Scottish nationalism is having a nervous breakdown

When Nicola Sturgeon’s indyref2 gamble backfired and the SNP got slapped around in the election, it was only a matter of time before the Nats turned on each other. But few expected things to blow up quite so quickly. Anger and anguish, division and recriminations – Scotland’s separatists have spent the past few months afflicting their movement with the rancour they visited on the country for five years.

Scottish nationalism is going through a nervous breakdown. Its bloggers are in open warfare. Nicola Sturgeon is under fire from one of her former MPs for throwing her under the bus after a raft of bad headlines. The pro-independence National newspaper has been derided by an MSP as comical. The editor of its Sunday stablemate has launched a campaign to unmask an anonymous Twitter account that mocks Nationalists with Father Ted memes and Monty Python gifs. A movement that just a year ago looked to be on the verge of making history is now ruminating bitterly like Colonel Kurtz.