What Remains?

Interesting mixture of category error, genuine regret, inappropriate possessiveness and complete confusion in this polling from the Scottish Times …

Comments (0)

Leave a Reply to medieval dad Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

  1. What is all this stuff about ‘already being too crowded’ – ? – what the hell did they ask these people? He announces ‘we asked people what they would call themselves if Scotland became independent’ but clearly the question changes half way through this clip.

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      Yeah I wondered that?!

  2. medieval dad says:

    I guess I can see the category error, but no ‘genuine regret’, and ‘complete confusion’ seems like a bit of an overstatement. One instance of possessiveness, sure.

    Forgive an American, but I don’t see what this is supposed to prove… that different people have different ways of categorizing themselves and their national/regional identity? Hardly surprising – and it doesn’t seem worthy of eliciting the holier-than-thou attitude in the original post.

  3. bellacaledonia says:

    It’s not meant to be holier than thou

    1. medieval dad says:

      Apologies, then – I was/am looking for a suitable phrase. But something about that original post (no doubt combined with the announcer of the video) seemed to suggest that these people being interviewed were foolish, that ‘we’ are somehow superior.

      I’d say a good deal of the ‘confusion’ on display is more likely to arise from being accosted by a cameraman and a microphone-wielding journalist as you’re going about your shopping rather than some deep-seeded existential ignorance.

  4. Abulhaq says:

    Noticed the “europeanness” of the interviewees. Birmingham, if you’ve ever visited, is a mixed ethnicity city. Asking people of Asian, African or Caribbean origin what they felt about Scottish independence would have made more interesting material. In Scotland for example .ethnically Asian men and women would usually style themselves Scottish (Asian) in England it’s almost universally British Asian. With the UK despatched to the history books the supranationality usage “British” would be politically controversial as it would reference an identity no longer legally extant. What then do British Asians call themselves? English Asians? however I have never heard anyone use that term. Interesting taxonomic questions are in the offing for those across the border. Pity this was missed by the vid makers.

  5. A couple of replies sounded a bit odd,one actually says Scotland is not really a part of England.

  6. andyshall says:

    It’s pure arrogance to call people confused if they choose English, British or both. Whatever the result in 2015, there will be plenty of Scots who regard themselves as both British and Scottish. It does the Yes campaign no service to insult people for expressing an identity.

  7. Donald MacDonald says:

    I always call myself Scottish and will be voting Yes. I don’t like the term British and would rather not describe myself as such. That doesn’t alter the fact that the island composed of Scotland, England and Wales is called Britain, and everyone from this island is by definition British. That won’t change when Scotland becomes independent. We will still be Scottish and British. Just as Switzerland is Swiss and European, or Norway is Norwegian and Scandinavian.

Help keep our journalism independent

We don’t take any advertising, we don’t hide behind a pay wall and we don’t keep harassing you for crowd-funding. We’re entirely dependent on our readers to support us.

Subscribe to regular bella in your inbox

Don’t miss a single article. Enter your email address on our subscribe page by clicking the button below. It is completely free and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.