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Scotland also isn't cosmopolitan, certainly not on the scale of London. It hasn't had anything close to the scale of immigration that other parts of the UK have
by cmdkeen 10y ago
Scotland also isn't cosmopolitan, certainly not on the scale of London. It hasn't had anything close to the scale of immigration that other parts of the UK have had. It has deep seated issues with sectarianism rather than race.
There are parallels with Brexit, though I don't think many of the underlying causes are the same. I very much agree that those who play identity politics and deal in absolutes - "you must agree with me or you are an X" - are being burned an electorate who have heard that line a few times too often.
The election in France with Marine La Pen does have the potential for another Trump like upset - the next one to watch.
- arethuza 10y agoSectarianism in Scotland was and continues to be a long running backlash in some areas against Irish immigration.
- walshemj 10y ago"was" sorry its still an issue people still get knifed at old firm games.
- arethuza 10y agoEdit: I didn't mean to imply that it's not a problem now - but it's no means as big a problem as it used to be (and I have direct experience through family members of horrific bigotry towards and to Catholics in Scotland).
- smcl 10y agoFunny thing about the "people still get knifed at Old Firm games" comment itself is that it raises something that isn't really a problem so much anymore (Rangers/Celtic hadn't met in four years until September, where there was one arrest out of ~60,000 fans) and misses the stuff that really is an issue - areas which are still deeply segregated + gang violence split along these lines, provocative/offensive songs, flags and banners used by both sides at the football But as you said - it's nothing like what our grandparents' generation would have experienced, or what went on in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
- arethuza 10y agoI remember having a rather surreal experience a few years back, sitting at a bar on the Meadows during the festival with the Lady Boys of Bangkok on one side and an Orange Walk on the other.
- smcl 10y agoHa that is pretty out there. I really hope the marches just sorta melt away into nothingness. I'm not even catholic and I feel like their role is purely to stoke the fires
- pjc50 10y agoI'd have said it went all the way back to the Civil War and the Jacobite insurgencies. Certainly NI's sectarianism is explicit about the Battle of the Boyne 1688.
- walshemj 10y agoYes when I worked in Edinburgh for a few months all the developers who where from London all commented about how few non white people we saw.
- pjc50 10y agoRemember that the UK is 80% white and London is 50% white; it's really striking how and probably relevant that the nonwhite population of the UK is concentrated in a few metropolitan areas. But remember that "white" and "foreign" are not the same thing! Edinburgh has a substantial Polish community. I have coworkers from Ukraine and Romania. "How cosmopolitan is Scotland, really" is a complex question. It's official policy of the very popular SNP, and there's little toehold for UKIP or xenophobic politics. I think they've quite successfully attached the free-floating blame to Westminster. While in the rest of the country blaming foreigners is more popular. Having different press (including separate editions of the Mail and Sun) probably also makes a difference. Brexit is very much a long-term press project.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 10y agoThe UK is actually closer to 90% white. London is closer to 60%. Unless you're not including white immigrants.
- _h8ft 10y agoThe main reason the Scots like the EU is because the English don't like it.