Chapter 11
Scotland
Scottish, British or European? The Brexit referendum and the
negotiation of national identity by SNP supporters on Twitter
This chapter analyses the discourse and political
identity of the supporters of the SNP (Scottish National Party) as expressed
in their responses to the tweets published on the party’s official Twitter
account (@theSNP) during the 2019 European election campaign. The chapter
uncovers the way SNP supporters choose to display their position vis-à-vis
the different issues raised by the party’s eclectic political programme by
backing, ignoring or criticising the official party line. Most posts by the
SNP leadership avoided explicit mentions of independence but rather emphasised
the necessity for Scotland to reject Brexit and remain in the EU. However,
these posts are often re-negotiated by SNP supporters on the basis of their
own identity as European or, most often, Scottish, as they foregrounded
independence as the ideological backbone of their brand of populism.
Article outline
- Introduction
- The SNP between nationalism, populism and inclusiveness
- The SNP campaign for the 2019 European elections
- Corpus and methodology
- Analysis
- SNP1: Fighting for “indy”
- SNP2: Scottish identity and the EU
- SNP3: Voting day
- Discussion and conclusions
-
Notes