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Since the mid-1980s, surveys have been using a simple, but useful, question
on the extent to which people mix and match national (Scottish) and state
(British) identities, as follows:
'Which of these best describes how you see yourself?'
|
% by column |
1986 |
1992 |
1997 |
1999 |
2000 |
|
Scottish not British |
39 |
19 |
23 |
32 |
37 |
|
More Scottish than British |
30 |
40 |
38 |
34 |
31 |
|
Equally Scottish and British |
19 |
33 |
27 |
23 |
21 |
|
More British than Scottish |
4 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
|
British not Scottish |
6 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
None of these |
2 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
4 |
|
base |
1021 |
957 |
882 |
1482 |
1663 |
Source: Moreno, 1998; Scottish Election Surveys, 1992,
1997; Scottish Parliamentary Election Study, 1999; Scottish Social
Attitudes Study, 2000.
Again, this can be read in conjunction with a 'forced choice' question;
whether people consider themselves first and foremost Scottish or British.
Thus,
National Identity by year
|
% |
1979 |
1992 |
1997 |
1999 |
2000 |
|
Scottish |
56 |
72 |
72 |
77 |
80 |
|
British |
38 |
25 |
24 |
17 |
13 |
|
base |
661 |
957 |
882 |
1482 |
1663 |
Figures shown are % of respondents choosing 'best' identity,
either Scottish or British
Sources: Scottish Election Surveys, 1979,1992, 1997;
Scottish Parliamentary Election Survey, 1999; Scottish Social Attitudes
Survey, 2000
GENERAL POINTS ON NATIONAL IDENTITY IN SCOTLAND
-
People living in Scotland give much higher priority to being Scottish
over being British. This holds broadly true for gender, social class,
religion and region. Nevertheless, most people claim dual identity,
and that Scots still remain 'British' in significant numbers. Compared
with Wales and England, people in Scotland are much more likely to
emphasise their Scottishness over their Britishness than either the
Welsh or the English.
-
Over time, the results are fairly consistent, and there has not
been a shift towards or away from Scottish identity in any simple
sense in the last decade. The setting up of the parliament has not
made people feel any more or, indeed, any less Scottish, although
both the referendum and the first Scottish parliamentary election
saw a firming up of 'Scottish only' identity.
-
There is no simple relationship between national identity, constitutional
preferences and political behaviour in Scotland. Thus, supporters
of all parties are much more likely to describe themselves first
and foremost as Scottish, including Conservatives, and including
those who opposed the setting up of the parliament. Likewise, a significant
number of SNP supporters retain a sense of being British, and Labour
voters are overwhelmingly Scottish. In other words, being Scottish
is a taken-for-granted assumption, and underpins virtually all social,
political and cultural life in Scotland. It is not a straightforward
predictor of party political or constitutional preferences.
-
People in Scotland have a clear understanding of the distinction
between 'national' (Scottish) and 'state' (British) identities in
a way people in England do not. Nevertheless, there seems to have
been a shift towards greater numbers of people south of the border
calling themselves 'English' in recent years. There is no systematic
evidence that this has been caused by Scottish (or Welsh) devolution,
and there is no evidence of English resentment on this score.
-
Identity is not a badge which people carry around with them unchanged.
It is much more like a set of claims they make according to the context
in which they find themselves, be these cultural, political and so
on. Hugh McIlvanney once observed: 'Identity, personal or national,
isn't merely something you have like a passport. It is also something
you rediscover daily, like a strange country. Its core isn't something
like a mountain. It is something molten, like magna.' (The Herald,
13 March 1999)
-
Being Scottish seems much more attached to 'a sense of place' rather
than a 'sense of tribe', as the historian TC Smout observed. That
is, the sense of territorial, civic, identity appears stronger than
an 'ethnic' one such that people can claim to be Scottish by living
here. The parliament reinforces that sense of 'place' insofar as
people participate because they live here, not simply because they
were born here. Further, the evidence seems to suggest that the longer
people who were not born here live in Scotland, the more likely they
feel able to make a claim to be Scottish. It is also noticeable that
young people of Asian origin are likely to operate hybrid identities
such as Scottish Muslim or Scottish Pakistani, whereas the 'English'
descriptor is missing in their peers south of the border. Historians
back this up by telling us that 'the Scots' have always been plural
in cultural and regional terms, in McIlvanney's phrase, a 'mongrel'
people.
-
Finally, one should not assume nor expect an unchanging sense of
Scottishness. Just as there was a strong set of conservative and
religious (mainly Protestant) values underpinning the sense of being
Scottish in the 19th century, so Scots today define and describe
themselves in secular, progressive and liberal terms according to
life as they find it in the 21st century. There is no powerful set
of religious and/or linguistic cultural markers which define what
it means to be a Scot which means that identity can be much more
open and inclusive.
David McCrone
Professor of Sociology
University of Edinburgh
(Published Online: 10 January 2002)
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