A Braveheart renaissance? Scottish identity and politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century

Abstract

The long campaign for a Scottish Parliament, its establishment in 1999 and the ‘evolution of devolution’ since have highlighted, in the United Kingdom and internationally, the awareness of a multi-national Britain and the resilience of Scottish identity. Most people in Scotland define themselves as Scottish, but differences exist between national (Scottish) and state (British) identities. Scottish national identity ‘has a pervasive effect, colouring virtually all aspects of social and political life (Paterson et al. 2001: 120). Is the Scottish Parliament the product of anti-English ‘Braveheartery’, an expression and achievement of mobilized national identity? Or is national identity becoming less ‘forefront’ thanks to constitutional change, allowing increased attention to the diverse internal identities (regional, class, ethnicity and so on) in Scotland, but also a less strained relationship with other, complementary (British and European) identities?