This article looks at myths about Scottish independence.

MYTH 7: Nationalism is by its very nature a bad thing

MYTH 8: An independent Scotland would be last in the queue to join the EU

Myth 9: You can’t hold a referendum without Westminster’s “permission”

Myth 10: Independence for Scotland would abandon the rest of the UK to permanent Tory rule

This analysis of the impact of austerity on nationalism stresses the role of blame as it interacts with political institutions and fiscal pressures.

The Brexit referendum opened up conflict between executive, parliamentary, national and popular sovereignties in the differing nations of the United Kingdom and had a noticeable effect on British disintegration.

At a time when the country's future has topped the agenda in Britain and abroad, this book unpicks the complex weave of Scottish politics, society and culture, providing an essential insight into Scotland's present - and its future.

An influential separatist Scottish nationalism began to take shape only in the 1970s and achieved its present ideological maturity in the course of the 1980s and 1990s. The nationalism that emerged from this testing period of Scottish history was unusual in that it demanded independence not to defend a threatened ancestral culture but as the most effective way to promote the agenda of the left.