Tom McCabe defends Scottish nationalism

In an article published by Projet Syndicate, Tom McCabe, Member of the Scottish Parliament and former Finance Minister, pleads in favour of Scottish nationalism. "When people nowadays speak of nationalism, sinister images from another era come to mind. But nationalism is, of course, not inevitably violent: it flares into conflict only in places with a flammable legacy. The break-up of the Soviet Union and its satellite empire shows that the way to address such a legacy is not to force unhappy peoples to live together in one country. ... Moreover, unlike East European or Balkan nationalism, the Scottish variety has little to do with ethnicity or religion. ... What is arising is a different Scotland, and a different Britain, and this is Scotland's lesson for Europe. Britain's highly centralized political culture has been irreversibly changed. It is being replaced by a more diverse sort of politics, in which different regional and national identities gain encouragement and expression."

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