Scottish nationalists can sometimes be heard to say the United Kingdom is not a normal country. As evidence, they point to the unelected head of state, absence of a codified constitution and what they see as the dominance of one nation over other, smaller nations within the state. This analysis only underscores the very cultural overlap the SNP tries to downplay — for in their splendid ignorance of the political character of much of the democratic world they echo uncannily those London and university town progressives who delude themselves that the UK’s immigration debate is an insular outlier in an open and tolerant Europe.
It is not normal, in sum, for a sovereign state to facilitate and finance a process intended to separate it from part of its territory.
The UK is an outlier, all right, but not in the sense Scottish nationalists have in mind. Take the current spat between the UK government and Holyrood over the Scottish government’s use of public money to pursue and promote independence.
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