Scotland’s independence movement proved tragic, divisive and pointless

In ten years, Scottish independence has achieved absolutely nothing. Today is a decade since the referendum took place. In that time we have seen anger, rage, hope, despair and resignation in varying degrees. What was it all for? Nothing. What did it achieve? Nothing. It was all a waste of time.

We didn't realise it at the time, but the 2014 referendum marked the beginning of a decade of permissive identity politics in Britain. What was immediately apparent was the level of vitriol and bitterness that was directed at any contribution that disagreed with the nationalists.

In the years that followed, we accepted this tone as standard on a variety of issues – Brexit, the transgender debate, even traffic-calmed zones. But for many of us, this was the first time we had encountered it. The level of abuse was extraordinary. There was not even the slightest attempt at conversation: just hatred, vitriol, partisanship.

Something very special happened in this election campaign. We introduced a binary opposition into the multi-faceted political debate that had been the norm until then: a wedge that split society in two and required voters to vote for one side or the other.

You see it all over history – in key moments when everything is reduced to black and white, us and them, loyalists or traitors, yes or no. It happened in France during the priestly oath during the Revolution and then again during the Dreyfus affair. It happened in Germany under Bismarck during the Kulturkampf – the first culture war. Now it happened here.

On 14 September 2014, just days before the vote, independence activists gathered outside the BBC building for a protest. It was one of the first times the anger was directed at journalists. And in some ways it was entirely predictable. In binary politics, one side is entirely good and the other entirely evil, so scrutiny is merely evidence of bias.

The National Union of Journalists warned that journalists were being deliberately intimidated and called for increased security measures before the vote. A BBC journalist had to delete 400 offensive tweets from his feed. Here too, we had no idea that this would soon become routine. Identity politics was upon us.

Any reasonable, sensitive person would have looked at that referendum and thought: we shouldn't do that again. But David Cameron was neither a reasonable nor a sensitive person. Instead, two years later, we had Brexit and watched the same events play out again, this time on a full scale.

Once again, the entire political world, with all its shades of grey, froze into rough categories. You were pro-European or anti-European, pro-British or anti-British, an “somewhere” or an “anywhere”, a member of the liberal metropolitan elite or a champion of the will of the people.

The SNP opposed Brexit. Its campaigners were among the most passionate, articulate and effective opponents of the project. But behind this dynamic lurked a disturbing truth. Brexit was a replay of every aspect of the Scottish independence question, from the referendum itself to the consequences of its success. If Scotland ever voted for independence, the tormented debate we had following the EU vote would inevitably have to be replayed at a UK level.

What would Scotland's regulatory regime look like? If it left the UK's sphere of influence, it would have to accept painful barriers to trade in Britain. But if it stayed, what would be the point of the vote? What would its customs regime look like? If it left the UK's customs system, goods from both the north and the south would have to be checked. But if it stayed, why should it be independent at all?

Once again, these deeply felt questions of nationality would mutate into cumbersome legal formalities. Once again, people would be driven to despise each other across tribal lines and to wage a proxy war for identity in the land of commercial bureaucracy.

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These referendums don't even settle the questions they're supposed to answer. After the 2014 vote, Cameron said the question of Scottish independence had been settled “for a generation.” In fact, the issue has grown into a monster that dominates Scottish politics, crowding out all the mundane issues that actually improve people's lives: health, transport, education, housing.

When announcing the Brexit vote, Cameron said it was “time to settle this European question in British politics.” And that is exactly what happened. Such votes do not heal wounds. They deepen them.

Ultimately, the referendum had only one real success: it contributed to the division and thus neutralization of the progressive forces in Great Britain.

Labour lost a third of its supporters to the SNP between the vote and the general election the following year. The vast majority of these were independence supporters who rallied around the SNP. In Britain, Brexit separated cultural debates from economic ones and split Labour's electoral coalition in two.

Both processes were deadly. Only now have progressive forces finally acted with renewed unity and coordination to oust the conservatives. The introduction of these binary identity issues into political life only serves to divide the left and give the right a monopoly.

So where are we now? According to the latest YouGov poll, support for the Union is at 56 percent and support for independence is at 44 percent. That's hardly any change from the vote ten years ago, when it was 55 percent to 45 percent. All this noise and fuss means nothing. What a terrible, tragic and pointless waste of time.