The Four Nations: Interrelations*

Historically and contemporaneously the interrelations of the nations of the British Isles are as important as their differentiation. Modern revisionist historians, Irish and British, understand this better that many politicians and publicists. Nationalism as separatism and strong national consciousness are commonly confused when the English media consider Scotland. Gordon Brown stresses ‘Britishness’ to preserve the union but this is counterproductive. All his examples of British events are English, none Scots or Welsh, and his British values are mainly universal. A true construction of Britishness is to see it as a strong but narrow practical legal and political framework within which different cultures, old and new, can both flourish and intermingle. So strong are both social and economic interrelations that Scottish independence could be less consequential than commonly supposed.