**This is not terribly well written. It's an idea I had in an airport, while tired and delayed, and haven't really explored it yet. Feedback of any sort is more than welcome**
The only excuse for nationalism (of any sort) is the need for self-determination. It’s a bold claim, maybe, but it’s one that I think stands up to scrutiny. Other excuses for nationalism are less admirable and consist of traits ranging from xenophobia to selfishness.
Arguments offered in favour of nationalism are often little more than cries to the tune “we deserve to be better off than they do”, at which point it becomes prudent to ask “who are they and why do you deserve better?” If the “they” the nationalist speaks of are people of a different skin colour or gender or some other obvious visual cue, mainstream politicians and media (and the majority of the public, while not all) have the good sense to call those opinions what they are – racist, bigoted and dangerous. Perhaps these are the most dangerous nationalists, and I wouldn’t wish to have them in my Party – these people have the BNP. But, there are others.
It might not be obvious, but when a nationalist says the group they claim to represent deserves better their thinking might just be territorial. They might not care what skin colour you have, or some other visual cue, but rather wish to discriminate based on geography. You are not from my area therefore I do not want to support you (regardless of whether people-not-from-their-area actually support locals). I have sympathy for anyone who makes this argument on grounds of language – I don’t think I’d be taken too kindly to if I moved to France, refused to try to learn to speak French and then complained at my misfortune when trying to find a job and so on (although this argument only holds if I chose to move, not everyone moves by choice). This argument is often as arbitrary as the BNP-style arguments. Just because it takes more information than what a person looks like to decide if you like them, doesn’t make the decision any less bigoted if it is still a decision to discriminate for entirely arbitrary reasons. These are also people I do not wish to have in my Party, they have UKIP for this sort of BNP-lite option.
You might wonder what kind of nationalists I wish to gesture to with this post, then. The kinds of nationalists I mean are those who seek self-determination. It is at the very heart of liberal thinking that we each as individuals have as much of a right as any other to determine for ourselves what lives we should lead. However, this does not mean we believe in some sort of anarchy. There are benefits to be had from living in a community – a pool of resources and skills which makes living life easier. This pool can be enlarged so we have more than a community, but a community of communities, at various levels. To say you no longer want to be a part of a community in search of greater self-determination is to give up all the benefits and pitfalls of one system for all the benefits and pitfalls of another system. Instead, take the third option. Allow all those powers which should be devolved to be devolved to the appropriate level whether it is to a national, regional, local or community level. Each policy area will be best implemented at a certain level, by which I mean will provide individuals the greatest amount of self-determination. And if self-determination really is your wish, and not nationalism of the second sort I outlined, then it seems this is your only option.
