Foreign influence

Published on 10/08/2012 00:00

Murdo Fraser, MSP, and other arch-Unionists who are using the success of Team GB for petty ­political propaganda purposes, fail to acknowledge that a number of athletes representing GB were born in foreign countries: Kenya; Belgium and the US come to mind.

Not one of your pro-Union letter writers has mentioned the debt Team GB owes to athletes whose forefathers not so long ago were being brutalised by the British on slave ships and on the sugar plantations.

Most of the athletes at the ­Olympics bearing Highland surnames are not in Team GB but in the Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and US camps.

This is a direct result of the Clearances, when the ethnic population of Scotland was evicted to make way for sheep.

It is inconceivable for Unionists to admit that without the Act of Union there would not have been Highland Clearances. The narrative of the forced removal of people from Africa and the eviction of Highlanders are in many ways intertwined.

Donald J MacLeod

Woodcroft Avenue

Bridge of Don, Aberdeen