Writing in the Herald this week Iain Macwhirter noted that “Any trace of ethnic nationalism, and anti-English sentiment, was expunged from the [Scottish National] party in the 1970s”. Responding to this JK Rowling – of whom you may have heard – suggested this was “Quite a claim”, suspecting that plenty of English-born Scottish residents might take a slightly different view. This, obviously, made for great Twittering and, equally predictably, gave plenty of people enough characters with which to hang themselves.
Tiresomely, they are both correct. As nationalist parties go, the SNP really is a remarkably broad church. It imposes no kind of genetic test upon its members. Many of them were not born in Scotland and are, like Ms Rowling herself, adopted Scots on the grounds of inclination and residence.
For that matter, the party deserves some credit for how it has not reacted to aspects of the independence referendum. If the SNP were as nasty a party as some of its critics suggest we would have heard more chuntering about the fact that Scots-born voters actually (narrowly) endorsed independence last September.
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