JK Rowling has provoked the anger of Scottish nationalists by saying she is “mighty tired” of their “insistence that their nationalism is nothing like the other, nasty kinds, in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary”.
Rowling, who lives in Scotland, was responding to a column in the National by Lesley Riddoch that said: “Setting the English up as our automatic enemy doesn’t help us walk away from the Union mindset or its relentless pecking order. And yet like a packet of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes scoffed with cold milk late at night – it’s almost irresistible.”
Rowling described Riddoch’s quote as “Crunchy Nut nationalism”, tweeting: “Warning: may contain traces of bigotry.”
The Harry Potter author was asked by a Twitter user what made her think that Scottish nationalists are “xenophobic, racist or anti-English”, to which she posted a series of screenshots in response, including one from a user supporting the ethno-nationalist group Siol nan Gaidheal.
“When blood and soil ethno-nationalists are marching with your supposedly ‘civic’ marches, your nationalism doesn’t look too different to any other country,” wrote Rowling, who previously campaigned for Scotland to remain part of the UK and donated £1m to the Better Together campaign.
“Happy to take your word for it that such people aren’t representative of the entire movement. Happy to accept that the bulging folder of xenophobic and anglophobic screenshots I have on my laptop aren’t the whole story. But some of us are getting mighty tired of Scottish nationalist insistence that their nationalism is nothing like the other, nasty kinds.”
Nor does this kind of talk, from a self-proclaimed Scottish nationalist, quite square with the proud boast that 'our' nationalism is purer and better. pic.twitter.com/1APkzm3SlV
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 5, 2018
Along with a wave of criticism from Scottish nationalists on Twitter, the pro-nationalist paper the National also hit out at her comments, saying that Riddoch’s column actually “broadly agrees” with Rowling’s stance.
“We condemn all the views in those tweets, but the idea that such a tiny sample size is representative of the Yes movement is staggeringly wrong – particularly in the face of so many representing the opposite view,” the paper argued.
Citing Rowling’s criticism of Donald Trump’s politics, the editorial added: “How many ‘Scottish nationalists’ do you see on Twitter supporting Trump, relative to the number of Unionists who do? Which side’s politicians are loudest in condemning him? Scottish nationalism is nothing like that of Donald Trump.”
