The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Labour, nationalists of the blood

Posted on January 09, 2012 by

Kate Higgins makes an excellent observation over on A Burdz Eye View today. In passing, while commenting on the whole referendum furore, she picks up on an extraordinary piece in yesterday's Scotland On Sunday (that we didn't have time to go into in all the mayhem of Cameron's sudden fit of insanity), revealing that a Labour peer has put forward an amendment to the Scotland Bill which if passed would give the vote to any Scots-born UK resident, regardless of whether they live in Scotland.

At first glance this just seems like a crude and possibly unwise attempt to tip the scales of the vote in favour of the No camp, based on the rather shaky presumption that expats living in England are more likely to be Unionists. (Speaking as one such expat, I can assure Baroness Taylor of Bolton that she's right out of luck.) But looked at more closely it's something much more reckless and sinister.

Opponents of nationalism as a broad ideological position have trouble making their objections stick to the SNP, precisely because the SNP's brand of nationalism isn't really nationalism at all in the conventional sense of the term. So-called "civic nationalism" is not based on a person's ethnicity, but merely on where they live. Whatever colour you are, wherever you're from and whatever deity (if any) you believe in, you can become "Scottish" simply by moving to Scotland, and have exactly the same rights as anyone born and bred there. It's a highly inclusive, heartwarming creed reflected in the SNP's positive, welcoming attitude towards immigration, compared to the viciously resentful one more commonly seen in England.

But Labour's ill-considered intervention places the party firmly on the side of "ethnic nationalism" – the poisonous, bitter strain of the concept that has led to bigotry, wars and genocide across the globe. The logical extrapolation of the view that where you were born is what matters is that non-native Scots shouldn't be allowed a vote in the referendum, and while Labour aren't quite stupid enough to have actually put forward such a thing in the amendment, the inescapable racist undertones of the proposal (while doubtless not consciously intended) have opened a can of very rotten worms that they'll do well to get away from the stink of. For that at least, they're likely to be offering prayers of thanks to David Cameron for grabbing all the headlines.

4 to “Labour, nationalists of the blood”

  1. Morag says:

    Why should where someone was born matter at all?  Are they seriously suggesting someone who was born here to English parents on a temporary job placement, and who moved back to England at the age of two months, should have a vote?  What about if it was American parents, and America they moved back to?
     
    Wait for them to start suggesting this should be widened to include anyone with a parent or grandparent born in Scotland.  Then, do we deny people the vote who have lived here all their lives, just because they were born in Carlisle?  Or New York?  Or maybe they don't qualify because although they were born here and have always lived here, they have a parent or grandparent born somewhere else?
     
    The term "slippery slope" doesn't even begin to cover it.  It's completely pernicious.

    Reply
  2. peter says:

    i have a degree of sympathy for those who have only recently moved away from scotland, say within the pass year. however, i fully understand that to enfranchise individuals outwith the country would be extremely qestionable.
     
     

    Reply
  3. Targaff says:

    Morag: Or how about, say, if a Scottish person were born to Scottish parents whilst they were temporarily resident in the U.S.? Oh, erm… link to supreme.justia.com.
    Jus soli is much less common than jus sanguinis where citizenship is concerned, but in and of itself it's also not an especially outrageous concept; "slippery slope" would be better described as "perhaps slightly moist but not in the least bit precarious". What would concern me more in this particular instance is that Baroness Taylor apparently sees fit to impose on Scottish ballots something that was very specifically removed from statutes on British nationality nearly 30 years ago.

    Reply
  4. Morag says:

    That happened to a school friend of mine.  She was born in the USA when her mother gave birth prematurely on a short visit.  She got US citizenship whether she liked it or not.  Her parents said they would have got if oficially rescinded if she'd been a boy – the Vietman war was on at the time, with the draft.  I don't think she got the vote in the USA though!
     
    But it's not about where you were born, it's about where you're resident.  There are going to be some hard cases, but as soon as you start bending that, you're into a lot of potential trouble.

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,787 Posts, 1,221,994 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • James Cheyne on According As We Need Them: “There was many a ballad ,poem or prose written in Scots language about the condition of Scots and Scotland in…Jul 15, 08:55
    • 100%Yes on According As We Need Them: “For those interested in Scotland, the message about the union is making its mark. https://menafn.com/1109571674/Scotlands-Constitutional-Status-Revealed-As-Legal-Fiction-Experts-Confirm-Basis-For-UN-DecolonisationJul 15, 08:06
    • DaveL on According As We Need Them: “‘…on the route to liberation, I reckon mime and interpretative dance are the only way to go.’ Can you explain…Jul 15, 02:20
    • Hatey McHateface on According As We Need Them: “Poetry is all very well if you’re into that sort of thing. But when it comes to illustrating the oppressed…Jul 15, 00:17
    • Confused on According As We Need Them: “guy charged was an “aussie”, in a kilt; maybe done an ancestry.com and got told he was “connor macleod of…Jul 14, 23:32
    • Confused on According As We Need Them: “I was never an inmate unlike yourself. Did we meet? – if they had held onto the asylums we could…Jul 14, 23:20
    • Confused on According As We Need Them: “there was a young poster on wings cheap snarky disruption his thing agent x was his name the union his…Jul 14, 23:18
    • Alf Baird on According As We Need Them: “Development of poetry in the native tongue forms a key part of the liberation process and in understanding the colonial…Jul 14, 23:01
    • agent x on According As We Need Them: “@ James What in particular did you find Excellent?Jul 14, 22:00
    • James on According As We Need Them: “Excellent, Northcode. Keep ’em coming.Jul 14, 21:50
    • James on According As We Need Them: “Funny how the unionist rag describes the removal of the stone from a thief as ‘notorious’….Jul 14, 21:48
    • Gribble on According As We Need Them: “On the subject of intimidation on the stump, the impression as often given that this is a worsening problem. But…Jul 14, 21:39
    • Northcode on According As We Need Them: “Excellent article about a young Martinican psychiatrist’s time studying with the great Francesc Tosquelles at the Saint-Alban psychiatric asylum. Thanks…Jul 14, 21:30
    • Breastplate on According As We Need Them: “John Main, You Unionists seem to routinely register your disapproval on the reliance of 300 year old documentation, but accept…Jul 14, 20:43
    • agent x on According As We Need Them: “@ Northcode I notice there has been minimal, or maybe make that no support or encouragement for your poems on…Jul 14, 20:15
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Just Good Friends: “In case you are unaware (and for comparison): WAR O THE WARLDS By H. G. Wells – Owerset intae NOR-EAST…Jul 14, 20:11
    • Hatey McHateface on According As We Need Them: “Enjoying your use of iambic quadrameter, NC. And your random departures from it too. If you’re taking requests, highlights from…Jul 14, 19:49
    • Northcode on According As We Need Them: “I posted one of ma braw poems recently about the demon Nuckelavee being cawd up fae the depths o’ the…Jul 14, 19:38
    • Hatey McHateface on Just Good Friends: ““trying as usual to undermine anything about Scotland” You should read Rev Stu’s articles and not just jump straight to…Jul 14, 18:06
    • Hatey McHateface on According As We Need Them: “In this heat you need to be eating salads.Jul 14, 17:55
    • twathater on Just Good Friends: “Wow the yoonies are out in force trying as usual to undermine anything about Scotland ,they’re like wee yapping dugs…Jul 14, 17:35
    • Dan on According As We Need Them: “In a bid to disrupt mental Main’s posting stream… Related to this article, there’s a fair few quid being spaffed…Jul 14, 17:14
    • Mark Beggan on According As We Need Them: “The Gravy boat is just a woke away. Just a woke away Just a woke away Just a woke away.Jul 14, 16:55
    • Mark Beggan on According As We Need Them: “I’m getting out of here. They’re all mad!Jul 14, 16:54
    • Hatey McHateface on According As We Need Them: ““can a thief be robbed?” Now I’m confused, Confused. You have stated on here many times that when it comes…Jul 14, 16:48
    • Hatey McHateface on According As We Need Them: ““nothing of the colonizer’s is appropriate for the colonized” Stand out post from Professor Baird. Anybody with him on calling…Jul 14, 16:20
    • Hatey McHateface on According As We Need Them: “Nice try, NC, but easily discounted, as you have failed to provide any evidence for your assertion that Scotland’s high…Jul 14, 16:01
    • Hatey McHateface on According As We Need Them: ““Scotland as a Lunatic Asylum” When Confused writes on a subject so aligned with his own, lived experience, it behoves…Jul 14, 15:51
    • Hatey McHateface on Just Good Friends: “Another post from Confused enthusing over the idea of a bankrupt and socially fractured England just south of our unprotected…Jul 14, 15:47
    • Confused on According As We Need Them: “mythology – when Edward 1 stole the stone of destiny it was to make himself legitimate, for a “true king”…Jul 14, 15:21
  • A tall tale



↑ Top