Professor Tom Devine explored the creation of the Scot’s sense of self, particularly as it developed via Scotland’s relationship with England. He used the ‘elephant in the bed’ metaphor to describe the way in which Scots developed a dual identity, and how this sense of self was influenced by both Scotland’s semi-independent status and it’s relationship with the British Empire. The final push that secured devolution for Scotland devolution, he contended, was a direct result of the new Conservative agenda in the 1980s that no longer left room for these two identities to co-exist.

He argued that despite the proportionately higher number of Scots who view their primary identity as Scottish rather than British, Scots retain a dual identity and he offered factors including devolution, inertia, economic stability and fear of terrorism as contributory influences to today’s subtle relationship with ‘the elephant’ that determines how we move forward.