Values, votes – and some football: a personal view

It’s been quite the eventful time in UK politics. We said goodbye to not one but two Prime Ministers, and welcomed our third in four months.

A Scottish First Minister announced her plans for a referendum, only to be stymied by the Supreme Court, who have concluded the Scottish government lacks the legal authority to hold an independence referendum under the terms of the Scotland Act.

And given there seems little, in fact no, prospect of the UK government granting the Scottish Parliament powers to organise a referendum just eight years after the last one in 2014, the focus for the political campaigning on the question of whether Scotland should separate from the UK will likely move to the next general election which will of course also determine the next government of the United Kingdom.

I should declare an interest. Not only am I Scottish, but I also played a prominent role in the last referendum campaign in 2014, arguing my belief that my politics of solidarity and cooperation meant that as Scots we should vote to remain within the UK.

That campaign, culminating in a referendum on 18 September 2014, resulted in a clear 10-point margin of victory for those of us, as Scots, who rejected the case for separation.

Since then, we have seen the UK vote by a narrow majority to leave the European Union (52% vs 48%) in 2016, notwithstanding the fact that in Scotland we voted 62% by 38% for the UK to remain in the EU.

We have also, of course, seen the Conservative Party secure a significant working majority in December 2019.

It would be fair to observe that the current government has proved deeply unpopular with many Scots and has featured heavily in the Nationalists’ campaigning on the case for independence. On the global stage we’ve also seen first a pandemic and now a European war.

Yet one thing that appears not to have changed significantly between September 2014 and now is the level of support for independence. A Survation-ComRes poll conducted for the Scotsman, showed Scottish voters remain divided over independence, with those against breaking away from the UK maintaining a narrow, but clear, lead.

Despite war, a pandemic, and Brexit, Scotland remains a nation split broadly 50/50 on its constitutional future.

Could a similarity of outlooks, a similarity of values held in both Scotland and England, help explain the fact that, after a period of such tumultuous change in UK politics, so little has changed in terms of levels of support for independence in Scotland?

Right now my sense is the talk in a pub in Scotland is more likely to be about the World Cup (despite the non qualification of our men’s football team) than constitutional arguments. The talk is of goals more than votes. Eighteen months ago, however,  the Scottish men’s football team actually qualified for a major international tournament (the Euros), with the added bonus that they were being held just next door in England.

Speaking personally, I will forever be grateful to have been at Wembley to witness Scotland draw 0-0 with England last year in what we took as a clear moral victory before exiting yet another major championship, as usual, after the first round!

But there’s a serious point here. As we’re seeing with the World Cup in Qatar, football is often a magnifier of wider social frictions and connections, and many of us, in all parts of the UK, have found much to admire in that likeable, talented, diverse, young England squad managed by Gareth Southgate.

In his “letter to England” on the eve of the Euros, Southgate wrote explicitly:

“In England we’ve spent a bit of time being a bit lost as to what our modern identity is… I understand that on this island, we have a desire to protect our values and traditions – as we should – but that shouldn’t come at the expense of introspection and progress.

“I have a responsibility to the wider community to use my voice, and so do the players.

“It’s their duty to continue to interact with the public on matters such as equality, inclusivity and racial justice, while using the power of their voices to help put debates on the table, raise awareness and educate.”

Polling conducted for “Our Scottish Future” confirms that “The Southgate Values of Englishness” are equally applicable to Welshness and Scottishness. Testing statements such as “we are a tolerant country”, “we value diversity as a country” and “every citizen, irrespective of colour has equal rights in our country”, produced strikingly similar, rather than strikingly divergent, results on both sides of the border.

Indeed, when placed on a 10-point value scale, the English, Welsh, and Scottish electorates have remarkably similar values on issues such as equality vs meritocracy, pluralism, borders, and race.

Perhaps this similarity of values helps explain why constitutional division, that is all too commonly caricatured as a choice between social democratic Scotland and neoliberal Britain, has seen so little movement over recent years.

Of course, politics involves much more than values. It extends to promises and policies, demographics and leadership, economics, and emotions.

Yet social science has an enduring and vital role to play in helping us understand, not just the blizzard of news, but what lies beneath – the trendlines beneath the headlines.

So, while personally I believe there is little immediate prospect of a second independence referendum, I am still anticipating keenly being able to read the findings of the World Values Survey. Amidst political debates that all too often generate more heat than light, it’s essential research that can shed further light on relations between the nations of the UK.

I’ve always believed in a politics rooted in values and driven forward by ideas.

Amidst a period of such political tumult in the UK, understanding better the values that underpin our public life feels like a timely and vital contribution, not simply to academic research, but also to our common life on these islands.