IN 2017 travel publisher Rough Guides issued the result of an online survey declaring Scotland the most welcoming country in the world. 

This reflected the words of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s statement to the Scottish Parliament that Scotland remains an “open, inclusive, outward-looking nation.” It was the First Minister’s use of the word “remains” that grabbed my attention, the easy acceptance that “we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns” and always had been.

I fell into conversation this week with a colleague over the word “remains” and was told he agreed with Ms Sturgeon, that Scotland had always been more welcoming and accepting to immigrant communities. I am guessing he quickly saw I was about to raise the issue of Irish immigration, as with only the minutest of pauses he said “I am not talking about Ireland.” Even as I write I still do not understand why Irish immigration is somehow “different” but I asked what made him think that historically Scotland was different from the rest of the UK?

His response was to describe events of our own lifetime. The high media profile and electoral surges of far-right political parties in England in the 1970s and ’80s, the vile racist abuse that sporting figures, particularly footballers such as Chelsea’s Paul Canoville, had received, and evidence of institutional racism in public bodies such as the Metropolitan Police – none of these, he said, had parallels in Scotland. I had been wondering where my colleague had been going with his argument, as when he reached his concluding sentence I was waiting for the ironic raise of the eyebrows which didn’t come.

It didn’t take much effort to recall the National Front had felt confident enough to stand parliamentary candidates in Glasgow in the 1970s and 1980s.

Scottish football grounds in the ’80s and ’90s had reverberated to the sounds of monkey noises and chants, including the words “black b******, c*** and n*****” wherever Mark Walters, Paul Elliot and Kevin Harper played, and in case anyone thinks this was due to unacceptable football allegiances rather than overt racism it is important to remember, in Walters’s case at least, there is well documented evidence and TV footage that the racist abuse was coming from the supporters of the team the black players played for.

As regards institutional racism it appeared the 1999 case of Surjit Singh Chokar had been wiped from the memory as regards Strathclyde police’s failure to investigate whether the murder was racially aggravated, the failure to tell the family of even the most basic details of the court case, down to who was being charged and when it was taking place, and trial judge Lord McCluskey’s unprecedented condemnation of the fact that only one person had been charged when it appeared well evidenced that three people were involved in the attack, and their identities known.

My colleague’s response even though it negated his position that Scotland had always been “different” was to impersonate the TV character Vicky Pollard with a response of “yeah but that wouldn’t happen today.” I reminded him it is less than five years since Ukip returned an MEP in Scotland after out-polling the Liberal Democrats and the Greens and achieving over 10 per cent of the vote. That it is only weeks since a man was convicted after spewing out racist abuse at Celtic footballer Scott Sinclair, and since the National Health Service in Scotland issued a warning to staff when a travelling community stopped near to an NHS building in Edinburgh that they “should consider avoiding dialogue with the travelling community” and “to make sure you have moved your car if in a car park by 8pm.”

At this point I finished my drink before my colleague could tell me he meant Scotland would be more inclusive than other parts of the UK, not in the past, not in the present, but in the future. We do however need to do more, not to prove ourselves better than the rest of the UK, but because the threat that racism poses is on the rise.

In a 10,000 person poll conducted by Hope not Hate throughout the UK, 13 per cent voiced support for Stephen Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, ex-leader of the English Defence League, a former BNP member, now adviser to Ukip leader Gerald Batten. A threat by Lennon and his Football Lads Alliance supporters to demonstrate in Edinburgh at a Hearts match fell through, but another attempt is to be expected with their potential to mobilise significant numbers of football casuals.

We have seen in the UK the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, and a conviction for a plot to kill another Labour MP, Rosie Cooper, as well as attacks on trade union picket lines, all by members of far-right organisations. In Scotland criminal trials are pending following threats to a Labour politician and his family. Finally, we see Ukip moving further and further to the right with a strongly anti-Muslim agenda. In the last few days we saw leaflets being sent out with the Ukip brand, although Ukip head office deny sanctioning them, telling anyone anyone who voted for Theresa May’s Brexit deal they were “national traitors” and “we’re watching you.”

With a Brexit day looming there is little doubt that some will do whatever they can to foment anger and violence and a culture of scapegoating minorities for political benefit. It is important the Scottish labour movement continue, as we will, to support anti-racist organisations such as Hope Not Hate, Unite Against Fascism and Show Racism the Red Card, and to make the positive case for immigration and against prejudice. We do that goal an injustice by crying out “Wha’s like us.”

Gordon McKay is president of Unison