BBC Scotland’s James Cook caught up with Nicola Sturgeon today and asked her about the Telegraph‘s leaked memo. But he also told her that the story chimes with what he has been told by senior SNP figures – that it suits their wider purpose to have a Tory Prime Minister because it rallies support for independence. His asking this question infuriated the CyberNats who rounded on him. Rarely for a BBC journalist, he commented on it:
What an extraordinary level of vicious abuse I have received today for simply reporting the news. Is this the country we want folks? Is it?
— James Cook (@BBCJamesCook) April 4, 2015
He raises a good point. In the final weeks of the Scottish referendum campaign, the uglier side of Scottish nationalism became visible – non-believers were treated as Quislings. That’s the problem with nationalism, it stirs these kind of sentiments: the idea that if you don’t agree with the SNP (or, even worse, rank amongst the 500,000 Tories in Scotland) you are a somehow a traitor, un-Scottish – even anti-Scottish.
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