‘Something is happening here, and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr Jones?’
Why is Highland region so strongly supportive of Scottish independence but the two border regions so supportive of the Union, when both have very high densities of English-born?
Dear readers, I haven’t got a real scoobie here. Whadya think?
And, should Dundee be renamed ‘City of Independence and Discovery’?
Wait, have the Anglo-Highlanders come out of love and the Anglo-Borderers come just to get away from multi-culturalism, air pollution and a failing NHS?
Talking-up Scotland 
Probably and maybe the Borders English get their TV from England
Consider themselves EXPATS not new Scots.
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Possibly, in the Highlands area many of those who are not Scottish-born have made a personal commitment to the communities in which they have chosen to live. Of course this does not apply to all, but, given the positive effect many ‘incomers’ (no malign inferences should be drawn from this shorthand word) have had on the local economies, it is likely that they have acquired a more nuanced understanding of the culture. With regard to the South of Scotland, Bugger (the Panda) might have something with regard to TV and other media. There might also be a greater likelihood of people commuting regiularly to, say, Carlisle and Berwick.
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Many people in the borders, I was one and am English, get either NE or NW English regional news on TV and not Scottish.
Also like me the majority of your family is spread across say Northumberland and Berwickshire as an example. There is a political border there now on maps but some have a fear of customs posts etc
Personally I am a die hard Indy supporter
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As absentee landlords the Unglish presence in the Highlands goes back a long way. Consequently the more recent influx (50years?) is just more of the same. The depopulation as a result of increasing housing costs and lack of (other than seasonal) employment leaves the place open to retired white-settlers. They form committees and take over any local body. They are merely tolerated, not embraced.
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I live near Dumfries. The number of people who are staunchly unionist despite the availability of evidence that the union is harming Scotland and despite the ineptitude of the border regions’ MPs is a puzzle. And yet people here have voted for the union. And they aren’t, by any means, all English folk.
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Thanks all. Interesting thoughts at least if not more illuminating than mine.
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Could it be that those who have only just crossed the border don’t feel that they have really left England? Those who have gone north are in no doubt that they are in, and part of another country.
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The yes city of Dundee needs no formal validation of our independent spirit & why some of our fellow citizens (of whatever origin, including Scots born) enjoy the benefits of government policy yet still give a subservient knee to Westminster is beyond my ken & my politeness. Atb, Tony
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I think there is a higher percentage of liberal leftie English folk living in the Highlands compared to other parts of Scotland and they are more likely to be amenable to independence. Contrast that with the right wing English hawks who move to Moray to join the RAF and tend to be Unionist and pro-Brexit.
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I’ve just returned from Cyprus, visiting my sister who has lived there for a few years. Their friends in the neighbourhood are ex forces, and extremely unionist. The first thing the couple commented on was about Nicola Sturgeons’s tweet about the YouGov poll on voting in the EU elections. Their reaction was that she had been put in her place. They did not appreciate it when I pointed out that it was a UK wide poll and that Scotland’s remain vote has risen. Yet they themselves voted remain! ???
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If you look at the office for national records Scotland data it shows that the largest percentage increases in English people moving to Scotland are in Dumfriesshire Orkney Shetland and Edinburgh
17% of people in Scotland are under 16 yrs
Population 5.5 million
So voting age about 4.6 million
A large chunk of young people 18-24 moving to Scotland from England are students who still get a vote on Scottish independence
Click to access mid-year-pop-est-18-pub.pdf
Interesting
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It was brought home to me forecefully over 10 years ago in Moray how some of the newer residents really do feel they are still in their own country. It was during the 6 Nations when Scotland had had a terrible day but England had done very well. I got a taxi from the station to my parents’ home and the driver who had an English accent was elated. “Celebrating too, are you?” he asked, “That was a great result.” I replied that it was a terrible result and we’d just been hammered. He looked puzzled. “Oh, the Scottish side? Yeah, they were pretty poor, but at least WE won.” I was genuinely taken aback, but less so when he went on to say that he had been in the RAF but house prices “up here” were cheaper than in England and most of his friends had stayed on “up here” too. There was apparently a great network for getting jobs. He then went on to berate Alex Salmond and announce that the SNP were a disgrace for trying to “break up the country”. I was a bit disorientating to be the stranger at home.
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