A FORM of Scottish independence “has begun already” due to the growing cultural and political divide between England and Scotland, a leading expert in human geography has said.
Professor Danny Dorling of the University of Oxford told the Sunday National that the divergence is particularly evident in social policies such as the Scottish Child Payment. This policy, he said, has significantly helped tackle child poverty in Scotland while remaining almost entirely ignored by English political elites, who he accused of wearing “unbelievable blinkers”.
Dorling described the mid-pandemic launch of the Scottish Child Payment by the SNP in February 2021 as both “really interesting” and largely “unnoticed” south of the Border.
The professor said the SNP had “worked out the cost of living crisis could be just as deadly as the pandemic”.
“Nobody says it like that – but certainly it's important,” he went on. “Prices went up 30% in a couple of years. That’s really serious."
In response, he noted, the Scottish Government introduced a modest £10 weekly payment for children under six in families claiming benefits. “The clever thing politically is the point of principle. Once it’s established, you’re no longer debating it," Dorling said.
He compared the move to an early New Labour policy: "In 1997, they introduced a very small fee for going to university. ‘It's just about £1000 a year’, right? We now have the highest fees in the world in England.”
In Scotland, the pattern has repeated – the Scottish Child Payment has risen significantly to £27.15 per week, with the scope also expanded to all children under 16 in families receiving benefits.
“This is quite an incredible policy and the cost is still pretty low.”
The Scottish Child Payment has been cited as a key reason that child poverty rates are falling in Scotland even as they climb in all other UK nations. Figures published in March showed that 31% of children across the UK were in relative poverty, up from 30% the previous year. In Scotland, however, the rate had dropped from 26% to 22%.
However, despite the policy’s success – and adoption by other parties including Scottish Labour – Dorling said it was almost unknown south of the Border due to “the unbelievable blinkers of English politicians and English poverty analysts not to look at this, to try to pretend it isn't happening”.
The professor said that, in his opinion, the difference comes down to “understanding the culture of English elitist politics”.
He argued that many MPs, academics, and analysts emerge from a narrow “dinner-party world” – studying PPE at top universities before entering policy roles – which creates intellectual isolation and resistance to external ideas.
“The fundamental argument that’s always put forward when somebody says we could do this is 'it's not possible',” Dorling said. “Now, if you've got somewhere within the boundary of the UK demonstrating it's possible, that's really annoying. That's the killer.
“Also, Scotland had the worst poverty rate in Europe when I was a child. The fact that Scotland [now] has a lower poverty rate than any region of England, it doesn't compute.”
Dorling said that, as a geographer, he is typically looking abroad for policy inspiration rather than doing "what we always do in Britain, which is go ‘we'll invent one out of our own head’".
“I go, ‘no, that's done in Scotland’. And they don't know. I can't explain it. I do think it's bizarre.”
Dorling argued that this is contributing to a “growing divide” between politics north and south of the Border “since 1997, but earlier, if you look at the MPs elected as independents in the 1970s, a growing cultural divide between England and Scotland”.
“Scotland used to be in some ways culturally really part of the Union. You used to produce some of the most obnoxious government ministers. You go to Edinburgh University and learn how to be nasty and go into finance. You shouldn't underestimate how English Scotland was, even in my lifetime.”
However, he said that, especially among young people, the divide between English and Scottish politics was widening.
“You know, we no longer get any Scottish students,” the University of Oxford professor said. “I haven't met in 12 years a student from Scotland. Why would you travel down to England and pay fees?
“So there is a way in which a form of independence has begun already. It’s cultural, especially with the young people.”
Dorling further argued that the Scottish Child Payment had been a “tricky political decision because you are deciding not to spend money on other things, principally the old”. However, he said this had come from politicians like Nicola Sturgeon.
“These typically tend to be women in their 40s or 50s, quite strong, quite determined. In most European countries, this is a growing demographic of politicians,” Dorling said.
However, he said that growing leadership demographic was not being reflected in England, another aspect of the increasing political divide north and south of the Border.
