As we move towards the end of Tokyo 2020 and the accompanying #ButchApronFest, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the result of a Scot Goes Pop / Survation poll from the start of this year, which asked in very straightforward, neutral language whether people wanted to be represented at the Olympics by Team Scotland or Team GB.
Currently, Scottish athletes represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, and Great Britain at the Olympic Games. Do you think Scottish athletes should represent Scotland or Great Britain at the Olympic Games? (Scot Goes Pop / Survation poll, 11th-13th January 2021)
Scotland: 47%
Great Britain: 42%
With Don’t Knows excluded…
Scotland: 53%
Great Britain: 47%
Some people expressed disappointment at the narrowness of that result, but I think that looks at the issue the wrong way round. Team GB has been one of the very few propaganda successes for unionism in recent years. Look at the medals table from the last three Summer Olympics – Great Britain finished fourth in Beijing 2008, third in London 2012, and second in Rio 2016. There’s no question that this means they punched about their weight – to finish second five years ago, they had to outperform countries with much bigger populations, such as China, Russia, Germany and Japan. There’s also no great mystery as to how or why that happened – it’s the legacy of the sports-mad Prime Minister John Major setting up a National Lottery in the mid-90s that to a large extent helped to fund athletes from a wide variety of sports. That’s a template that an independent Scotland could quite easily follow if it had similar priorities, but in the meantime British nationalists have the opportunity to claim that Scottish sportspeople are hitched along to a Rolls Royce outfit and that we’d be foolish to give that up for also-ran status.
Not everyone is convinced by that argument, because far more Scottish athletes would be given the chance to actually compete at the Olympics if we had our own team. But nevertheless, the GB medal haul in recent Games makes a powerful case for some, which I would suggest means it’s actually quite remarkable and significant that there’s still a majority among the public – however narrow – in favour of Team Scotland and against Team GB.
It may be that GB won’t quite match their recent stellar performances in Tokyo anyway. They’re currently in fourth place in the medal table, which would equal 2008 but not 2012 or 2016. And they also have Australia and the Russians breathing down their necks, so it’s still possible that they could finish as low as fifth or sixth.
* * *
I’m continuing to fundraise for forthcoming polling via the Scot Goes Pop general fundraiser – please click HERE if you’d like to donate.
