Sadiq my friend, we feel your pain
I guess being Mayor of London – with all that entails – is sufficient excuse for Sadiq Khan to be unaware of one of the uglier truths of Scottish politics; namely that there are only two types of remarks you can make about Scottish Nationalism – the truth (see also warm & supportive, laden with virtuous language etc.) or a disgraceful smear. There is no middle ground you see, no room for dissent or disagreement, for nuance or caution even – if you can’t express unequivocal support for everything the Nationalists want to achieve then your contribution is worthless and unwelcome.
Those of us who lived through the referendum in 2014 could’ve told him his remarks today would fall foul of this rule. The hostility & outrage on Twitter was predictable too – even our First Minister felt compelled to tweet her tuppence worth, demonstrating that Donald Trump isn’t the only global leader with a predilection for mouthing off on Twitter rather than, you know, governing.
And as he clarified later in the day he wasn’t calling everyone in the SNP a racist or a bigot anyway (as those not inclined to seek out grievance understood all along) but simply pointing out unity is preferable to division, finding ways to solve our problems together is preferable to ‘othering’ our nearest neighbours at every opportunity. The global context — Trump, Brexit etc.- speaks to a world in which we should preference working alongside each other, not severing alliances but building new ones. We should think long and hard about building walls — real physical ones or etheral constitutional ones — between ourselves & others for whatever reason.
Of course absolutely none of this means the goal of an independent Scotland is itself problematic, let alone racist or bigoted — and again that was clear to most people from the off. Sadiq’s comments were directed at the narrow, hostile nationalism which is unfortunately a part, however small, of the otherwise laudable Yes movement in Scotland. That they reacted as they did is better validation of his point than he could’ve hoped for.
