Voters in Scotland ‘not as angry’ as the English. Some 60% of voters in England are enraged by politics, but Scots are more optimistic about the future and less nostalgic for a rosy past.

by bottish

32 comments

  2. I wonder if the lack of nostalgia is a leading factor in how people feel. I’m curious what people in England are so nostalgic for, what diffrences between today and a past that actually existed (rather than the rose tinted version), which make them so upset .

  3. It’s maybe because Scots don’t have anything to have a rosy view to look back on?

  6. We have a potential way out, England is stuck with Westminster

  7. My English relatives would tell you that this is 100% down to immigration. Visiting Edinburgh, which I think is fairly multicultural, they’ll say *this is how Oxford or London used to be*

    To them visiting here today is like visiting a “rosy past” version of Britain that they are nostalgic for.

  8. Nostalgic about past political shafting what bull shit is that

  9. Scotland hasn’t got “grooming gangs,” enslaving teenager girls in their cities with impunity. You’re not really more optimistic or progressive – you’re just very insulated from most of the big problems England deals with and a bit out of the loop as to the severity, what with your reliance on the media for information on what goes on to the south of you.

    If things continue as they currently are, you’ll feel the same way as the (younger) English in the future.

  10. English voters just forgot the shit show of the last 14 years overnight after a few daily mail and express tabloid and Facebook shares….

  12. Not sure how we can be optimistic – independence is as far away as it’s ever been in the last 10yrs and the carnage in English politics is slowly dragging the UK into some dystopian hell where Reform start to look appealing to more than the morons.

  13. Apart from issues like migration, England doesn’t have an outlet for it’s discontented to hope for a better future ie if you are a Scot in Scotland, you dislike the present polical-social-economic setup you will almost certainly be Independence supporting , you can sleep comfortably in bed imagining a rosy Independent Scotland some day…..English people don’t have anything to believe in, don’t have anywhere to direct their energy. At most there are some regionalist movements in places like Yorkshire and Cornwall, strong regional identity in places like Merseyside and Tyneside.

    Most English people hate Westminster as much as Scotland btw.

  15. >less nostalgic for a rosy past.

    That’s a polite way of saying “It’s shite being Scottish”

  16. Probably coz we’re inherently pessimistic 😂

    I jest of course, it’s fully understandable why so many people in England have become utterly exhausted with and abandoned by politics.

    Whether we like to admit it up here or not, the face of England has been altered dramatically over the past 40 years. What many forget is that 40 years ago it was also a shitehole with tonnes of issues.

    I think the difference now is that the issues are inescapable, in the sense that back in the 80s you could switch off from how shite of a state the country was in, or how crap your individual life might be as you could have a few cheap pints with friends while playing in pool/darts leagues etc. Small things like that, being involved in a community and feeling a sense of achievement if you won a tournament could give some people purpose.

    Now people are locked away in their own homes with the internet in their hands 24/7, pubs are empty, and local clubs are almost non-existent in most areas. Thatcher did a right fucking number on Britain with her “no such thing as community” bollocks.. it’s done incredible amounts of damage to both individuals and the nation as a whole.

  17. Which difference is why the next decade or so is going to be very tough for the Scottish voter. Their politics and ,to a large extent, their media landscape will be dominated by the disillusionment of the English voter, who is gradually waking up at last to the fact his empire has fallen and his country is no longer important.

  19. > There is also deep frustration with the British union, with a perception that Scotland gets undue access to resources and influence, so the union itself may become a target for those that are angry and frustrated with politics

    Said it before that the only way independence or federalisation of the UK will happen is with voters in England deciding things should change.

    This article immediately made me think about English football fans reactions to their team at UEFA Euro 2024. There was so much anger directed towards the manager and team for daring to come away with a draw in some games, although curiously I found a difference in reactions from fans from the north of England (who were more easy-going about it) compared to those from the south and midlands (who were calling for the manager’s head). It’s mad.

    Personally I think the British media and establishment have a lot to do with this ‘looking back to better times’: English law is based on the past (i.e., precedent), it’s in thrall to tradition, pomp and ceremony, it’s government are based in an old-fashioned adversarial chamber, PMQs is a pantomime of put-downs bordering on nastiness, and the media are always trying to rile voters in England up against others (be it immigrants, grievance-mongering jocks, Ireland during post-Brexit talks, distant countries at war, the Welsh Government daring to introduce a divergent policy, etc.).

  20. Unsurprising as people in Scotland have, by and large, yet to be culturally ‘enriched’.

  21. Amazing how people suddenly feel benevolent towards the Times when it tells you what you want to hear.

  22. The ‘rosy past’ never existed. I see those who yearn for it, with dreams of an industrial golden age of Empire, full employment, no ‘elf n safety and all white faces. They’re all over my Facebook feed. They happily ignore the reality of appalling working conditions, Rachman Landlords, poverty wages and dying before retirement because the truth doesn’t fit the narrative. I’m an artist and I’m often creating paintings drawn from the industrial past to both celebrate the stories and lives of those who don’t make it into the history books, and also draw attention to the reality of the world I was born into. At a recent Scottish exhibition people got the sarcasm of my “it was the golden age” comments, in England there was more chance of Woosh and they’d agree.

  23. The good old days, back when snickers used to be called opal fruits

  24. I think devolution has a big part to play here. Scotland has two governments, England has one. London is less angry, but it’s also the one part of England with somewhere close to a devolution settlement.

    I’m English not Scottish so I’d be happy to be corrected – but my hypothesis is that decision making centres to English people feel more distant than they do in Scotland because of the devolved administration there. That distance breeds anger.

  25. Low skill immigrants, illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, and most importantly the families of students and low skill immigrants are putting significant pressures on infrastructure and services.

    At least that’s how it looks to people. It seems more of a problem in England.

    Official immigration figures showed something like for every student we took from overseas we took in one dependent on average.

    And successive government from as far back as the 90s know that immigration is great for GDP and worry about the strain of it later.

    It’s important in this discussion not to demonise the immigrants themselves, they’re just looking for the best life that they can find for themselves.

    But we should have cut back the access for spouse and dependents much sooner than we did

  26. Is this maybe an effect of many Scots tuning out of the political media?

    I just see an enormous inequality as far as political reporting goes in Scotland. 99% ‘unionist’ means a lot of folk just don’t bother with much of the traditional media, it doesn’t even try to represent their views so they’re not going to be exposed to the regular ragebait that comes from it.

    Aside from the constitutional issue you do find a lot of political reporting from the traditional media is just irrelevant in Scotland, there’s little point in reading the newspapers or watching the TV news when basically none of the political ragebaiting even applies.

  27. Really? I would have thought it was more the Scot’s are resigned to the fact that they are all a shower of cunts, regardless of the party.

  28. Most of England has been left behind, but unlike Scotland, there’s no voice for them, no parliament, no one sympathises with them. No matter who they voted for, nothing has changed since the 70s.

    They bear the brunt of uncontrolled migration pumping up house prices, dragging wages and (alongside cuts) overwhelming public services while taxes go up. Criticism just attracts shouts of ‘bigot!’, so they turn to the likes of Farage, Johnson and other snake oil salesmen in their droves.

    To be honest they have quite a bit to be angry about. Objectively things aren’t that bad compared to some other countries, much of it is just fear about the direction of travel.

  30. Optimism, I remember that feeling, but that was long ago.

  31. That’s because the Scottish past was not very Rosey.

Comments are closed.