I believe (and I’m not Scottish) that Scotland IS exceptional. I have not lived in every country in the world, Europe on even UK but the people are just genuinely nice and welcoming. Racism and bigotry has no footing here

I just don’t think that’s true at all. It may be rarer, or less publicly manifested, but there’s still plenty of racism and bigotry in Scottish society, whether it’s people still using terms like p*ki or ch*nkie to refer to people or their places of business, or swastikas/n-words graffitied on walls, or randoms giving abuse to Polish people on the bus, or to English people in the pub (all of which I’ve seen personally here in Edinburgh and elsewhere).

That it isn’t such a hot-button issue here as down south may be partly due to a generally more welcoming/left-wing/progressive-mindset among some in Scotland, but I think it would be naive to ignore the fact that that kind of attitude is easier to maintain in a climate where immigration levels are lower anyway.

None of which is to blame the people arriving in the UK, trying to make a better life for themselves - they are and should be welcomed and treated with dignity and respect. But if Scotland was an easier arrival point by sea than it is, I suspect attitudes here would prove to be less universally welcoming than we might like to think.