Rowling in bigotry row over ‘English enemies’
‘Blood and soil ethno-nationalists’
JK ROWLING launched a scathing attack on Scottish nationalists yesterday, saying she was getting ‘mighty tired’ of claims that their nationalism is not the ‘nasty kind’.
The Harry Potter author hit out at some independence supporters, claiming she has a ‘bulging folder of xenophobic and anglophobic’ comments on her laptop.
Her outburst attracted abuse online – with a senior SNP employee accusing her of ‘blatant prejudice’ and of portraying nationalists as ‘racists’.
Miss Rowling’s Twitter remarks came after she took issue with a comment by a columnist in the pro-independence newspaper The National who had suggested, in a piece about the World Cup, that it was ‘irresistible’ not to see England as the ‘automatic enemy’.
Miss Rowling, who is based in Edinburgh, called the comments ‘Crunchy Nut Nationalism’, adding: ‘Warning: may contain traces of bigotry’.
She sparked fury online, as the piece had actually argued against ‘nasty or noisy gloating’ against the English football team.
One Twitter user asked Miss Rowling why she thought ‘Scottish nationalists are xenophobic, racist or anti-English’.
Miss Rowling then posted a series of tweets, sharing a number of screenshots, including one from an account supporting the controversial ‘ethnic nationalist’ fringe group Siol nan Gaidheal – whose banner was spotted recently at pro-independence rallies attended by senior SNP officials. Miss Rowling said: ‘When blood and soil ethno-nationalists are marching with your supposedly “civic” marches, your nationalism doesn’t look too different to any other country’s.’
After highlighting a series of tweets with racist content, Miss Rowling said that the language from Scottish nationalists did not ‘quite square with the proud boast that “our nationalism” is purer and better’.
She said: ‘Happy to take your word for it that such people aren’t representative of the entire movement. Happy to accept that the bulging folder of xenophobic and anglophobic screenshots I have on my laptop aren’t the whole story. But some of us are getting mighty tired of Scottish nationalist insistence that their nationalism is nothing like the other, nasty kinds, in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary.’
Miss Rowling has been a prominent backer of the Union after coming out against independence in 2014.
The Twitter accounts referred to by Miss Rowling were anonymous, or had very few followers.
Conservative MSP Annie Wells said: ‘All we ever hear from the SNP is that the Scottish independence movement is progressive, welcoming and civic.
‘But the truth is – as this incident proves – it’s anything but.
‘We see repeated examples of aggression and nastiness online and in person, together with a deluded attitude that Scottish nationalism is somehow different to other forms.’ Last night the SNP refused to comment on Miss Rowling’s remarks.
However, writing on Twitter, SNP strategist Ross Colquhoun said: ‘I’m not convinced finding a few tweets that confirm your blatant prejudice is justification for portraying pro-independence people as racists.’
Miss Rowling became a target for online trolls after she declared her opposition to independence.
She previously compared a fringe of nationalists to Death Eaters – supporters of villain Lord Voldemort in her Harry Potter novels who obsess over pure bloodlines.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was forced to step in and warn SNP supporters not to ‘hurl abuse’ at those who do not support independence after the author was targeted online.
Miss Rowling declined to comment last night.