputes over the sharing of power. However, the Brexit result illustrated that Scotland was not on equal political footing with its larger neighbour, despite devolution. This revelation led to a divergence in the narrative of the Scottish past with Unionists continuing to develop narratives articulated previously, whereas new narratives were constructed by pro-independence parties.
This means that there are some gaps within the thesis, especially related to the period between the first and second devolution referenda. Regarding the later referenda, it would be particularly interesting to investigate the role that social networks played in the development of narrative. This would, perhaps, clarify why the campaign of 2014 was focused on a singular narrative of Scottish history, and additionally why the narratives after 2016 evolved in the way that they did.
This thesis has shown that the irregular behaviour of Scottish nationalism does extend into memory politics. Additionally, this thesis has shown that the evolution of the Scottish mythscape, just like the evolution of Scottish nationalism more generally, refuses to align itself with theoretical conceptions.
Bibliography
Cameron, David, ‘The Importance of Scotland to the UK’, UK Government, 7 February 2014, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-importance-of-scotland-to-the-uk-david-. Carmichael, Alistair, ‘Scottish Secretary Speech on the Scottish Independence Debate’, UK Government, 13 November 2013, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/scottish- secretary-speech-on-the-scottish-independence-debate (accessed 4/5/2021). Clegg, Nick, ‘Speech to the Lib Dem Spring Conference’, Liberal Democrat Voice, 9 March 2014, https://www.libdemvoice.org/nick-clegg-speech-2014-.
Hague, William, ‘The United Kingdom; Stronger Together’, UK Government, 20 June 2013, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretarys-speech-the-united-kingdom- stronger-together (accessed 3/5/2021). Hyslop, Fiona, ‘Speech: Arctic Connections: Scotland's Arctic Policy Framework’, Scottish Government, 24 September 2019, https://www.gov.scot/publications/arctic-connections-scotlands- arctic-policy-framework-2/ (accessed 1/3/2021). Into Europe’, UK Parliament, 2021, https://www.parliament.uk/about/living- heritage/transformingsociety/tradeindustry/importexport/overview/europe/ (accessed 9/4/2021).
Salmond, Alex, ‘Scottish Independence: First Minister Alex Salmond’s Letter to Voters’, The Independent, 16 September 2014, https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/scottish-. Sturgeon, Nicola, ‘Building a Better Nation’, Scottish Government, 3 December 2012, https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive. Sturgeon, Nicola, ‘Arctic Circle Forum Scotland: Speech’, Scottish Government, 21 November 2017, https://www.gov.scot/publications/arctic-circle-forum-scotland-speech/.
Sturgeon, Nicola, ‘Speech: Foreign Affairs Committee, French National Assembly’, Scottish Government, 19 February 2019, https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-ministers-speech-at- french-national-assembly/ (accessed 1/3/2021). Sturgeon, Nicola, ‘First Minister's speech at Dublin Chamber of Commerce’, Scottish Government, 5 October 2017, https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-ministers-speech- dublin-chamber-of-commerce/ (accessed 1/3/2021). Broughton, David, ‘Scottish National Party’ Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 August 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scottish-National-Party (accessed 30/9/2022).
John Gray Centre, Panama—The Darien Scheme, https://www.johngraycentre.org/archive- exhibitions/around-the-world/panama-the-darien-scheme/ (accessed 11/4/2022). 159 Nelsson, Richard, ‘Archive: How the Guardian Reported the 1975 EEC Referendum’, The Guardian, 5 June 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/from-the-archive-.
