Suchergebnisse

In 1999 a devolved Scottish Parliament was established within the United Kingdom following a referendum two years earlier. The current governing party in that Parliament – the SNP – held a referendum on Scottish independence in September 2014, which resulted in a decision to stay within the UK. However, during the referendum campaign promises were made by the main UK parties to transfer further power away from the British Parliament at Westminster to the Scottish Parliament in the hope this would satisfy demands for greater self-government in Scotland. This paper analyses the rhetoric of the leaders of Britain's two main political parties in an effort to detect strategies used to construct and perpetuate Britishness in the context of devolution and a threat to the British state. It finds a number of discursive strategies deployed to promote unity and difference to (non-British) others. It also suggests the apparent need by British political leaders to deploy such British-constructivist strategies involves avoiding even acknowledging the reality of a major constitutional reform such as devolution and therefore political difference between the nations of the UK.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- 1. Introduction: The Scottish Diaspora -- 2. Scottish Emigration and the Creation of the Diaspora -- 3. The Scottish Diaspora and the Empire -- 4. Scots by Association: Clubs and Societies in the Scottish Diaspora -- 5. Doing Business with the Scottish Diaspora -- 6. Scottish Politics and the Diaspora -- 7. Invisible and Inaudible? England's Scottish Diaspora and the Politics of the Union -- 8. Scottish Diasporic Identity in Europe -- 9. The Gaelic Diaspora in North America -- 10. Ancestral 'Scottishness' and Heritage Tourism -- 11. Mass Market Romance Fiction and the Representation of Scotland in the United States -- 12. Who's Depicting Who? Media Influences and the Scottish Diaspora -- 13. Sport and the Scottish Diaspora -- 14. Conclusions: The Nature and State of the Contemporary Scottish Diaspora -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index