Why do Scottish nationalists make such fools of themselves over language? Anyone who has heard Emma Harper attempting to speak Scots in the Scottish Parliament would conclude firstly that she did not write the text she was reading, secondly that she did not understand it and thirdly that she was unable to read it. She demonstrated therefore the opposite of what she was attempting to prove.

Poor Emma is becoming the President Biden of gaffes despite being only in her fifties and therefore not having the excuse of senility. She obviously thinks that promoting a language she barely speaks herself is important. The reason is because language difference is the foundation of nationalism.

Scottish nationalists would therefore be delighted if Scots spoke a language or languages different from the UK as a whole. Imagine if the whole of Scotland spoke Gaelic. Well in that case we would be just like Poland. It would be very easy indeed to argue for Scottish independence and the Scottish people would be obviously different from the English. The difference would be linguistic.

Imagine on the other hand if the whole of Scotland spoke Scots. In that case people from the other parts of the UK couldn’t make themselves understood in Scotland and if they moved here would have to go to Scots language classes just as if they moved to France, they would have to learn French. But while there was a time when the Scots language was widely spoken and was very different from standard English, this is not remotely the case now.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Economic Matters