Scotland's shared culture is the key to unlock Scottish independence

Believe in Scotland’s ‘Creating Scotland’ campaign aims to align the independence cause with the culture, values, hopes and dreams of our nation;

A nation isn't the lines on a map marking its domain, it isn’t its economy or its politics or the stereotypes others perceive within it. A nation is the shared culture and values that run deep with the population, deeper than politics or even polling can dig. It's the stories we tell about ourselves and the songs we sing about our past mixed with the dreams the people have for their future. Activating that cultural core strength and resilience has been key to every successful independence movement the world over. 

Consider the negativity of British nationalism, the exceptionalism and exclusiveness of Brexit Britain, an outdated concept of a nationality based on a construct called the UK not a real nation but a concept based on propaganda aimed at making British people superior. Now consider the inclusiveness, the internationalism, the positivity, shared values and the culture of the Scottish independence movement a civic-nationalism.  

So why has the campaign for Scottish nationhood almost completely ignored the cultural and values based core of our movement for the last ten years? Why is everything based on conservative political incremental political policy improvements - why are we told not to rock the boat when we all want radical change and the chance to create a better Scotland? That's actually less of a question, it's more of an answer to the question: 'Why have the polls been stuck at around 50% for independence for the best part of a decade?'   

Let's reach the undecided and pick up the movement 

The independence movement is scunnered down in the dumps at the lack of progress towards independence, Westminster’s undemocratic roadblocks to referendum and the political arm of the movement delayed by several problems of its own making necessitating a lack of progress on independence. Believe in Scotland does not accept that means the campaign needs to be put on hold, no one said it was going to be plain sailing and stormy waters test a movement's resolve. Polls for many years have demonstrated an iron clad link between people feeling Scottish (more Scottish than British, Scottish not British etc) and a rise in support for Scottish independence. Since the departure of the highly regarded National Collective from the independence campaign in 2014 the indy movement has lacked a cultural core, a mechanism to trigger that connection to the national culture and shared values that go hand in hand with acceptance of the case for nationhood. Believe in Scotland Creating Scotland programme is all about three things:

  1. Adding that positive cultural core, that understanding of modern inclusive and inter-nationalistic Scottishness to our push for nationhood.
  2. Making the independence campaign less political, less tribalistic and less combative (externally and internally) and so more appealing to the undecided and convertible. 
  3. Making campaigning fun, picking up the indy movement, motivating and activating 

So do you want to campaign with politics or do you want to campaign with passion - do you want to argue or find common ground, do you want to debate policy or agree on the values we share? Do you want to stay stuck at 50% or do you want to win?

A fantastic celebration of Burns and his legacy.

Now Scotland's culture is diverse, it’s old and new, it's homegrown and imported from new Scots from all over the world. It’s Burns, bagpipes and Scottish folk and country dancing but it's also the Young Fathers, Deacon Blue, Calvin Harris, Lewis Capaldi, Amy MacDonald, Emile Sandé, James Robertson, Irvine Welsh, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, Alasdair Grey, Peter Howson, the Scots language, Gaelic, Doric, Cullen skink and Chicken tikka masala (invented in Glasgow). Indeed it’s any cultural experience that opens your creative mind set and connects you to Scotland. 

However, this being Burns month! Creating Scotland's second event, held in Glasgow, was a huge success with over 300 tickets sold. We hosted an event with poetry, singing, comedy and a reflection exercise to help identify our hopes and dreams for a better Scotland. The entertainment provided by Billy Kay, Sheena Wellington, Bruce Fummey, Davy Holt and Susi Briggs was as good as any cultural event you could attend. Don't take our word for it, you can watch the recorded live stream of the full event here and to watch the individual (more polished) performances click the hyper linked names above (if it is not hyperlinked it is still to come). See what the audience thought below.      

Fabulous Feedback 

  • Ann Bowman - “Such a wonderful event  every performer was brilliant at what they did on Saturday, you could feel the pleasure and enthusiasm for them all coming from the audience. Whole thing ran smoothly from start to finish as well. A truly great Saturday afternoon. Unmissable doesn’t really do it justice” 
  • Lorna Ross - “Excellent concert! That’s what being Scottish is all about.”
  • David Hood - “A fantastic gig. Reminded us of the potency of the National Collective. Terrific.”
  • Val Ferguson - Fabulous event. What a wonderful idea to stream it for those who couldn’t attend. Top class entertainment. Thank you all.”
  • Rosalyn Faulds - “Thank you. I couldn’t make it today and I’m enjoying catching up online. Well done!”
  • Eddi MacIntosh - “This was the best Burns event I've attended. I have been talking about it to all my pals and family.”
  • Margaret Douglas - “It was a fantastic afternoon- so much talent . Lots of laughter on a dreich, winter’s day!”
  • Denis Bell - “Marvellous. An outstanding event, hitting some classic ‘history’ and basic ‘Scottish culture’ right down the middle. Let’s repeat, repeat, repeat … superb”

Attendees to the Celebration of Burns were asked to rate how satisfied they were with every element of the event as well as giving an overall score out of 5. The performances were rated as 4.6/5, price of ticket 4.6/5, the venue 4.3/5, length of event 4.4/5, sound quality 4.4/5, venue logistics 4.3/5 and livestream quality 4.2/5. They gave the event as a whole a score 4.9 out of 5.

So What’s Next?

How about a series of Creating Scotland events with different cultural elements? How about we sell 300 tickets to cover the costs but everyone gets to bring one or two undecided friends for free? How about we pick the movement up, motivate and activate it, how about we put on a concert with artists that will attract young people to our campaign? How about videos and testimonials, how about we make campaigning for independence fun and engaging again? Yes, let's do that.  

If you are with us, sign up to our mailing list or become a Stakeholder member of Believe in Scotland here. If not, well we do all sorts of more traditional campaigning too, in fact BiS and our 142 affiliated Yes groups do almost all the active independence campaigning. You can read the 2024 BiS Campaign review here


22,000 others have already pledged their support, because only a non-party-political independence campaign can move independence support to the levels we need to win our independence. We Believe in Scotland – Join us!