IT didn’t take long for normal British nationalist outrage service to be resumed. On Saturday a wee group of Scottish nationalist protesters stood at the English Border near Berwick and yelled at passing motorists, telling them to keep out of Scotland. Shortly thereafter, the internet curtains were twitching with British nationalist politicians demanding that Nicola Sturgeon must condemn this.

These are the very same British nationalist politicians and perma-outragees who were pursed-lipped in disdain and disgust when independence supporters called upon them to condemn the recent British nationalist violence in George Square.

Nothing to do with us, they tutted, angry that anyone should even imagine that their constant demonisation and othering of independence supporters, people opposed to Brexit, and migrants might have played a role in empowering and embolding violent British nationalist extremists.

READ MORE: Scottish Border protest: This is what the campaigners have to say

Then, of course, the story became the wrongness of accusing them of giving moral succour to violent British nationalist extremists instead of the wrongness of the violent British nationalism which is the actual problem.

There’s a term in quantum physics called Planck time. This is the amount of time that it takes light to travel the length of a Planck particle, which is many times smaller than the radius of a proton, which is itself a sub-atomic particle. Planck time is the smallest measurable unit of time, and, coincidentally, it’s also the same amount of time that it takes a British nationalist to claim victimhood status, or indeed to show that he or she is a bit of a plank.

One Conservative MSP, Rachael Hamilton, called the events at Berwick “nationalism at its worst”. Rachael Hamilton’s Twitter feed is noticeable in its lack of any form of condemnation for yer da the statue guarder who went on a violent rampage in the streets of Glasgow or recognition that it was a manifestation of the worst of British nationalism.

Yelling abuse at passing motorists is reprehensible behaviour, however beating up innocent passers-by and members of the polis while chanting sectarian hatred and waving British flags is a form of “nationalism at its worst” by several orders of magnitude.

It tells you a great deal about Rachael Hamilton’s opportunism that she chose to condemn people shouting at cars and not people causing real physical harm. This is because, in the warped priorities of Conservatism, their own hurt feelings are a far more profound form of pain than the mere physical injuries caused by British nationalists on a violent rampage.

READ MORE: Asylum seekers say they were not allowed to speak to media

Nicola Sturgeon had nothing to do with the protesters at Berwick, yet British nationalism deems it appropriate to demand that Nicola Sturgeon condemn the Berwick protesters. At the same time, these people are furious if they are called upon to condemn violent acts from British nationalists.

Perpetuating this double standard is one of the ways in which the violent and abusive British nationalists are empowered. It tells them that all supporters of independence, even those in the mainstream, are equally to be blamed for the behaviour of a minority, and that in turn provides them with all the justification that they need for their violence.

When they weren’t working themselves up into paroxysms of tuttery at people shouting at passing cars, British nationalist politicians had the metaphorical knives out for Professor Devi Sridhar. Professor Sridhar is an American scientist, an expert in public health, and one of the Scottish Government’s advisers on the coronavirus outbreak.

Recently, she tweeted that Scotland was far ahead of England in controlling the virus, and said that in her opinion it was feasible for Scotland to aim for elimination of infections. However, she noted that this would be made difficult because of the likelihood of the spread of the virus from across the Border.

The Tories were not at all pleased about this. Nothing can be allowed to threaten the Preciousssssss Union. If that means exposing the Scottish public to a deadly disease so be it. They accused Sridhar of politicising the outbreak, because if there’s one thing a British nationalist can do well, it’s to accuse others of their own sins.

Sridhar kicked back, and on Twitter aired her personal opinion of people in Scotland who suffer from a massive dose of the Cringe. The Cringe is a disease that an American expert in public health has not had any direct experience of, and she naturally characterised those who suffer from it to the extent that they are prepared to expose Scotland to a lethal virus as “anti-Scottish”.

READ MORE: Michael Fry: Henry Dundas should be honoured, not condemned

It didn’t even take a Planck time for the British nationalists to be outraged. There they are, innocently demanding that Scotland be exposed to a deadly infection for political reasons and then some person has the utter gall to call them out for it.

They’re the real victims here, not the innocent people who could die because of their politicisation of an epidemic. Professor Sridhar quickly deleted the tweet.

Ruth Davidson got on her social media high horse, the one she uses for her cheery photo ops, to express her opinion that it was “grim” to see such “ultra-nationalist” language from a Scottish Government adviser.

When it comes to something that she can use to condemn supporters of independence and the SNP, Ruth Davidson is all over Twitter in Planck time, but if it’s reprehensible behaviour from British nationalists – like all the racist and sectarian Tory councillors exposed during her time as leader – she’s nowhere to be seen.

All of us who support Scottish independence must constantly be aware of how our actions can be misconstrued and twisted by British nationalists in their never-ending search for victimhood.

That’s what the protesters at Berwick didn’t do. Instead of highlighting the risk to Scotland of an open border with a Conservative ruled England which is recklessly coming out of lockdown while the virus remains prevalent in the community, the story is now about anti-English racism and the hurt feelings of British nationalists.

So yet again, British nationalist politicians are putting Scotland at risk, in this case quite literally risking lives, but again the narrative is “those bad Scottish nationalists”.

Thankfully it’s not working. People in Scotland can see straight through the hypocrisy of the Tories, as an opinion poll over the weekend putting support for independence at 54% confirmed.

It means we can expect more claims to victimhood from British nationalists in the months to come. It’s all that they’ve got left. It takes approximately a Planck time to realise they’ve brought it all upon themselves.