‘In Building a Nation Few Better Examples can be Found’: Norden and the Scottish Parliament¹

1 The author is grateful for financial support from the Royal Society of Edinburgh/Caledonian Research Fund, and a British Academy Overseas Conference Grant.

Abstract

Following the reconstitution of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, after a hiatus of over three centuries, the development of links with the Nordic countries was presented as a strategic priority, and Scotland was apparently accepted by the Nordic Council as a part of the ‘West Nordic Sphere’. Politicians and social commentators in Scotland – though not necessarily the majority of the electorate – have shown an ongoing fascination with their Scandinavian neighbours, for a variety of reasons. The Nordic Council itself, for example, has been held up as an example of how post-devolution Britain could renegotiate insular relationships to reflect a partnership of roughly equal interests. Images of Nordic society, often idealized, permeate political discourse much more deeply than the discussion of constitutional arrangements, however, and the advent in 2007 of Scotland's first SNP administration has, if anything, raised the profile of Scandinavia still further. This paper will highlight some of the ways in which Sweden, Norway and other Nordic states have been utilized as examples for Scotland to follow, during three broad time periods: (i) pre-1997; (ii) 1997–2007; (iii) since May 2007, when the SNP took power in Scotland for the first time. Further, it will argue that several paradoxes can be discerned, as this general discourse is based on (i) cherry-picking issues and (ii) a certain view of a ‘Nordic model’ that erases internal differences within Norden and debates within its constituent states.

Keywords:

• Scotland
• Scandinavia
• Nordic
• Norway
• Sweden

Notes

1 The author is grateful for financial support from the Royal Society of Edinburgh/Caledonian Research Fund, and a British Academy Overseas Conference Grant.

2 Scotland on Sunday, January 20, 2008. This quotation was extracted from a supposedly confidential email, written in 2002, from John McTernan, to Karen Gillon, Labour MSP, about the latter's forthcoming trip to Sweden.

3 Ruth, ‘The Second New Nation’, 243.

4 Hilson, Nordic Model, 183–4.

5 Andersson Burnett and Newby, ‘Between Empire and “The North”’, 37–56.

6 McCrone, Understanding Scotland, 98.

7 McCreadie, ‘Scottish Identity and the Constitution’, 41–2; Hearn, Claiming Scotland, Ch. 8.

8 Scotland on Sunday, April 21, 1996. The expression ‘lad o'pairts’ – lad of parts – refers literally to ‘all-round’ knowledge, a broad education allied with practicality; ‘ah kent his faither’ – I knew his father – indicates that success is not truly acknowledged within the immediate circle of the person achieving that success. It lacks jantelagen’s broader, albeit satirized, sense of individuality being subsumed within the communal good

9 The Scotsman, October 30, 1950, 28

10 Hunter, Last of the Free, 361–5; Manson, ‘The Urge for Autonomy’, 12–17.

11 Keating, Plurinational Democracy, 58. See also Mercer, Scotland: The Devolution of Power, 145–6. The SNP was formed as the result of a merger between the ‘National Party of Scotland’ and the ‘Scottish Party’, in 1934. See Finlay, Independent and Free.

12 Lee, ‘North Sea Oil and Scottish Nationalism’, 307–17; Fusaro, ‘Two Faces of British Nationalism’, 374.

13 Mercer, Scotland: The Devolution of Power, 228.

14 Smout, ‘The Scottish Identity’, 17ff.

15 Smout, ‘The Scottish Identity’, 17ff.

16 Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, 618–20.

17 Scott, ‘The Need for Independence’, 210.

18 The Scotsman, March 1, 1994.

19 The Herald, December 2, 1995.

20 See, for example, Rahkonen and Lausti, Blairism: A Beacon for Europe?

21 Ryner, ‘The Nordic Model: Does it Exist? Can it Survive?’, 65.

22 Gray, Why the Scots Should Rule Scotland 1997, 108–10.

23 The Scotsman, September 25, 1996.

24 The Herald, October 12, 1993.

25 See, however, Andrew Neil's comments on ‘an isolationist, Norway-style agenda’, below.

26 SNP General Election Manifesto 1997, 30.

27 Scott, Scotland in Europe, 63.

28 Kernohan, ‘Scotland's Referendum in Retrospect’.

29 The Herald, June 12, 1998.

30 The Scotsman, August 14, 2000.

31 Scotland on Sunday, September 1, 1996. The strong Liberal presence in Shetland has often stressed to the SNP that, if anything, it's ‘wur oil’. See, e.g., Official Report, Col. 17717, 8 June 2005.

32 Sunday Herald, August 22, 1999.

33 The Herald, October 21, 1998.

34 Sunday Herald, August 22, 1999. See also The Herald, September 12, 1997.

35 Arter, The Scottish Parliament, 5.

36 Official Report, 2 February 2000. Cols 638–9; K. MacAskill, ‘Introduction: Romanticism to Realism – Creating a Caledonian Consensus’, 21; Dworkin, ‘Intellectual Adventures in the Isles’, 52.

37 The Parliament's External Liaison Strategy in the 2003–2007 Session, Para. 25; see http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/elu/elu_reports/strategy04-05.htm.

38 The Scotsman, April 22, 1999.

39 Arter, The Scottish Parliament, 5.

40 Official Report, Col. 14762-3, 30 October 2002. ‘Relatively recently’ in this cases refers, at latest, to A.D. 1468.

41 Official Report, Col. 14769, 30 October 2002.

42 Official Report, Col. 14774, 30 October 2002.

43 Official Report, Col. 14775-6, 30 October 2002.

44 Deputy Presiding Officer, George Reid MSP, Opening Speech to Nordic Conference, 19 November 2002.

45 See, however, Labour MSP Richard Baker's recent intervention on Nordic tertiary education, where he condemned the SNP's ‘fixation with selectively comparing ourselves with Scandinavian economies’. Official Report, Col. 3582, 21 November 2007.

46 Arter, The Scottish Parliament, 15. See also The Scotsman, October 18, 1995.

47 Arter, The Scottish Parliament, 15.

48 Brown, ‘Taking their place in the New House’, 44.

49 Deputy Presiding Officer, George Reid MSP, Opening Speech to Nordic Conference, 19 November 2002.

50 The Scotsman, September 28, 2001.

51 Official Report, 3 February 2001. Cols. 782–90; The Herald, October 3, 2000, 26 October 2001; Scotland on Sunday, March 31, 2002.

52 Inter alia: The Herald, March 28, 2005, August 28, 2008; for penal reform, e.g., Official Report, 20 September 2001. Col. 2651; 12 November 2003, Col. 3163; for poverty, Official Report, Col. 3437, 20 November 2003.

53 Official Report of the Europe and External Relations Committee, 21 November 2006, Cols 2187–2239.

54 Official Report, Col. 28461, 25 October 2006.

55 Scotland on Sunday, 19 April 2008.

56 Official Report, Col. 19774, 6 October 2005; The Herald, January 5, 2006.

57 It must be stressed that the Holyrood budget debates of 2009 tested this accommodation to breaking point.

58 Kulawik, ‘The Impact of the “Nordic Model”’, 109–12.

59 See, inter alia, Esping-Andersen, Politics against Markets: The Social Democratic Road to Power; Esping-Andersen, Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism; Esping-Andersen, Social Foundations of Post-Industrial Economies; Ryner, ‘The Nordic Model: Does it exist? Can it survive?’, 62–3, Cohen et al., A New Deal for Children?, 26–7.

60 Kosonen, The Nordic Welfare State; Stephens, ‘The Scandinavian Welfare States’; Graubard, Norden – The Passion for Equality; Kautto, Nordic Welfare States.

61 Denholm, McTurk and McDonald, ‘Flying Nordic Kites’; The Scotsman, August 23, 2007.

62 McLeish, ‘Scotland in the World’, in MacAskill, Agenda for a New Scotland, 63.

63 MacAskill, Building a Nation, 44.

64 For a negative view, see Socialist Worker, December 2, 2006.

65 Official Report, Col. 19777, 6 October 2005.

66 The Scotsman, September 4, 1998.

67 The Scotsman, September 11, 2001.

68 Madeley, ‘Outside the Whale’, 212–22.

69 The Scotsman, January 4, 2002.

70 Miers, ‘A Liberal State to Set Scotland Free’, 128.

71 Scotland on Sunday, April 1, 2007.

72 Speech by the First Minister Alex Salmond, Northern Ireland Assembly, Stormont, Belfast, 18 June 2007.

73 Denholm, McTurk and McDonald, ‘Flying Nordic Kites’.

74 Daily Telegraph, July 9, 2008.

75 The Guardian, August 15, 2008. Although not a review, the article – factually dubious, and impressionistic in the extreme – seems to have been inspired by reading A. Brown, Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared (London: Granta, 2008). Bunting shows little awareness of the meaning of jantelagen (spelling it ‘jäntelagen’) nor of its roots in Aksel Sandemose's fictional writing.

76 The Herald, September 7, 2001.

77 Official Report, Cols 17704–17717, 8 June 2005.

78 Official Report, Col. 17708, 8 June 2005.

79 The Herald, February 4, 2005;

80 The Herald, August 12, 2006; New Statesman, 26 March 2007.

81 The Scotsman, November 21, 2006.

82 The Scotsman, May 29, 2008; The Herald, 10 July 2007, 28 March 2008; Sunday Herald, March 20, 2008.

83 The Scotsman, July 11, 2007. See also Kerevan, ‘Devolution: A Deepening Economic Policy Failure’, 59–61.

84 Sunday Herald, March 20, 2008.

85 The Herald, March 28, 2008.

86 The Herald, October 12, 2008; Sunday Times, 2 November 2008.

87 Sunday Times, June 22, 2008.

88 Aftenposten, October 10, 2007.

89 Scotland on Sunday, August 17, 2008.

90 Ryner, ‘The Nordic Model: Does it Exist? Can it Survive?’, 62; Kuisma, ‘Social Democratic Internationalism’, 12.

91 Ryner, ‘The Nordic Model: Does it Exist? Can it Survive?’, 64.

92 Sunday Herald, February 18, 2007.

93 Hutton, ‘Beyond Populist Punitiveness’, 255; Croall, ‘Criminal Justice in Post-Devolutionary Scotland’, 597, 602.

94 The Herald, November 9, 2004, February 9, 2008; Scottish Prisons Commission, debate on penal policy, 20 November 2007. Available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/spc/About/penalpolicy.

95 The Scotsman, March 14, September 22, 1999; New Statesman, April 2, 1999.

96 BBC Radio 5 Live, Simon Mayo interview with Ian Rankin, 19 March 2007.