0:00:02 > 0:00:04OK, so you're passionate about
0:00:04 > 0:00:06your national identity?
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Enough to have electromagnetic needles inject
0:00:09 > 0:00:12indelible ink under your skin?!
0:00:13 > 0:00:16I've got the Scottish flag tattooed on my skin.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18It's inked on me.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24I'm Stuart Cosgrove. And in the year of the referendum, I have been
0:00:24 > 0:00:29watching the carnival of Scottish life more closely than ever before.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32And meeting people with surprising perspectives
0:00:32 > 0:00:35on what it means to be Scottish.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38We regard it as an old Scottish tradition that we are reviving.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43This is a story about the beating-heart
0:00:43 > 0:00:45of cultural difference...
0:00:45 > 0:00:47HE CHEERS
0:00:47 > 0:00:49..and who we really are.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52I think this is the world's best place to go surfing.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54HE LAUGHS That's a lie.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01It's a place where identity is neither simple nor fixed -
0:01:01 > 0:01:05many people feel only Scottish, some feel British
0:01:05 > 0:01:09and a substantial number look elsewhere for their identity.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13I am very, very proud to be Scots but very intensely proud to be British.
0:01:13 > 0:01:14And I don't see the distinction.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18These weighty books contain
0:01:18 > 0:01:21the hidden history of millions of Scots -
0:01:21 > 0:01:26ordinary people whose lives defy simple classification.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29I'm in New Register House, surrounded by the birth,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32death and marriage certificates of Scotland.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34This is the raw data of the nation.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36But what does it mean to be Scottish?
0:01:38 > 0:01:42All of us will answer that question differently -
0:01:42 > 0:01:46some in cliches and some in compelling human stories.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50Trust me, there are five million ways to be Scottish.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04'You're tuned in to Off The Ball - the most petty and ill-informed
0:02:04 > 0:02:09'sports programme on radio. Welcome to the show. I'm Stuart Cosgrove.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12'He's Tam Cowan. And joining us soon will be our guests -
0:02:12 > 0:02:15'Mark Wotte and Dundee Barry.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18'I'm Stuart Cosgrove. I present a radio show.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23'I am variously a soul music fan, a St Johnstone supporter, I'm married
0:02:23 > 0:02:28'into a Tamil Hindu family and I've struggled with eczema all my life.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33'To this day, cruel friends call me Lionel Itchy.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35'Oh, and I am Scottish, whatever that means?'
0:02:35 > 0:02:40I feel very secure about my identity in all its mongrel glory.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42The referendum is exciting -
0:02:42 > 0:02:46it offers us an opportunity to reflect on how Scotland's governed.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49But worry not, this is neither a political film,
0:02:49 > 0:02:50nor a campaign video.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54In fact, it's a journey to meet many people across Scotland
0:02:54 > 0:02:57with both settled and shifting attitudes to their identity
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and how it might impact on the referendum.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02BOYS: Freedom!
0:03:07 > 0:03:1290-minute-patriots - that is a commonly held view of Scots,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15aligning us uncomfortably with simple emotions
0:03:15 > 0:03:17and a game of football.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19# We'll be coming
0:03:19 > 0:03:22# We'll be coming
0:03:22 > 0:03:24# We'll be coming down the road... #
0:03:24 > 0:03:29I think of the Tartan Army, I think of haggis.
0:03:29 > 0:03:30# ..We'll be coming
0:03:30 > 0:03:32# We'll be coming down the road.... #
0:03:32 > 0:03:35The Scottish international team, the Edinburgh Tattoo.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37# ..We'll be coming
0:03:37 > 0:03:39# We'll be coming... #
0:03:39 > 0:03:41CHEERING
0:03:44 > 0:03:49So, a pudding and a song about coming down a road.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52Surely identity is more complex than that?
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Edinburgh. The capital.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59The Athens of the North.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Home of miraculous myths and of a man who has lived with
0:04:02 > 0:04:06the raw data of identity for the last 20 years.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10David McCrone runs a centre which focuses on the study
0:04:10 > 0:04:12of national identity.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16He has spent a lifetime gathering evidence about how we see ourselves.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21David, this thing called identity, is it important?
0:04:21 > 0:04:22Well it is,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25but it's quite difficult to pin it down.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27The writer Willie McIlvanney once said that,
0:04:27 > 0:04:31"National identity is a bit like having an insurance policy.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34"You know you've got one, but you don't know where it is,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37"and you certainly don't know what the small print means."
0:04:37 > 0:04:39So it's everywhere, it's ubiquitous.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42But, in a way, until it's problematic,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44where there's a situation where people have to choose,
0:04:44 > 0:04:46people just take it for granted.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49In everyday life, we do take it for granted.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53But decades of evidence shows that Scots - more than anyone
0:04:53 > 0:04:57else in Britain - feel their national identity.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00It is in the language of marketing speak - it's a core value.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Over the years, we discovered that Scottish identity -
0:05:04 > 0:05:10being Scottish - among everyone, is a very important identity.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12On a par, thank God, with being a parent,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15and indeed being a partner or a spouse.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17And certainly more important that peoples' gender,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21or their class identity and so on. So it is ubiquitous in Scotland.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23People in Scotland think of themselves
0:05:23 > 0:05:25overwhelmingly as Scottish.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Some people would say that identity is kind of fixed, it's given,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33you know - I am Scottish, therefore I am.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35Is identity fixed?
0:05:35 > 0:05:39No, because identity, above all, has to do with claims.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42That is, people claim to be something.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44That is - I am this, I am that.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Or they say - you are not,
0:05:46 > 0:05:48or you are one of us, or not one of us.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50And so on, and so on.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53There's a whole complex of negotiation of identities
0:05:53 > 0:05:55which people go through.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58CROWD CHANTING
0:06:05 > 0:06:07McDiarmid Park, Perth.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Once arable farmland and now home of St Johnstone FC.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14I'm here to meet someone who is a living embodiment of how
0:06:14 > 0:06:17complex those negotiations can be.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Bruce Fummey is a fellow Saints fan.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23His dad was Ghanaian student, his mum is Scottish.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Ironically, his African father studied at an aerodrome
0:06:27 > 0:06:30in Scone a few hundred yards from the spiritual
0:06:30 > 0:06:35home of the Stone of Destiny - it's where Africa meets ancient Scotland.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Bruce we're talking really about identity, about what makes you
0:06:41 > 0:06:45feel who you are. How would you describe yourself?
0:06:46 > 0:06:48A fat bloke, I would say
0:06:48 > 0:06:51is probably the predominant sense that
0:06:51 > 0:06:53I get as I walk about the streets. But no,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57you're talking about in terms of your national background,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00your national identity and stuff.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05A Scottish African - would that fit into your genre?
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Yeah, of course it would. And as a Scottish African,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13how important therefore is being Scottish to you?
0:07:15 > 0:07:16SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH
0:07:16 > 0:07:20It depends if I'm at the rugby or no'.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24It's part of your everyday existence. How important is your arm to you?
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Sometimes it's more important than others, sometimes it really
0:07:28 > 0:07:30disnae matter because you're no' using it.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35But it's part of me, it's part of who I am.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38Let me introduce myself. My name is Bruce Fummey.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42I'm a 5'8" male of mixed racial origin.
0:07:42 > 0:07:43Medium build.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45LAUGHTER
0:07:45 > 0:07:46Piss off!
0:07:46 > 0:07:48Bruce defies the norm.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50He is a regular on the stand-up comedy circuit
0:07:50 > 0:07:54and an aficionado of the national poet Rabbie Burns.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58He can recite poems that most of us only half-know a line from.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02I think growing up you kind of almost had to be more
0:08:02 > 0:08:06Scottish than the other Scottish kids, you know what I mean?
0:08:06 > 0:08:10Now here's one really difficult thing. I hear on the grapevine
0:08:10 > 0:08:15that you're also learning, studying and evolving your Gaelic language.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Now, for most Scots that's something that's quite challenging,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23even for people that have grown up in the Gaeltacht or whatever.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26It's a big challenge.
0:08:26 > 0:08:33It's no' easy. French or German or Spanish would be easier.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38I've become quite obsessed with it, do you know what I mean?
0:08:38 > 0:08:42What led to it? What attracted you to an indigenous language?
0:08:42 > 0:08:47It was accidental. We were going to the islands,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49and I went into the Bridge of Allan library.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53I said, "Look, I'm going to the islands, have you any advice?"
0:08:53 > 0:08:57And she pointed me towards this room. And I thought I'd go in
0:08:57 > 0:09:01and find books about the Hebrides, but actually I found a Gaelic class.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Now in a situation like that, a confident person says,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07"Sorry, I've made a mistake," turns and walks out.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09An insecure person becomes part of Stirling Council's
0:09:09 > 0:09:11adult education scheme.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Now the old cynic would say that you're just doing it to get on the
0:09:14 > 0:09:17telly because BBC Alba is always looking for
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Scots-Ghanaian comedians.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21- Al-pah.- Al-pah? OK.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23THEY LAUGH
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Folk do say that. They say, "Why are you learning Gaelic?
0:09:26 > 0:09:29"Are you learning Gaelic so that when you go up to Inverness
0:09:29 > 0:09:31"to do your comedy people understand you?"
0:09:31 > 0:09:33And I say, "No, that's why I'm learning Polish."
0:09:33 > 0:09:35THEY LAUGH
0:09:35 > 0:09:37"Are you learning Gaelic to get on the telly?"
0:09:37 > 0:09:38There's easier ways of getting on the telly.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41As you know, there's easier ways of getting on the telly.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44If you've got an embarrassing body, you get on the telly.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46If you're from a family of big fat folk, you get on the telly.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49If your kids won't behave, if you've got a manky house,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52you get on the telly. I've got no need to learn Gaelic,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55I've got 101 ways to get on the telly.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00So, a fat bloke with a manky hoose.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03Bruce's self-mocking way of asserting his identity
0:10:03 > 0:10:07is a breath of fresh air. It's clearly very important to him.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10And, by the way, he's inclined to vote yes in September.
0:10:18 > 0:10:24Identity matters, and for some people it runs more than skin deep.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26On the walls of this tattoo parlour in Hamilton
0:10:26 > 0:10:30are the diverse slogans, emblems and symbols of identity.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Lanarkshire has its own sub-cultures of belonging,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37which often find their expression in politics and religion.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41On the Catholic side of things, you've got Jesus,
0:10:41 > 0:10:43the Virgin Mary, crosses,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47crosses with Jesus - all that sort of thing.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49And you've got more radical things like IRA tattoos
0:10:49 > 0:10:50and that sort of thing.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55On the Protestant side of things, you've got Union Jacks,
0:10:55 > 0:11:00British tattoos like bulldogs, lions, that sort of thing.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02And then more radical, you've got UVF and UDA.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Although I am more interested in how Scotland will be governed
0:11:07 > 0:11:10after the referendum, tattoo parlours tell us that the
0:11:10 > 0:11:14event itself is igniting passions and tribal loyalties.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18Getting a tattoo just to symbolise
0:11:18 > 0:11:21my feeling on my Britishness.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Obviously, just to reaffirm
0:11:23 > 0:11:25my position on the referendum.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Most of my tattoos are all something very close to me.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31The majority of them are obviously
0:11:31 > 0:11:34cultural aspects of my life.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37And it always has been - any tattoo
0:11:37 > 0:11:39I've got always has been more
0:11:39 > 0:11:40cultural and personal
0:11:40 > 0:11:42than anything else.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48So this is the body-politics of the yes/no debate
0:11:48 > 0:11:51and in the time-honoured BBC tradition,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53here's Toni to provide balance.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58I'm getting a Saltire with "freedom" wi' thistles.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02And what does that tattoo say to you?
0:12:02 > 0:12:04- Tell me some of the things that... - I'm Scottish.
0:12:04 > 0:12:10Now tell me, you've got one very special tattoo, tell me about that.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15100% Scottish Beef. It's on my bum.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20I would show you but I don't think you want to see it.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27A desire to adorn ourselves with image and identity is what keeps
0:12:27 > 0:12:32this business alive. And the final results are never easy to erase.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41I like the fact that obviously it emphasises on the flag itself,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44which is what I was originally going for, obviously.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48I'm definitely happy with that.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50It's probably the biggest one I've got, I'd say.
0:12:50 > 0:12:51HE LAUGHS
0:12:54 > 0:12:58I feel more Scottish now I've got the Scottish flag
0:12:58 > 0:13:02- tattooed on my skin. It's inked on me.- For ever.
0:13:02 > 0:13:03Until I die.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Tattoos divide opinion just as much as politics
0:13:08 > 0:13:11but they also act as a form of cartoon-identity -
0:13:11 > 0:13:13values inked into absolutes.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17The forthcoming referendum engages viewpoints that are certain
0:13:17 > 0:13:21and absolute, but many more that are unsure,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23and whose views are open to change.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26To help me grasp this capacity to change,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29I met Scotland's biggest psephological brain
0:13:29 > 0:13:32to try and work out what identity means
0:13:32 > 0:13:35in cold, hard, political reality.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37If it wasn't the case
0:13:37 > 0:13:39that Scotland was indeed a distinct nation
0:13:39 > 0:13:42within the United Kingdom, and that therefore as a result some
0:13:42 > 0:13:43people could say to themselves,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47well, look, I am Scottish, why can't my country be an independent state
0:13:47 > 0:13:49like any other nation?
0:13:49 > 0:13:52I don't think we'd be having this referendum in the first place.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55And, certainly, it's clearly true that the more Scottish that
0:13:55 > 0:13:59people feel and the less British that they feel, the more likely
0:13:59 > 0:14:02they say they're going to vote yes in this referendum.
0:14:02 > 0:14:03At the backdrop of all of this,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07identity is providing a crucial structure that is shaping the
0:14:07 > 0:14:10opportunities that are open to the yes and no sides in the first place.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15In other elections, John, there's been a tendency for analysts
0:14:15 > 0:14:19to look to particular sub-groups of the society.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23In the USA elections it was the soccer mom.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26We've had in British elections, you know, Basildon man or
0:14:26 > 0:14:28white-van-man, whatever.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Is it possible to identify within the Scottish electorate,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36sub-groups of people who may be disproportionately important?
0:14:36 > 0:14:38Well, I'm not sure if we can identify groups that are
0:14:38 > 0:14:42disproportionately important, though I think we can identify stereotypes.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46I mean, I think, on the yes side at least, almost undoubtedly
0:14:46 > 0:14:49the stereotype is going to be of what we might call caber man.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54Now, in other words, somebody who is relatively young, who is male
0:14:54 > 0:14:58and who has a very strong sense of Scottish identity,
0:14:58 > 0:14:59as for example,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03through participation in tossing the caber in a Highland Games.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05That sounds about 25 people.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Well, I mean, therein maybe in fact reveals the fact
0:15:08 > 0:15:12that, of course, at the end of the day we are looking at a society,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15many of whom are people with a sense of dual identity,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17which is why, arguably,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20this referendum is not looking that easy for the yes side to win.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Because even somebody with a strong sense of Scottish identity, many of
0:15:24 > 0:15:27those people will also acknowledge a strong sense of Britishness.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Oh, come on, John! I have lived in Scotland most of my life
0:15:33 > 0:15:37but I have never met or even seen a caber man.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40It sounds like a term thrown into the debate by psephologists
0:15:40 > 0:15:44to sell their wares or to baffle us into submission.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48But John has a point - feeling Scottish doesn't stop you
0:15:48 > 0:15:50feeling other things as well.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55I am certain that over the last 20 years
0:15:55 > 0:15:59we have witnessed a rise of self-awareness and self-confidence
0:15:59 > 0:16:04that may be a strong underlying theme in the year of the referendum.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08To illustrate this, I want to take you on a detour to the
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Malt Whisky Society to meet food-writer Sue Lawrence.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16Excuse the mild pretentiousness but this conversation
0:16:16 > 0:16:20is about your granny and the semiotics of clootie dumpling.
0:16:20 > 0:16:21The clootie dumpling is something
0:16:21 > 0:16:23that is very much from my family
0:16:23 > 0:16:25and you are quite near, you're Perth, I'm Dundee.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27It was very much that sort of area.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Well I remember my granny cooking clootie dumpling,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33in fact she'd use the word cloot daily.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36She'd say, "I'll dicht your kisser with this cloot," or whatever.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40And she'd wipe my face and use the cloth and then the cloth,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43not the same cloth, a cloth, was then used to cook the dumpling.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48When you start to look at it, maybe this is just my own family
0:16:48 > 0:16:53experience, but I kind of felt that traditional Scottish food
0:16:53 > 0:16:56began to die away maybe some time in the '60s or whatever.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01Or maybe became something that we were slightly embarrassed about.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05We were definitely ashamed of it all and I think, you know, post-war
0:17:05 > 0:17:07people were out of rationing, say our parents.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10And they were thinking, "Why do we want mince and tatties?
0:17:10 > 0:17:13"We can make spaghetti carbonara, spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne."
0:17:13 > 0:17:17People were also travelling more. But we were definitely, I think, unsure
0:17:17 > 0:17:21of who we were and we wanted to maybe be something a little bit different.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24And there's some sense of looking back at our own history,
0:17:24 > 0:17:29with that feeling of maybe kind of cringe or disdain or something
0:17:29 > 0:17:33where you're uncomfortable with even saying things like clootie dumpling.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Exactly. Or Hogmanay, First Footing. First Footing, everyone did it.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38Then suddenly it wasn't quite the thing,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40and people would have dinner parties instead.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47Traditional foods like Stornoway black pudding, Arbroath smokies,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51porridge oats were largely confined to the past, but have suddenly
0:17:51 > 0:17:55resurfaced in a new self-confident Scotland, where the organic,
0:17:55 > 0:18:00fresh-food movement has found value in authenticity and localness.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Almost all of these foodstuffs, in one way or another,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08could find themselves on the menu of the poshest restaurants in Scotland
0:18:08 > 0:18:10and Michelin-star and whatever.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13You'd comfortably go in and see a starter that would be
0:18:13 > 0:18:18- Stornoway black pudding with... - Scallops.- Scallops or whatever.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20Haggis with a pomegranate jus
0:18:20 > 0:18:22- or something like that, I don't know.- Interesting.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25But all of these things could quite easily feature
0:18:25 > 0:18:28in a Scottish restaurant and that.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33So is it that they have simply become part of the world of food
0:18:33 > 0:18:36or is there a move, do you think, to reclaim the past?
0:18:36 > 0:18:37I think a bit of both.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40You said that these would be in any Scottish restaurant.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43But the good black puddings are in a lot of London restaurants now,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46you know, with their branding. Because everyone's proud of that.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49So I think it's the pride and I think it's also, yes,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52it's part of the worldwide cuisine now.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Our relationship with food is both everyday and profound -
0:18:58 > 0:19:00it can help define a culture
0:19:00 > 0:19:04and tells us a simple but hugely important lesson.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Scotland is abandoning the cultural cringe.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10We are no longer embarrassed about who we are,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13or in awe of the apparent sophistication of others.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21To measure how powerfully Scotland's re-emergent identity has grown,
0:19:21 > 0:19:23look a few miles south.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Is there the same confidence about national identity in Gateshead?
0:19:30 > 0:19:32# All you fascists
0:19:32 > 0:19:35# You may be surprised
0:19:35 > 0:19:39# The people in this world are getting organised
0:19:39 > 0:19:42# You're bound to lose
0:19:42 > 0:19:46# All you fascists are bound to lose... #
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Singer, songwriter and socialist Billy Bragg
0:19:49 > 0:19:51is preparing for a concert here
0:19:51 > 0:19:56and is worried that Scotland is leaving the English behind.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01We English tend to have a collective blind spot over our
0:20:01 > 0:20:05national identity and that blind spot is obscured by the Union Jack.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08The fact that we still sing God Save the Queen,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11the British national anthem, at sporting events,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14rather than an equivalent of Flower of Scotland -
0:20:14 > 0:20:16that to me was the moment that I realised that something was
0:20:16 > 0:20:19changing in Scotland, when the Scots decided to no longer sing
0:20:19 > 0:20:22God Save the Queen but sing their own song.
0:20:22 > 0:20:28If the English ever get round to choosing a song that at least
0:20:28 > 0:20:31mentions the name of our bloody country -
0:20:31 > 0:20:34which I think is the very least you would expect from a national anthem -
0:20:34 > 0:20:38that would be the first sign that we are starting to take the
0:20:38 > 0:20:42first steps on the long journey that Scotland is close to completing.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46GUITAR PLAYS
0:20:56 > 0:21:00# Take down the Union Jack
0:21:00 > 0:21:03# It clashes with the sunset
0:21:03 > 0:21:10# And put it in the attic with the emperor's old clothes
0:21:10 > 0:21:14# When did it fall apart?
0:21:14 > 0:21:17# Sometime in the '80s
0:21:17 > 0:21:21# When the great and the good gave way
0:21:21 > 0:21:24# To the greedy and the mean... #
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Billy has touched a raw nerve, guaranteed to infuriate even the
0:21:28 > 0:21:32most placid Scot - is there a difference between the words
0:21:32 > 0:21:33English and British?
0:21:33 > 0:21:36# Take down the Union Jack
0:21:37 > 0:21:41# It clashes with the sunset
0:21:41 > 0:21:44# And ask our Scottish neighbours
0:21:44 > 0:21:48# If independence looks any good
0:21:48 > 0:21:51# Cos they just might understand
0:21:51 > 0:21:57# How to take an abstract notion of personal identity
0:21:57 > 0:22:00# And turn it into nationhood... #
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Whilst Billy Bragg is ready to call himself English,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12do his audience have a clear idea of what that actually means?
0:22:15 > 0:22:18I suppose I think of tea, cups of tea?
0:22:18 > 0:22:20SHE LAUGHS
0:22:20 > 0:22:22They drink tea in Scotland.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24They do, that's why I said British, not just English.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27I can't think of anything specific about being English,
0:22:27 > 0:22:32apart from the George Cross is the flag of England.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34Um...
0:22:34 > 0:22:36What a hard question.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39I suppose it's just part of
0:22:39 > 0:22:42several sort of geographical identities you have.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46I sort of see them as Russian dolls.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51I'm a Northerner, that fits inside being from England,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55which fits inside being British, which fits inside being European,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59which fits inside being a citizen of the world, really.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01Do you think that for English people it's a bit harder
0:23:01 > 0:23:04to distinguish between being English and British
0:23:04 > 0:23:06than it is for other people of the UK?
0:23:06 > 0:23:08Yes, definitely, yeah.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11I don't think it means that we have any less of an identity,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13I just think that there are less things out there that
0:23:13 > 0:23:16symbolise that we are stereotypically English.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20So stereotypically Scottish, you think tartan.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Stereotypically Irish, you think green. That kind of thing.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26Whereas with English, I don't think we have anything that
0:23:26 > 0:23:29defines us into that category, into that group.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34The strongest possibility of there being a new English settlement
0:23:34 > 0:23:37comes if there is an independent Scotland.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41Because then we will be forced to think again about who we are.
0:23:41 > 0:23:48In some ways, you'll take that Union Jack awning off the front of what
0:23:48 > 0:23:52it means to be English and force us to think a bit more about it.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57But we're never going to get our heads out of the attic of Britishness
0:23:57 > 0:23:59unless something changes.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01So that possibility presents itself next year.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03HE LAUGHS
0:24:06 > 0:24:10If, unlike the English, Scots seem to be negotiating a modern,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14post-imperial identity, it would be naive to think that
0:24:14 > 0:24:17history and the glorious past no longer matter.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Sad as it may seem, I recently reread an old
0:24:21 > 0:24:26copy of the Journal Of Scottish Affairs from 1994.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29And I came across a perspective on the past that may provide
0:24:29 > 0:24:33a key to unlocking the mysteries of today.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37It's a methodology which breaks our sense of identity down into a
0:24:37 > 0:24:39series of concentric rings -
0:24:39 > 0:24:44family, nationality, tribe and so on.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49The original author of the concentric circles of identity
0:24:49 > 0:24:51lives here in Fife.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55TC Smout is retired but he was the Historiographer Royal
0:24:55 > 0:24:58and remains an avid ornithologist.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Like me, he thinks identity is complex and layered.
0:25:02 > 0:25:03These are like
0:25:03 > 0:25:06circles that are...
0:25:06 > 0:25:10that spread out from the family, to the tribe.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14And the kin is very important in Scotland,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17which is kind of between the family and the tribe.
0:25:17 > 0:25:25And the region, and then the nation, the nationality of being Scottish,
0:25:25 > 0:25:31and then something possibly even bigger, like being European.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35I mean, it's... You wake up in morning and you say, "Who am I?"
0:25:35 > 0:25:38The answer to that is, quite a lot of things.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43According to Professor Smout's theories, these concentric
0:25:43 > 0:25:46circles have a distinct Scottish aspect.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51Being Scottish, historically, is not a fixed tribal or ethnic
0:25:51 > 0:25:54identity, nor is it based on a language or a creed.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59It's more than just living here, it's putting down roots.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03It's the feeling of belonging which makes you Scottish.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06But it's not who your mother and father were.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12It's about belonging. What a great word.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16Historically, Scottishness has always been inclusive - Gaels,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21Lowlanders, even die-hard Fifers all called themselves Scots
0:26:21 > 0:26:22quite happily.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30Recently, using the records kept here at New Register House
0:26:30 > 0:26:31in Edinburgh,
0:26:31 > 0:26:36I traced my own family back - as many Scots can - to Ireland.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40The huge wave of post-famine immigration in the 19th century
0:26:40 > 0:26:45brought my ancestors from Galway to the jute mills of Perth.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47They quickly assimilated as Scots.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50But the latest census shows that this process of inward
0:26:50 > 0:26:53migration continues today.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57In the last decade, the ethnic minority population of Scotland
0:26:57 > 0:27:00has doubled to 4%.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05Tim, I'm just taken aback by the volumes of information
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and history and research that's available here.
0:27:08 > 0:27:09Just in a very simple sense,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13what do all these volumes tell us about Scotland?
0:27:13 > 0:27:17What it tells us is that, over the last few decades,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20we have become a much bigger population.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24We've grown by about half-a-million over the last 100 years.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27We've become an older population. And over the more recent past,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30we have become a more diverse population.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35One key to unlocking the kind of mysteries of identity is language.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38What does the census tells us, if anything, about
0:27:38 > 0:27:41the changing nature of the languages that Scots speak?
0:27:41 > 0:27:44One of the things it tells us is that there's a lot more of them than there used to be.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47There's over 170 languages recorded in the last census,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50that are spoken by ten or more people.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53That's a large range of diversity.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Some of them will be languages that will have been here
0:27:55 > 0:27:59for many, many years. Decades even. And others will be much more recent.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Some of them will be only spoken by ten people or so,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05and others will be spoken by hundreds of thousands.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09So final question, Tim. When you look at the census now,
0:28:09 > 0:28:14is there anything that personally fascinated you as an individual
0:28:14 > 0:28:18rather than necessarily as someone that's the bearer of the keys
0:28:18 > 0:28:20of this wonderful place?
0:28:20 > 0:28:24I suppose, for me, I think the increase in diversity is
0:28:24 > 0:28:28a fascinating thing and it does get to this question of
0:28:28 > 0:28:30who we are and where we come from.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34My roots are English but I've been in Scotland now for many years and
0:28:34 > 0:28:37I think that being able to understand that people move around
0:28:37 > 0:28:41and that they find different ways to express their identity
0:28:41 > 0:28:43and to live out their lives.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48Most people don't do the census with a view to history.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50They do it because they have to do it
0:28:50 > 0:28:53and because they see some merit in the data that comes from it.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56But when you fill it in, what comes out of it is
0:28:56 > 0:28:59that broad sweep of the nation as a whole
0:28:59 > 0:29:02that you see coming through it. That's the fascinating thing for me.
0:29:02 > 0:29:03It really is fascinating.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09That sweep of history has changed what it means to be Scottish -
0:29:09 > 0:29:14here's the proof that diversity is increasingly our future.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18But does that mean that more people will feel
0:29:18 > 0:29:20trapped between different identities?
0:29:22 > 0:29:23How do I define myself?
0:29:23 > 0:29:25OK, well, OK, I am Scottish.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29But I was born in London, so arguably I'm English,
0:29:29 > 0:29:31but then I'd say British.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36But my dad was brought up in India and my mum was brought up in Kenya -
0:29:36 > 0:29:38so, I go alphabetical.
0:29:38 > 0:29:43So, that makes me Asian first, then British, then Scottish,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45and somewhere in amongst that is myopic.
0:29:45 > 0:29:46STUART LAUGHS
0:29:46 > 0:29:49I'm incredibly short-sighted, both figuratively and literally.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Yeah, there are some people that kind of feel ill-at-ease with
0:29:53 > 0:29:58the way that identity, it almost is in flux in your life,
0:29:58 > 0:30:01and at different moments in your life, different elements of who you
0:30:01 > 0:30:04think you are, or who you believe you are, come to the surface.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06Have you ever found that your Scottishness
0:30:06 > 0:30:09or your Britishness is in tension?
0:30:09 > 0:30:13Oh, absolutely. Sometimes... You pull focus when you need to.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15It's not like you change when you need to,
0:30:15 > 0:30:16but just certain things come to the fore.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19And if you are sort of a mixed bag, like I am,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22there's just more elements that can sort of come to the fore.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25When I was younger, maybe eight or nine years old...
0:30:25 > 0:30:27GRANGE HILL THEME
0:30:27 > 0:30:30..I grew up in Glasgow, grew up in Bishopbriggs, north of Glasgow.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32If I ever had cause to go into town, I'd be very surprised
0:30:32 > 0:30:35if I wasn't called a Paki, or occasionally a Sambo,
0:30:35 > 0:30:37which annoyed me, because I thought,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40"If you're going to be racially insensitive, get it right."
0:30:40 > 0:30:43But equally, if I then went to the wedding of a cousin in London,
0:30:43 > 0:30:47I'd get called Jock, and I'd suddenly become quite proudly Scottish.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50And they couldn't cope with the fact that I had a Scottish accent,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54as diluted as mine is, coming out of this brown face.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56So they found it quite hard to cope with my Scottishness.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59So I kind of felt like I was fighting it on all corners.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02When you're eight or nine, you feel like that's a negative thing,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05but as you get older, you realise that you can use it in a positive way.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16To make sense today of the concentric circles of identity,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19you would have to include another defining factor - youth culture.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Those that take their identity not from nationhood
0:31:29 > 0:31:33but from their social life, their music or their sense of fashion.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39Some are even willing to brave the fiercest weather
0:31:39 > 0:31:43and challenges to assert their culture - Scotland's surfers.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52It's kind of grim, but it's kind of like,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55you don't feel it, in a sense, because you're insulated
0:31:55 > 0:31:58in these 21st-century spacesuits that we wear, or wet suits.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02I mean, it's not great surf conditions.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05It's stormy, it's windy, it's overcast, it was raining earlier,
0:32:05 > 0:32:06but it doesn't really matter.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10You're still out there, paddling around, catching the occasional wave
0:32:10 > 0:32:14and just being part of it all. It's hard to explain.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17It seems nuts, but it doesn't feel like it.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25He's right, identity is nuts.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Since the rise of the teenager in the 1950s, the notion of youth
0:32:29 > 0:32:35subculture has complicated still further an already complex picture.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39A passion for something you do or love can often define someone
0:32:39 > 0:32:44more crucially than nationality, family or gender.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46You know, surfing in Scotland is a good time.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49But it's not for most Scottish people.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52The attraction is the natural environment.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54It's the fact that it is quite quiet.
0:32:58 > 0:33:03In certain parts, on certain days, the waves can be as good anywhere.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06I think this is the world's best place to go surfing.
0:33:06 > 0:33:07HE LAUGHS
0:33:07 > 0:33:08That's a lie.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Surfing and the concrete magic of skate-boarding
0:33:14 > 0:33:18means so much to Jamie, he's built a business around it.
0:33:18 > 0:33:19And ironically, it has allowed him
0:33:19 > 0:33:24to discover a country he already lived in and thought he knew.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27Is Scotland undiscovered in that sense?
0:33:27 > 0:33:30In terms of its surf culture or whatever?
0:33:30 > 0:33:33I don't want to say too much.
0:33:33 > 0:33:34STUART LAUGHS
0:33:34 > 0:33:39Scotland is rugged, it's inaccessible, and it's remote.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41That's part of the beauty of it.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44That's what's good from a surfer's point of view.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46That can be often what you're looking for.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50Yeah, has surfing made you discover Scotland maybe in ways that
0:33:50 > 0:33:52you didn't know it as a child growing up?
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Big time. Surfing, it can take you to literally discover the world.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58But in the Scottish perspective,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01it has taken me to all of the remotest points.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03I would never have gone to the Outer Hebrides.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06I'd probably would never have gone to Thurso, to be honest with you,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09if it wasn't for the fact that I heard there were good waves up there.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Same as the west coast, parts of the east coast, wherever.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16Jamie's business depends on putting together two salient parts
0:34:16 > 0:34:20of his identity - he is a surfer and a Scot - and the meeting
0:34:20 > 0:34:25of those two has created something bigger than both.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28I'm thinking here of some of the kind of gear that you sell.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32And just looking, you know, just looking at this hoodie...
0:34:33 > 0:34:36The shop's Clan. And it's got Glasgow on it
0:34:36 > 0:34:40and it's got the Celtic iconography on it and things like that.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44Is, for you, the importance of Scotland as a place
0:34:44 > 0:34:47quite important in terms of how you do business?
0:34:47 > 0:34:51For sure. It's pretty blatant.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54It stemmed from a conversation with one of my best friends
0:34:54 > 0:34:57about setting up a skateboard shop -
0:34:57 > 0:34:59what would it mean and what does it mean?
0:34:59 > 0:35:03It really was just a group of core skateboarders, 20, 30 years ago.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07I wanted to represent that and also the country.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11We had a sort of different scene.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16And Clan seemed like it was the obvious choice.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20More as in family, group, I wasn't saying just Scottish.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23I was just saying anybody that skates, you're all part of the clan.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25With the referendum coming up, you know,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28all of the political parties are always keen to see how
0:35:28 > 0:35:31demographically people might vote. Age, gender, all the rest of it.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33What's your instinct in Scotland?
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Surfers, are they likely to vote yes or no?
0:35:36 > 0:35:37THEY LAUGH
0:35:37 > 0:35:40It depends. It's a varied group.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44I think a lot of them will be sort of into the idea.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49A bit unsure about what impact it's going to make.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54A very small impact that did happen was that the ferry prices dropped,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57so to go to the Outer Hebrides or whatever
0:35:57 > 0:36:00became cheaper for surfers. So there's a direct correlation.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04- There's a positive one. - That's maybe how they'll look at it.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11So identity - brought into sharp focus - can be based on what
0:36:11 > 0:36:15we love, it can be about our passions rather than our nation.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19And maybe it's not a rigid structure of rings or circles
0:36:19 > 0:36:23but as Sanjeev Kohli suggested, a lens through which
0:36:23 > 0:36:26we see the world, one that allows us to pull focus.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33Take me, I'm a big fan of Northern Soul music.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38It's ghetto-music from the 1960s in America and the civil rights period.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42It came to Britain largely through working-class English DJs
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and then was appropriated and assimilated by Scots.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Much like identity itself,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51it's something that's borrowed, re-worked and reassessed.
0:36:53 > 0:36:58And pursuing passions can often disrupt normal logic.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00TRADITIONAL FOLK MUSIC
0:37:00 > 0:37:02A St Andrew's night Ceilidh near Banchory -
0:37:02 > 0:37:04what could be more Scottish?
0:37:06 > 0:37:08MUSIC STOPS
0:37:08 > 0:37:10APPLAUSE
0:37:13 > 0:37:16But yet again, things are not quite what they seem.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24BAND PLAYS
0:37:29 > 0:37:33Oh, we saw a team come up from England and dance in Aberdeen.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36And we thought, "Gosh that looks like great fun!"
0:37:36 > 0:37:38So we thought we would give it a try.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Once you get hooked on morris dancing
0:37:41 > 0:37:43you tend to be a morris man for ever, more or less.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45You sort of die in post, you know?
0:37:45 > 0:37:48It's a bit addictive, though quite why
0:37:48 > 0:37:49I don't think any of us really know.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52It's quite an interesting phenomenon.
0:37:54 > 0:37:55AUDIENCE APPLAUD
0:37:58 > 0:38:00When we first started, there were people who
0:38:00 > 0:38:03sort of, you know, that...expletive undeleted,
0:38:03 > 0:38:06"It's this lot." You know?
0:38:06 > 0:38:08But, I mean, nowadays, half the time
0:38:08 > 0:38:11if you were going down the road with your bells and whatnot on,
0:38:11 > 0:38:15they'd be asking you, "Where are you dancing?" if you see what I mean?
0:38:15 > 0:38:17So from that point of view, it's become a bit more familiar.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20TRADITIONAL FOLK MUSIC
0:38:20 > 0:38:25Most people think of morris dancing as quintessentially English - but
0:38:25 > 0:38:30in the confused story of identity, it actually has deep Scottish roots.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Morris dancing is first recorded in the UK,
0:38:33 > 0:38:37in Scotland in 1472, I think, or thereabouts.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39Maybe plus or minus a year or two.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42It started off as courtly entertainment
0:38:42 > 0:38:46in the court of the king, gradually went down the social ladder
0:38:46 > 0:38:51until it became a country village sort of thing.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55And so we regard it as an old Scottish tradition
0:38:55 > 0:38:58that we are reviving. It's not usually perceived that way
0:38:58 > 0:39:01because most people think that it's English, but it's not at all.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04BAGPIPES PLAY
0:39:20 > 0:39:24So, Scottish morris dancing revived.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29It's a local hybrid that resists any attempts to classify or confine
0:39:29 > 0:39:32cultural identity. It is simply what these men
0:39:32 > 0:39:34have made for themselves.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37THEY SHOUT
0:39:41 > 0:39:43CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:39:46 > 0:39:48We have quite a strong identity.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50We've been dancing with each other for nearly 40 years.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52- Almost for ever.- Almost for ever.
0:39:52 > 0:39:53THEY LAUGH
0:39:53 > 0:39:56Yes. And we have quite a strong identity as well.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59We have our own dances, with our own characteristic steps and movements.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02And we feel a very strong local tradition.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04And even if we do use other people's dances,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08we're still adapting them for our... to what we feel is comfortable.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10So there's definitely a localness about it.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14We've built a local tradition here over 40 years.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17I don't know whether that's any help.
0:40:17 > 0:40:18THEY LAUGH
0:40:24 > 0:40:27The referendum is already emotionally charged
0:40:27 > 0:40:30and no community will go unnoticed in the search for votes.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34I am keeping my eye on Scotland's fragmented identities
0:40:34 > 0:40:38to see if they have any influence at all on the referendum.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43My favourite so far is Scottish Drag Queens for Independence.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47"Be true to yourself in life, politics and love."
0:40:47 > 0:40:49They may not hold the balance of power
0:40:49 > 0:40:51but the beehives are brilliant.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59Sometimes identity can curdle into tribalism.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04My old friend, the film director Annie Griffin, is an American
0:41:04 > 0:41:08who moved to London and on to Glasgow and now Edinburgh.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11She thinks that I have a very Scottish habit - dwelling
0:41:11 > 0:41:16on differences and grievances, and worse still, not listening enough.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18The picking away at differences
0:41:18 > 0:41:22doesn't seem so important to me,
0:41:22 > 0:41:27and certainly when one thinks about the referendum in 2014,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30whether I'm a Scot or whether I'm an American living in Scotland,
0:41:30 > 0:41:35it's about who is in charge and what access we have to power.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39Not, do I feel more Scottish than Sean Connery or Ewan McGregor
0:41:39 > 0:41:42or people who live outside of Scotland
0:41:42 > 0:41:45and yet are identifiably Scottish by their voices?
0:41:45 > 0:41:50The honest answer is, I don't think a lot about what am I, who am I?
0:41:50 > 0:41:54Do you feel more shaped by the politics of gender
0:41:54 > 0:41:56than the politics of nationhood?
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Do you think - throw a question back at you -
0:41:59 > 0:42:02do you think that identity politics is on the way out?
0:42:02 > 0:42:06The focus of who am I and what's my tribe?
0:42:06 > 0:42:08Who am I and how do I identify myself
0:42:08 > 0:42:13is less an important question than how do we work together.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17I thought about it at the time of Obama's election.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21I thought I had internalised a sense that it must be
0:42:21 > 0:42:27very, very difficult to grow up with a parent from one country
0:42:27 > 0:42:30and one race, and a parent from another one.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34And thinking about Obama, it made me think that's probably
0:42:34 > 0:42:36a much more stimulating way to grow up.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39And the more you think about it, especially with
0:42:39 > 0:42:44the movement of Europeans into the UK in the last ten years,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47the sense that there are so many people who are living in different
0:42:47 > 0:42:51countries than their families, that there is more of a sense of,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54yeah, we're all mixed up - but what are we going to do about it?
0:42:54 > 0:42:59Clearly the referendum polarises at one level because it asks
0:42:59 > 0:43:03a very simple question - yes or no - and clearly there are people with
0:43:03 > 0:43:07fixed views on that and people whose views are much more fluid.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12Are you sensing that it's pulling people apart in the same way or not?
0:43:12 > 0:43:17In Scotland? I think what it has brought out is the Scots' tendency
0:43:17 > 0:43:20to not be good at having conversations and to attack.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23I keep hearing from people who've put themselves above the parapet
0:43:23 > 0:43:27and started to have discussions about this on Twitter,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30in the media, and there is such a lot of aggressive,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33anonymous trolling and attacking of people.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38And people have had death threats just for raising it on
0:43:38 > 0:43:40comedy programmes in the UK, raising the issue.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43That seems to be the worst thing about the referendum at the moment,
0:43:43 > 0:43:45people's fear of speaking out,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49that there have been such a lot of aggression around it.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Let's be cooler and let's learn to have conversations
0:43:52 > 0:43:54where we disagree about things.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03I can see Annie's point about how tribalism can cause conflict,
0:44:03 > 0:44:07but surely there's a place for identity in art?
0:44:07 > 0:44:10MUSIC: "New Paths to Helicon Pt 1" by Mogwai
0:44:14 > 0:44:19Glasgow-based group Mogwai - Scotland's self-styled Guitar Army -
0:44:19 > 0:44:22are one of the most consistently creative bands
0:44:22 > 0:44:24Scotland has ever produced.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29Is Scottishness, whatever that is,
0:44:29 > 0:44:34more important as a defining thing than subcultural stuff
0:44:34 > 0:44:37like the history of rock music or the history of music itself?
0:44:38 > 0:44:41I think it comes up in little ways.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46I think that sometimes only when you leave Scotland do you realise how
0:44:46 > 0:44:51Scottish you are, or you realise how defining certain traits are.
0:44:51 > 0:44:57I think that there is something about Scottishness that is very...
0:44:57 > 0:45:00I think humble is maybe too strong a word, but it is very...
0:45:02 > 0:45:05Yeah, it's certainly not, we're certainly not the kind of folk
0:45:05 > 0:45:07to shout from the rooftops.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11I think that when people kind of either intellectually analyse
0:45:11 > 0:45:14your music or make grand claims for it, there's a slight kind
0:45:14 > 0:45:17of embarrassment within the Scottish culture that says,
0:45:17 > 0:45:19"Oh, I don't want to be seen to be showboating
0:45:19 > 0:45:22"or kind of baw-bagging or whatever."
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Sheena Easton, Eastoning.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28- They should maybe bring this word into the dictionary.- Exactly, yeah.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38Mogwai operate on an international stage and recently contributed
0:45:38 > 0:45:42to the soundtrack of the eerie French drama The Returned.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47Are you increasingly, in your mind,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49a global citizen more than a Scottish citizen?
0:45:51 > 0:45:54Well, I'm not even a Scottish citizen at the moment.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57THEY LAUGH
0:45:57 > 0:46:02I think it's important for culture to spread out as far as possible
0:46:02 > 0:46:05and connect with people as far as possible.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07Yeah, we've always had a great connection with France.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09I think it was one of the first places
0:46:09 > 0:46:10where people took us seriously.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14I think, for a long time, when we started we were young,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18but people took our youth as a sign of daftness
0:46:18 > 0:46:20and thought we were just wee daft boys, which we were.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23But we were wee daft boys making quite serious music.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28And it was people in France that were the first to take it
0:46:28 > 0:46:30quite seriously, I think.
0:46:33 > 0:46:38Of course, Britishness has its own wee way of coming through too -
0:46:38 > 0:46:40and that means ties to art and culture
0:46:40 > 0:46:43that will play a part in the referendum as well.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49Culturally, my two big loves are music and comedy.
0:46:49 > 0:46:56And I've always seen there being a wonderfully wealthy tradition
0:46:56 > 0:46:59of both of those things, in a British sense.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01In a Scottish sense, as well.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04But when I think of all of the things that I like, when
0:47:04 > 0:47:09I think of the comedy that I adore, it's Monty Python,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12it's coming up through Graham Linehan and the IT Crowd
0:47:12 > 0:47:14and stuff like that.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17It's like Father Ted, which is Irish, which is slightly different,
0:47:17 > 0:47:22through to Chris Morris' stuff, Kenny Everett, The Two Ronnies.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25And then I think of the way that the comedy...
0:47:25 > 0:47:28Britain thankfully doesn't have an empire any more
0:47:28 > 0:47:32but it does kind of have an empire in terms of punching above its weight
0:47:32 > 0:47:34in exporting comedians and music to America.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37And that makes me immensely proud to be British.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39And I don't want to be divorced from that.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50Although the referendum is not about voting for the end of comedy,
0:47:50 > 0:47:53many Scots feel strong connections to Britishness
0:47:53 > 0:47:57through things like that, more than, say, through monarchy.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01There may even be a few out there that find Penelope Keith funny
0:48:01 > 0:48:03and so cherish things the way they are.
0:48:06 > 0:48:12In an opulent corner of Belgravia, that is for ever Scotland,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16I met up with Scottish emigre Hugo Rifkind.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20When you come across the debates about the independence referendum
0:48:20 > 0:48:23in Scotland, what are your immediate emotional feelings
0:48:23 > 0:48:26about it, rather than rational political feelings?
0:48:26 > 0:48:28What emotionally do you feel?
0:48:28 > 0:48:30In a strange way, I feel two things at once.
0:48:30 > 0:48:35Partly I feel a bit like I have no place commenting.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37Because if I wanted to have...
0:48:37 > 0:48:40I ought to feel as if I wanted to have a say in
0:48:40 > 0:48:42Scotland's future, I should have stayed in Scotland.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45And the fact that I didn't, I feel that I've slightly sacrificed that.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47So I find it hard to get too angry about the fact that
0:48:47 > 0:48:49I don't have a vote, for example.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52But at the same time, there's a sort of fear and resentment.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55I feel like it threatens to take something away from me,
0:48:55 > 0:48:59it threatens to make me a foreigner where I now live.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04I consider my experience living in London, having made a home
0:49:04 > 0:49:08in London, I don't feel like a kind of arriviste Irishman or Australian.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10This is mine, this is my country.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12I've merely moved to a different bit of my country.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16And I slightly resent the notion of being told that that's in fact
0:49:16 > 0:49:18not what's happened by somebody else.
0:49:18 > 0:49:24And that goes further than ideas of citizenship or passports
0:49:24 > 0:49:26because under the white paper,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30the Scottish Government's white paper, you would hold Scottish
0:49:30 > 0:49:33citizenship through a number of different definitions of that.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36I would hold Scottish citizenship, absolutely, but I would
0:49:36 > 0:49:40become a different nationality from my daughters, for example.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42Or at least, not quite a different nationality, but I would...
0:49:42 > 0:49:45I don't know quite how else to say it but this is mine,
0:49:45 > 0:49:49I come to London and it's mine. It's the capital of my country.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52It's the county that my ancestors moved to.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55And to be told that my ancestors didn't move to that country but
0:49:55 > 0:49:58they moved to a different country and it's me, I'm the immigrant.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01It's not really how my identity works.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20I confess that my own identity has a homing instinct.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22This is where I grew up.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24It's a millions miles from Belgravia
0:50:24 > 0:50:29and the sense of Britishness that Hugo Rifkind feels is under threat.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31To me, this is home.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35This is the back streets of Letham in Perth where I grew up.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37A typical working-class housing scheme.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41And over the years, it was a place that people aspired to live in.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43My mother and father came here.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47He was an Irish Scot, she was English. They met during the war.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49The war for them was clearly something that mattered.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52It brought them together with a purpose -
0:50:52 > 0:50:54the idea of Britishness.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58But as I grew up and got older, I began to realise that Britishness
0:50:58 > 0:51:01didn't matter quite so much to me and my generation.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04In lots of ways, Britishness seemed as if it was in decline.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07TRUMPET PLAYS
0:51:14 > 0:51:17This film captures the flickering images
0:51:17 > 0:51:21of the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow in 1938.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24It talks of the Scots as North Britons,
0:51:24 > 0:51:29bound by an umbilical chord to industry, empire and war.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33BAGPIPES AND EXPLOSIONS
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Today they are the same race of whom, nearly 500 years ago,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41the historian Holinshed spoke:
0:51:41 > 0:51:45"Thereunto, we find them to be courageous and hardy,
0:51:45 > 0:51:48"offering themselves often unto the uttermost perils
0:51:48 > 0:51:53"with great assurance, so that a man may pronounce nothing to be over-hard
0:51:53 > 0:51:56"or past their power to perform."
0:52:02 > 0:52:05Although it's dead and gone for me,
0:52:05 > 0:52:10this feeling of Britishness is not a thing of the past for others.
0:52:10 > 0:52:1270, 70, 80, 80...
0:52:14 > 0:52:17Here at Stirling Mart, the cattle could be sold as
0:52:17 > 0:52:21Best of British or Scotch Beef.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25And many of their owners admit to a dual identity that's a bit of both.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28I would say Scottish and British.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32Is it Scottish first and then British?
0:52:32 > 0:52:34Well, yeah, I live in Scotland, so I am a Scot.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37But I am British.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40Being British is...
0:52:40 > 0:52:44The only reason I'm British is because my passport says I'm British.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50I am quite pleased to be part of the Union, while at the same time,
0:52:50 > 0:52:54I love my county. I very much see myself as Scottish.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56But I do indeed see myself as British as well.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02So Britishness is real and palpable for some
0:53:02 > 0:53:06and my rush to confine it to the past is not universally shared.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Some are deeply committed to keeping Britishness in their everyday lives.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17Whether Scotland goes independent or not,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20I would like to retain a cultural sense of Britishness.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Not in the old-fashioned style of the empire,
0:53:23 > 0:53:25and the British bulldog and the St George's flag.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27I mean...
0:53:27 > 0:53:31Like I mentioned... I'll give you a good example of this.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34I feel very much at home in Manchester and Liverpool
0:53:34 > 0:53:37and, actually, Birmingham. These are towns I feel at home in.
0:53:37 > 0:53:38I find, especially in Manchester,
0:53:38 > 0:53:42it's almost like another Glasgow to me. Feels very similar.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44I don't have the same feeling when I go to London.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46And I know that when a lot of Scottish people say
0:53:46 > 0:53:49they hate the English, they don't. They don't hate the English.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52They hate the Southeast, they don't hate the English.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57And interestingly, London is kind of hiving away as its own entity anyway.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01So I would not like to lose links with towns like Manchester
0:54:01 > 0:54:03and Liverpool cos I feel quite strongly...
0:54:03 > 0:54:06There's an argument that you could rebuild Hadrian's Wall
0:54:06 > 0:54:09maybe round about...I don't know...
0:54:09 > 0:54:11Leamington Spa - somewhere round about there.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13I don't want Coventry, I'm not bothered.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15SIREN WAILS
0:54:15 > 0:54:17This is about the loose ends,
0:54:17 > 0:54:20ties that bind the disparate threads together.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24800,000 people born in Scotland live in the rest of the UK
0:54:24 > 0:54:26and are border-hoppers.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Vast numbers of my friends have worked for a time in England,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35some have settled in England and gone back.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39My peer group is border-hopping.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43It feels a bit like an independent Scotland would
0:54:43 > 0:54:47deny me that identity, would tell me I had to make a choice
0:54:47 > 0:54:49about what I was.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53About whether I was a Scot in England or whether I ought to, I don't know,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56pass the Tebbit test and become an Englishman in England.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58Which is not something I have any desire to do. Yeah.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03One place where the history of Scotland and Britain remain
0:55:03 > 0:55:06inextricably linked is less than a mile away
0:55:06 > 0:55:09from where I live in Glasgow.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12The headquarters of the Orange Order in Scotland
0:55:12 > 0:55:15is not a place I frequent that often.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18But that may say more about my contemporary prejudices
0:55:18 > 0:55:20than the Orange Order's settled values.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26If I'm so quick to advocate cultural diversity,
0:55:26 > 0:55:28the splendour of difference,
0:55:28 > 0:55:33does it extend a hand to an unambiguously British culture?
0:55:33 > 0:55:35If you're looking to find people who are comfortable
0:55:35 > 0:55:36in their skin about being
0:55:36 > 0:55:38both British and Scottish, you've found us.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42Because the Orange Order, I guess, would be something
0:55:42 > 0:55:44that you would think about.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47And I think it's one of the strengths of the Union that
0:55:47 > 0:55:50the individuality of the four countries that comprise it
0:55:50 > 0:55:53has always been encouraged, and has always been there.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56We've always been proud to be Scots or Welsh or Northern Irish
0:55:56 > 0:55:59- or English and yet, also, proud to be British.- Yeah.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01I've got several of these tartan ties.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04I've got two kilts with all the trimmings.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08I can quote from some Burns. I bristle, like every other Scot,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11at every English insult, real or imagined.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13So that makes me thoroughly Scots,
0:56:13 > 0:56:15probably more Scots than Sean Connery, shall I say?
0:56:15 > 0:56:18But it doesn't make me any less British.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22I am very, very proud to be Scots but very intensely proud to be British.
0:56:22 > 0:56:23And I don't see the distinction.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32Ian Wilson is not alone in having this dual and co-existing identity.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Evidence suggests that co-existing feelings
0:56:35 > 0:56:39and dual-identities of both Scottishness and Britishness
0:56:39 > 0:56:42provide an important battle ground in the referendum.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46Because, in a sense, virtually everyone in Scotland
0:56:46 > 0:56:48feels strongly Scottish.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51But Scotland clearly, at the moment, is a nation
0:56:51 > 0:56:53which is divided about the merits of independence,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56it follows that there must be a lot of people with a strong sense
0:56:56 > 0:56:59of Scottish identity who are, at the moment, not following that up.
0:56:59 > 0:57:04They are saying to themselves, "Look, it isn't just about whether or not
0:57:04 > 0:57:08"I feel Scottish and I want my country to become an independent state,
0:57:08 > 0:57:10"it's also about that I also feel British.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13"I feel some affinity with the rest of the UK
0:57:13 > 0:57:15"and do I want to let that go?"
0:57:15 > 0:57:18And I think probably that the yes side,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20to be able to win this referendum,
0:57:20 > 0:57:24actually one of their key tasks is to persuade people who have at least
0:57:24 > 0:57:28a modest sense of British identity, you can afford to let it go.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31TRADITIONAL DANCE MUSIC
0:57:31 > 0:57:36I started by saying there are over five million ways of being a Scot,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40but one recurring pattern in the diverse quilt of identity
0:57:40 > 0:57:43is that sense of Britishness that still exerts influence.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57So here's the paradox - I set off on a journey to discover
0:57:57 > 0:57:59the many different versions of Scottishness.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02And on the way, discovered the concentric circles of identity
0:58:02 > 0:58:05and thread of Britishness that runs through it.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09It has faded for some, disappeared for others,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12but for other people it's very much alive.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15And that may well shape the outcome of the referendum.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18One thing is absolutely certain,
0:58:18 > 0:58:23Scotland's population is rising for the first time in centuries.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27And that may take us on a very big journey indeed
0:58:27 > 0:58:30to six million different versions of being Scottish.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33BAGPIPES PLAY