I'm a nationalist. Or so the media tells me anyway. They ought to know; they helped create a lot of us.

I've never felt overly Scottish. Never worn a kilt. Never eaten haggis until November last year (and I'm 30). Never even been that fond of Irn Bru (the adverts are pretty funny though). If you'd asked for my national identity a year ago, I'd have said British. I always thought nationalism was an extremist view, xenophobic and prideful. I think differently now.

The way the (then) three major political parties behaved, and the way the press monstered Yes voters ("vile cybernats") in the run up to the referendum, made me realise that we weren't an equal partner in this Union - we were dominated by it. And then I started to think what independence (besides being free of the media's shite) could mean for Scotland. My nationalism, in my opinion, is in small part an emotional revulsion at the behaviour of Unionist politicians and big business, and in large part confidence (having weighed up the arguments) that we'd be better off as a nation standing alone outside of the Union.

To answer some of your bullet points:

5 - There's no inferiority complex I'm aware of. The only time I ever hear people deriding the English is through football, and it's (mostly) a bit of good-natured ribbing. I've heard plenty of anti-Scottish sentiments since we started talking about independence, however. Largely because we are saturated by their media.

6 - I think the political differences are why we are where we are right now. Scotland has felt mounting frustration at being ruled by governments it has vehemently opposed for decades, and ultimately felt that Labour betrayed its heartlands when it sided with the tories. Politically, we're on the left and England's on the right, but our votes are a drop in the bucket compared to the English electorate. That's the democratic Union we live in, though, and until recently there's been little we could do but just get on with it and hope for the best. Now that we can finally play a crucial role in how we're governed, many Scots hope to seize it with both hands by voting SNP. I don't know how it translates into the self-image of Scots, but it certainly gives me hope for a better future.

As a side-note, the SNP have also proved themselves a competent government in Scotland and have many talented politicians leading the party. They are in an enviable position and it's easy to see why they enjoy massive levels of support and positive opinion ratings across the UK.