Nationalist view

There is currently much discussion in unionist circles about the nature of “patriotism” and about the fact that those in the pro- independence camp have no monopoly of patriotism. In my experience, Scottish nationalists rarely, if ever, use the term “patriot”. Patriotism connotes an emotional love of native land regardless of its faults and shortcomings: a “Here’s Tae Us” attitude based purely on accident of birth.

Nationalism, on the other hand, rests on the logical premise that decisions made about any country are best made from within it. A wish for a country’s government to promote the interests of its own population and to exert the same control over its national assets and to be granted the same voice in the rest of the world as the governments of similarly-sized democracies. The same. No more and no less.

Mary McCabe

Circus Drive

Glasgow