Letters to the press, 04/09/21: Scottish bigotry, Be Careful, Tess White was right.

I don’t believe the first minister of Scotland is prejudiced against the English, nor are the majority of SNP members. However, their party opened the Pandora’s box of nationalism in Scotland and have tended to leave the latch unhooked when convenient. There have been marches in Scotland with “Tory Scum Out” as the lead banner. There have been protesters at transport hubs holding “England Get Out of Scotland” signs. Ian Blackford polices Twitter asking why an English photographer was in Scotland. The SNP’s National Women’s convenor Rhiannon Spear tweeted “We hate the United Kingdom too” during Eurovision. “We are not England’s holiday park,” added Moira Shemilt, another SNP councillor. Unfortunately, the SNP are so politically antagonistic to England that they already govern as if Scotland has seceded from the UK. Imagine if the “Tory” or “England” was replaced by a racial epithet? The furore would be rightly deafening. It’s not difficult to see the obvious sentiment in such messages: you don’t really belong here. David Bone, South Ayrshire

Be careful Nicola Sturgeon stated that she was “so deeply offended” by the MSP who accused her of being anti-English. Does Nicola Sturgeon not actually realise the whole thrust of her own and her party’s drive for independence is predicated on driving a wedge between Scotland and England? It seems no thought has been given from the nationalist side that by vilifying Westminster, Tories and in particular Boris Johnson, some element of anti-English feeling must be engendered. Does the SNP/Green coalition expect England to simply let Scotland go its own way without consequences? There will be massive consequences for an independent Scotland and almost all of them bad. GERALD EDWARDS Glasgow

I refer to MSP Tess White’s comment at Holyrood about the First Minister being anti-English (Scotsman, 3Septem-ber). Surely Nicola Sturgeon cannot be surprised when this criticism is levelled at her when she blames all Scotland’s problems on Westminster, and the ruling party at Westminster is predominantly English. When will SNP voters realise that the SNP are not pro-Scottish but are merely anti-English? And unfortunately, just being anti-English will not generate growth in the Scottish economy, improve the performance of the NHS, repair the damage to the Scottish education system or reduce drug-related deaths. It hasn’t in the 14 years the SNP have been in government and it won’t in the future. Nationalists have a need to create a mythical monster to defeat and the mythical monster the SNP have created is, unfortunately, the English. DAVID WALKER Edinburgh

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