L
ong ago, well before Nicola Sturgeon rose to power, I stood in an audience listening to her making a powerful speech about the virtues of independence. There were questions afterwards, and from the back a very English voice asked what the SNP’s policy would be towards English incomers in an independent Scotland. Sturgeon paused and said: “They would be treated just the same as any other immigrant community.”
Parse that sentence, and it may seem uncontentious. I doubt, however, if the latter-day, more sophisticated Sturgeon would use the same language, carrying, as it does, the merest hint of threat. Nor, I suspect, will the SNP’s new citizenship paper, due on Thursday, risk alienating the 400,000 or so English-born people now living in Scotland by casting
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