I don’t like being called a nationalist... says Nicola!
...And in astonishing interview she says she’d even RENAME the SNP
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday astonishingly revealed she does not like the name of her own party – because she finds it difficult to be branded a ‘nationalist’.
Despite her lifelong mission of tearing Scotland out of the UK, the First Minister admitted to being uncomfortable with being linked to other nationalist movements.
She even claimed that, if she could go back in time to before the SNP was formed, she would remove ‘National’ from the Scottish National Party name. But opponents last night said Scottish nationalism is ‘by its very nature divisive’.
In a discussion with Turkish author Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Miss Sturgeon also claimed that ‘being surrounded by middle-aged men’ in her earlier days in politics affected the way she had dressed and behaved.
She said that the dominance of men had made her more aggressive and adversarial as a politician. Miss Shafak told the audience that the word nationalism had ‘a very negative meaning’ to her because she had seen ‘how ugly it can get, how destructive it can become, how violent it can become and how it can divide people into imaginary categories’.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The word is difficult. If I could turn the clock back – what, 90 years – to the establishment of my party, and choose its name all over again, I wouldn’t choose the name it has got just now, I would call it something other than the Scottish National Party.
‘Now people say why don’t you change its name now? Well that would be far too complicated. Because what those of us who do support Scottish independence are all about could not be further removed from some of what you
‘Divisive by its very nature’
would recognise as nationalism in other parts of the world.’
The independence movement in Scotland has ‘a civic, open, inclusive view of the world that is so far removed from what you would rightly fear’, she claimed.
Miss Sturgeon added: ‘One of the great motivators for those of us who support Scottish independence is wanting to have a bigger voice in the world. It’s about being outward looking and internationalist, not inward looking and insular. So the word is hugely, hugely problematic sometimes.’
Miss Shafak responded: ‘Every nationalistic ideology teaches us tribalism, it tells us we all belong in tribes, it tells us we will be safer, or better, more comfortable if we’re surrounded by sameness, and there’s a part of me that does not like that.’
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie commented: ‘Nationalism is by its very nature divisive. That’s why Labour rejects narrow nationalism and believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more together than we achieve alone. That is something Nicola Sturgeon – for all of her posturing and spin – will never truly believe.’
Discussing her experiences as a woman surrounded by middle-aged male politicians, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Unconsciously and unknowingly at the time, I started to behave in a way that was about conforming and fitting in with the people I was surrounded by. That was reflected in how I chose to dress as a young woman in politics, how I behaved.’
She added that while an assertive, aggressive and adversarial male politician is seen as a ‘strong leader’, a woman who behaves in a similar way is viewed ‘as bossy and strident – a nippy sweetie is what they used to call me’.
A Scottish Tory spokesman said: ‘The SNP’s problem with nationalism isn’t the name, it’s the whole attitude of the party. Coming up with a more cuddly name wouldn’t change that a jot.’