My opinion has done a 180 on Scottish independence. I used to oppose it for fear of nationalism and the meaningless re-erection of borders, but now the people of England have shown themselves to be so shortsighted, I can hardly blame the scots for wanting to stay part of the international community. In fact I fully support their ambition to stay part of the EU, and should they split from the UK to do so, I might seriously consider moving up there to join them.

You see, while I wrote here that, when you think about it, you don’t need to be in the EU to be part of the world, I still think that on another, more profound level, we have indeed cut ourselves off. We have told not just europe but the world that we don’t want to participate any more; that we think ourselves above everyone else’s rules. Culturally, this will have a huge impact: we’re already seeing it in the rise in xenophobia. Thus while nothing changed in june, everything did. We ceased to be the outward looking nation I love and became something wholly darker.

I adored this land for it’s culture: the land of Monty Python, London 2012, James Bond and a thousand other awesome things. But after june, this somehow stopped being that land any more. I keep trying to tell myself that we have only left a union of countries, so nothing has changed – such awesome things still exist – yet it doesn’t seem to work. This place does not feel free, open and liberal any more. Scotland seems to want to remain that kind of place, though, which is why I thoroughly support it’s ambition for independence.