I was in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, an elegant, relaxed , welcoming world heritage city, earlier this week and was struck by the peacefulness and civility of Scotland’s devolutionary process compared to the shambles that has come to characterize the Catalan issue in Spain.

In the impressively  located and historic Edinburgh Castle, one of Scotland’s most popular tourist attractions,  there endures a sense of cultural identity that is both British and Scots.

Visiting it I was reminded of the  “Better Together” slogan which unionists  used successfully to win the ‘no’ vote in the (legal) 2014 referendum on Scottish independence .

Fresh tensions between the governing  Scottish National Party and the central government’s ruling British Conservative have been  sown by the UK’s majority vote in favor of Brexit.

But Scottish nationalist demands remain conducted within the law and channeled  through political discourse and negotiation , not characterised by civil disobedience, unilateralism and repression..

Multi-faceted identity

While the figures of two of Scotland’s most famous national heroes and once outlawed rebels ,William Wallace and Robert Bruce, straddle the entrance to Edinburgh  Castle, (even though neither actually ever lived there), huge reverence is also given to the more recent memory of Scottish soldiers in Royal regiments  who died for King and country in  two World Wars.

Again I couldn’t help reflecting on how at the root of Catalan and Spain’s problems is the absence of a consensual, shared and binding historical  narrative and how distant seem Scotland’s  wars with England compared to the opening in Catalonia of old wounds and prejudices from the Spanish Civil war and Francoism..

In Edinburgh, our guide spoke English with a distinctive Scottish accent ( in Scotland unlike Catalonia where a majority  speak Catalan,  only a small minority  of Scots – less than 2 per cent of the population – speak Gaelic. ) .

He was nonetheless showing his distinct Scottish roots dressed in a kilt and showing a mischievous glint in his eye as he gave us  graphic accounts of the violence Scots used on the English and vice-versa in past battles for the Castle dating back to medieval times. .

Present-day political reality remains defined by the ‘no’ result of a referendum on independence, the terms of which were democratically and peacefully  discussed and agreed to by the British prime minister David Cameron  and the then SNP leader and First Minister Alex Salmond.

The Scots, who voted by a majority to remain inside the EU, now are uneasy with Brexit but they are not pushing for  another independence referendum as yet nor is London in a hurry to grant them the privilege.

Shared narratives

Meanwhile a consensual historical narrative is to be found in the Royal Palace within Edinburgh  Castle where lies the Stone of Destiny. Lest we forget, before the mythical stone’s return to its natural resting  place, this ancient symbol of Scottish national identity was taken by King Edward Ist of England and built into his own throne, much to the fury of Scots.

From then onwards  it was used in the coronation ceremonies for the monarchs of England and Great Britain. But  in  1996 Queen Elizabeth, as an act of reconciliation, agreed to have the Stone  returned to Scotland, with the agreement that it be temporarily returned to London  to be used when crowning her successor.

For now Queen Elizabeth, thanks to this and other gestures of friendship, remains a highly respected  figure in Scotland across a broad spectrum of political opinion as in England, in contrast to the challenge Spain’s King Felipe is facing in winning the respect and loyalty of  pro-independence  Republican Catalans who want nothing to do with a Bourbon monarchy.

Not to say that the Scots have not had to be won over to their  current accommodation with the British state. On her coronation  in 1952, there were Scots who objected to her being crowned Elizabeth II  as no Elizabeth  before her had ruled as Queen of the Scots. If many Scots retain a certain ambivalence towards the British monarchy, they have not rebelled against it nor do they have any plans to declare  any unilateral  declaration of independence. The monarchy was  not an issue in Scotland’s lawful  referendum despite the Scottish  Nationalist Party (SNP) having many  supporters in favour of a Republic, particularly among working class  Catholics.

The SNP’s current policy is that the Queen would remain head of state in an independent Scotland although she would be probably be called Queen of the Scots to underline the idea that sovereignty belongs to the Scottish people. Significantly, the singing of the Burns ode to brotherhood counted on the agreement of the Queen, and took place at her  inauguration of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

No pomp and circumstance

“The great thing about not having a  written constitution is that we muddle along, we compromise and adapt,” a friend in Scotland, the journalist Robert Powell told me.  In other words political give and take and statesmanship are what matters in a decent democracy.

Together Robert and I visited  the new  Scottish Parliament building . It was designed as  a democratic  “space open to ideas and growing out of  the land”, by the Catalan Enric Miralles who died of a brain tumor  in 2000 four years before  the  inauguration of his masterpiece.

Constructed from a mixture of steel, oak, and granite, and drawing its inspiration from the local landscape and upturned boats of Scotland’s coastline, the complex building was hailed on opening as one of the most innovative designs in Britain.

Although the threat of terrorism has since meant security being stepped up, it is more accessible to the public than the traditional Houses of Parliament in Westminster, its members less stuffy.

The Scottish Parliament was half empty and immersed  in a relatively uncontroversial  debate over an issue of equal pay when we visited it,  in stark contrast to the volatile atmosphere  that has characterized  the Catalan parliament of late, where pro-independence parties in the regional  government have openly defied the Spanish Constitution. The Scots like to see themselves as more egalitarian  than the English and nationalists believe they could build a better and more just society were they to become independent.

But there is no hint of insurrection against the British state as some of the more radical elements in Catalonia are demonstrating in their confrontation with Madrid.

The devolved Scottish Parliament is located at the end of the street known as the Royal Mile and next to  The Palace of Holyrood where the Queen takes up residence every year, hosting dinners and a garden party as a way of maintaining closer contact with all  her subjects.

Quite a lot of pomp and  circumstance surrounds  Scotland’s Royal presence from kilted military regiments to the Company of Archers (the Queen’s official bodyguard in Scotland,) but the important point is that the British Royal family in its modern phase has developed an important political, cultural and social engagement with the Scottish people which seems to have defused historic antagonisms between London and Scotland rather than inflaming them. For its part the SNP and the UK governments  have behaved with a democratic ethos which is struggling to prevail in  Catalonia.

This is an abridged/edited version of a blog first published on the author’s site

Main image by byronv2 CC BY-SA 2.0