The myth of uniquely ’Scottish values’

The latest Social Attitudes Survey shows that Scots think the same as the rest of the UK about pretty much everything, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

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Scottish and British values are pretty much the same

Regular readers will remember that I wrote a lot about the Scottish independence referendum before the vote. I haven't written about devolution or the odds of another referendum much since, but a few reports out this week deserve a mention.

One of my contentions has long been that the idea that the Scottish are somehow different from the rest of the UK, and so are naturally inclined to independence, is nonsense. The Social Attitudes Surveys for Scotland and for Britain have borne this out for many years now, and the latest one does just the same.

Take attitudes towards the current levels of tax and spending 48% of Scots back them, as do 52% of Britons. Not much difference there.

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Then there are university fees. The SNP insists that Scots think university should be free. But the Scots don't agree with the SNP. They agree with the rest of Britain: 64% of Scots and 67% of Britons think that students should pay for degrees.

You can look at the surveys hereand find your own conclusions, but mine is pretty simple: there are no unique Scottish values'. The idea that there are is a political construct, not a truth.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.