DEAR Scotland,

While many commentators have joked that Scotland should “come back” to Scandinavia, join the other Nordic countries on the Nordic Council, and sever ties to an England that refuses to listen to the wishes of the Scottish people, I am not sure it should be treated as a joke.

I will not discount what a massive impact centuries of shared history with your British compatriots has had. Nor will I claim that the Scandinavian contribution to your Gaelic heritage, a thousand years ago, should mean more to you. While we see the connection pop up in our languages, and in shared recessive genes, by any metric you have had more in common with the British for a very long time.

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Those times might be changing, however. While the Scots were the ones to overwhelmingly vote to remain in the EU, the rest of the country had other plans. When Scotland voted on independence in 2014, the very real concerns over economy and currency in an independent Scotland seemed to sway the vote. It was no overwhelming defeat for the independence movement back in 2014 either. Many other Brits like to think the reasons for staying were more sentimental than that. But those who listened would know that the vast majority of Scottish people feel Scottish first and are Scottish first. However, Scots are sensible people, and they justifiably wanted to protect the welfare of their families and countrymen.

The economic argument against Scottish independence looks more and more like a joke. As Forbes and Bloomberg have reported, Brexit is on track to cost Britain more money, in lost economic growth alone, than the entire membership fees since joining the EU. It will not get better, no matter Boris what imagines. Frankly, I doubt that he cares whether the country gets poorer, as him and his own will do just fine. I have very little faith in his government’s ability to negotiate a satisfactory post-Brexit trade deal with the EU countries. All in all, Scottish independence is looking more attractive by the day.

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It is not just political commentators who mention the possibility of an independent Scotland in the EU and in the Nordic Council. It is not just a sound move economically and politically for Scotland – there is more to the idea than that. Those of us from Scandinavia who have visited know we have many things in common in the way we live, and the nature we experience. In fact, my native Denmark, flat and mountain-free as it is, is the geographic outlier. We know that we feel more at home where people speak directly and know what bad weather really is. London fog is a joke against a windy North Sea coast. We know that you dislike inequality and that you have a self-deprecating nature, coupled with your legitimate national pride.

In the Nordic countries we are proud of our national identities. We are Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Greenlandic, Faroese and Åland Islander first, and Nordic second, and European third. We are sibling countries, but each of us forge our own path. When we meet out in the wider world, we feel a real sense of kinship. Perhaps one day we could add Scottish to that list.

This will be dismissed as a pipe dream by many, and right now it is, but dreams have a strange way of becoming reality. It was a pipe dream to have a Jewish homeland. It was a pipe dream to wish for an independent Korea. It was a pipe dream to have a unified Germany. Dreams can come true. I dream that one day I will see Scots and Scottish Gaelic on official documents from the Nordic Council. That my grandchildren will proudly extol the inventiveness, hardiness, honesty and straightforwardness of their Nordic sibling-country, Scotland.

Bjarke S Drejer
Denmark