Strengthening Scottish culture brings independence closer
Scotland’s march into independence depends firstly on cultural confidence. A nation must believe in itself before it can claim sovereignty. It is no accident, then, that as support for self-determination strengthens, Scotland is witnessing a renewed, systematic attack on its cultural expression from Unionist institutions.
Part of this stems from the way the UK works. Scots are familiar with casual contempt from London-centric organisations. As costs rise and budgets tighten, the centre protects itself - Scotland just doesn’t matter as much. There is also an element of deliberately putting Scotland down to protect London’s power. This attacks the core of Scottish identity.
Scotland is not “over”
When a people’s cultural institutions and its artistic voices are continually downgraded, the message sent to the population is clear: Get over it. “Scotland” existed in the past. It is a region now, not a nation. It can never be a country again.
This literal marginalisation inflicts a psychological toll. It fosters what is called the “Scottish cringe" - the internalised belief that Scots and Gaelic languages, history, music, and literature are inferior and don’t deserve to take up space.
Over time, this erodes national self-esteem. If people are taught that their capital city's oldest university doesn't need to teach their literature, or that their national broadcaster has to be run from London, or that their own culture is secondary to that of London, their confidence to become independent is undermined.
Here are three fronts on which Scottish culture is under attack right now.
1 - The BBC puts London first
BBC Scotland’s standalone channel saw the main cut in a recent BBC cull. As Neil Mackay wrote in the Herald: “What a colossal two-fingers to the Scottish people. That BBC Scotland was chief among the main cuts announced by London tells you all you need to know about where Scotland stands in the estimation of the broadcaster’s officer class.”
He also drew attention to the UK public broadcaster’s failure to locate Aberdeen on a map; and its decision to discuss oil and gas on Question Time without a single Scottish voice on the panel.
Former BBC Economics Editor Douglas Fraser in the Times said that the BBC Scotland online channel’s demise is part of a big reduction in commissions that will likely seriously impact independent production companies and further undermine Scotland’s creative sector.
Fraser wrote that the move “signals a profound challenge to the corporation to explain how it intends to serve Scottish audiences in future.”
Other controversial choices have been made. BBC Alba is cutting back on content. It now gets more support from the Scottish government than it does from the BBC. In contrast, S4C in Wales receives direct licence fee funding worth four times as much as BBC Alba’s annual budget. BBC Alba receives no direct share from the UK TV licence fee
BBC Radio Scotland recently hugely reduced the number of emerging Scottish and female musicians being played on air; removed the arts coverage from its afternoon show. It also dumbed down the morning news programme to make it more like the background chat on a commercial local station. These changes have lost it about 90,000 listeners in a single quarter.
Broadcaster, mountaineer and campaigner for Scottish independence Cameron McNeish wrote on Facebook this week that he thought BBC Scotland Radio might be next for the chop. He wrote the station now: "represents the very worst of commercial radio - cheap, poorly edited and badly presented. It reminds me of children's programmes in the seventies."
The story of the “Scottish Six”
When Scotland finally got its Parliament in 1997, Westminster did not hand over any power to regulate or manage broadcasting. The BBC used that as an excuse to keep to its “London decides” structure for the next 30 years.
The BBC’s high-heid-yins in London rejected repeated demands from across the political spectrum for “A Scottish Six”. This would have been a flagship evening news show made in Glasgow which would view international, UK and national news through a Scottish lens. But London said “No”. It wanted to maintain editorial control in London.
Instead, the evening London-based UK news show is followed by a Reporting Scotland segment, as with regions of England. James Robertson’s famous poem “The News Where You Are” encapsulated this approach. Had the BBC agreed to a Scottish Six, it would have indicated a willingness to respond to Scotland’s move towards greater self-government. But it showed no such wish.
The BBC’s broken promise to spend more money in Scotland
The BBC did say it would spend the equivalent of what it raised in the licence fee from Scotland, in Scotland. But a Screen Scotland report produced in October 2026 found that only low-profile, cheap content was ever moved. Scottish quotas were manipulated.
The report concluded: “Quotas alone cannot guarantee a stronger Scottish television industry if commissioning budgets and decision-making remain concentrated elsewhere.”
The BBC has broken trust with Scotland
The BBC is perceived by many as a Unionist propaganda outfit. As Pat Kane wrote in The National recently: “The BBC was birthed at the heights of the British Empire, and very much designed to inform the subjects of the realm about that world. How should I expect them to report on a project which, by definition, would diminish the powers of the British State?”
Even its current adverts for itself emphasise the ‘British’; the BBC continues to refuse to recognise Scotland as a country within the UK. The BBC has massively lost trust from Scots, who are significantly less likely to pay the licence fee than in other parts of the UK.
Mike Small of Bella Caledonia reviewed the BBC’s failures and concluded: “We are left with little karma in the bank to defend a public broadcaster that we desperately need (and pay for).”
Only with independence can Scotland have a public broadcaster that understands and respects Scottish culture.
2 - Edinburgh University puts Scottish culture last
If you want to do a degree in Scottish lit - try Glasgow
Edinburgh University was founded almost 450 years ago, as a Scottish Institution. But now that 70% of students are not from Scotland, there have been many reports from Scottish students of classism and anti-Scottish bias.
These concerns are only increased by the news that Edinburgh University is axing seven programmes at the Celtic and Scottish Studies department, which was founded in the 19th century and was home to many legendary scholars of Scots language, culture and tradition.
This included dropping Edinburgh Uni’s degree in Scottish Literature. The University of Glasgow will now be the only higher education institution in the UK with a specific academic unit dedicated to teaching Scottish Literature.
A Scottish uni with no commitment to its native land
Hazyn Templeton, a Scots language campaigner, described the cuts as “the final nail in the uni’s coffin of anglocentrism and apathy for culture”.
Poet and writer Alec Finlay wrote that it no longer sees itself as primarily a Scottish institution: Finlay wrote: “How can a culture expect to ever understand itself if the main university in its capital city has no sense of duty to the native land? It is an institution with a tradition, or I should say, that had one. This has been a general problem, difficult to address, though Alasdair Gray did, and was criticised for it – that when our institutions are led by people who don’t feel any care for the national culture they belong within, then the national culture withers. The same can be said for many or perhaps even most of our universities.”
“The wider point, that you cannot have a generalist university without a breadth of subjects. stands. In particular, you cannot have a Scottish university in the capital city and not study Scottish literature. Also, did there not used to be a greater sense that the wealthier departments subsidised the poorer, for the good of the institution as a whole?”
The UoE’s Scottish Society president Aidan Grant, a fourth-year politics student, said: “We were very shocked. I feel like it's the most concrete example we have now of the university's disdain and indifference towards Scottish culture and Scottish people.”
Peter Mathieson’s “campaign to suppress Scottish culture”
The Scottish Soc was founded in part to counter anti-Scottish bias at the Uni. Grant said: “We've received so many reports of anti-Scottish classism and accent bias, as well as elitism and classism in general towards people from a working-class background. Our society is really focused on combating that and we've done that for the past few years. But I think engagement from the senior leadership team has been less than insufficient, and it's still an issue that persists.”
Grant specifically accused senior management, including VC Peter Mathieson, of a political agenda: “We think that they [the cuts] symbolically represent Peter Mathieson and the senior leadership team's continued campaign to suppress and ignore Scottish people and Scottish culture.”
Many argue that the university is operating more like a billion-dollar corporation than a seat of learning. The moneymen may have decided to cut the Celtic and Scottish Studies department because it does not provide lucrative spin-offs that can enrich staff. The Ferret recently ran a story about the highly paid Mathieson’s refusal to say what he earns from a second job at an Edin Uni spin-off science firm.
Scottish public money goes to universities; it should be made clear that they have an obligation to retain their historic commitment to studying Scotland’s heritage, languages and culture.
In Ireland, public funding for universities ensures representation and development of Irish culture, literature and language. These departments are embedded in the identity of the unis. Despite pressures on budgets and rankings, Irish universities would not take the axe first to their own heritage.
3 - The Theatre Lockout: Scotland as provincial try-out space
Critics and cultural commentators play an important part in remembering, communicating and passing on Scotland’s cultural traditions. Scotland’s small group of theatre critics assess new work and put it in a context. But increasingly London-based partners of Scottish theatre companies have taken to barring Scottish critics from writing about their shows - treating Scotland as a try-out space.
Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre barred Scottish critics from their flagship spring production, the musical One Day. Co-producers Melting Pot declared that members of “the provincial press” - ie Scottish critics - could not write about the show.
Commercial London-based producers of the new musical “Ceilidh”, which is part-play, part-party, banned Scottish critics from reviewing it when it opened in Pitlochry altogether, instead offering train tickets to Scottish critics to London to review it at Shoreditch Town Hall. Scotland was reduced to a try-out space. Yet the play has echoes back to the 1970s, and the 7:84’s “The Cheviot, The Stag, and The Black, Black Oil”, which informed many about the Highland Clearances. Scottish critics who understand how Scottish ceilidh culture has fed into other more recent theatre were unable to write about the show.
Neil Cooper wrote in The Herald: “This decision by producers that include Trafalgar Theatre Productions to have a show being hyped for its celebration of Scottish culture shut out the country’s critical fraternity….If any theatre spends a penny of Scottish taxpayers’ money on a show, it needs to be held to account. Not for the show to be dissed, but to be scrutinised, dissected, and, hopefully, to see work created by Scotland’s artists celebrated and praised.”
Then there is Man to Man, where actress Tilda Swinton returned to Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre to revive a show she first performed there in 1987, when she was a rising actress. The Traverse decided that, apart from three selected papers, all other critics had to pay for tickets. They did that on the grounds that this show had already opened in London’s Royal Court and therefore had been reviewed already. Yet the Traverse, which makes little new work these days, is funded by over a million pounds per year of Scottish government funding.
Dedicated theatre critic Fergus Morgan, who covers most of the shows at the venue, was among those excluded. He wrote of the excluded Scottish critics: “We all spend a significant amount of our waking hours writing about theatre in Scotland. We report on news, interview creatives, review shows and hand out awards, all for embarrassingly little remuneration. And, generally, Scotland’s theatre industry, including the Traverse, is enthusiastic for our doing so because if we don’t write about their work, no-one will.” He added that these critics might not be there next time, when the Traverse does want them. Morgan quoted Lynn Gardner on “the false narrative, a narrative that gets deeper traction as critical coverage narrows, that it is only glitzy, starry London theatre that matters.”
It is difficult to imagine a London-based producer co-producing a show with an Irish theatre and then telling Dublin critics that they can’t review it "because it has already been reviewed in London”. That would not go down well.
In the early days of the National Theatre of Scotland, when the show Black Watch was a big success in Scotland with rave reviews and sold-out audiences, director John Tiffany took it on tour in the US. It was only when London started to ask why they were not getting it that a London run was arranged.
Scotland is going back to letting itself be treated as an out-of-town try-out space for London, full of gawping bumpkins and their “provincial critics”, while the important audience, the real critics and the award committees, await in London.
But Scotland is a country with its own cultural life, its own theatrical tradition, and these need to be understood and written about to be passed on. The contempt expressed by these metropolitan theatre and their cringing Scottish partners is not just for our cultural commentators but for Scotland itself.
Meanwhile, UK media outlets are shrinking their commitment to Scotland - there is almost no Scottish arts coverage now in any London-based title, even The Times, which used to have a separate Scottish edition. Scottish-based papers too are reducing their budgets, and the BBC and STV hardly cover the arts at all.
At the Scottish government level, there should be financial support for Scotland’s cultural conversation through Creative Scotland. The Welsh Government already invests money in public interest journalism. Scotland should do the same and make sure arts journalism is a major focus. These writers are a big part of holding Scotland’s traditions and passing them on.
How we can fight for our future
Scotland’s future is not about ethnicity or where you were born. Everybody who lives here, no matter where their journey started, can be a Scot. And every Scot can be proud of Scotland’s culture. Supporting our culture boosts our confidence and belief in Scotland.
Three ways to support and fight back are:
BOOST
Every mickle maks a muckle, as we say and whenever you read, react and reshare posts like this, you are giving the movement a wee boost. This is a powerful way we can act together.
Do you follow Scots and Gaelic language campaigners on social media? There are loads and they make great content. You probably already use your music app to stream or download tracks from Scottish folk and contemporary indie musicians like Iona Fyfe, Aonghas Mac a' Ghobhainn, Julie Fowlis - there are many more, and this goes beyond the traditional genres. Valtos, Mal and Niteworks are more electro; Manran, Sian, Inyal and even Limonhead and Gaelic metalcore bands like Gun Ghoal and Celtic punk like Peat and Diesel. With many of our homegrown artists being recognised at the Scottish Music Awards this month, Scottish music is having a standout year.
When buying gifts, look for local artisan producers, especially those who support independence, like Springbank Whisky or our very own Indy Prints (Stewart Bremner). Pop a sticker or a badge from Believe in Scotland’s shop into the package!
PARTICIPATE
With St Andrews’ Day coming up, why not make the effort to go to one of the many ceilidhs, gigs and concerts celebrating Scottish culture? Learn a Gaelic song; read a Scots poem aloud. Use some Scots words - “redd up the hoose” for example and share those sayings with your friends and family. Pick up an instrument; read some Celtic fairy tales and tell them to your friends and family by the fireside. Write a new story or song - or suggest a Scots or Gaelic story competition at your local community centre.
CAMPAIGN
In supermarkets we have seen the Saltire replaced by a Union Jack on a range of produce in recent years. Visit the Keep Scotland the Brand campaign website to see their inspiring work on this. Advocate for Gaelic and Scots languages; they need more support in the education system and in the community. Sign petitions, write to your MSP and MP, asking them for more support for Scottish culture and to ensure that institutions which receive public money are held to account. Join campaigning organisations like this one, Believe in Scotland. March and campaign for Scottish independence, which will give us the means to protect and build on our culture as only an independent country can do.
Believe in Scotland
Culture is one of the main things that define a country. It makes it more than just a place on a map. From our tartans and traditions to our writing, music, languages, and so much more, the culture that has come to define Scotland has become known around the world.
Sharing our culture helps to keep alive our spirit and to remind folk that Scotland is a nation, one of the oldest in Europe, and it can be an independent country again.