Wartime SNP

Published on 02/10/2012 00:00

Clara Young, understandably, tries to defend her father Douglas’s wartime record and it is certainly odd if his undoubted linguistic talents were ignored by the authorities (Letters, 1 October), as many other people over 25 were instrumental in various ways in defeating the Nazis.

But while he may not have been “a conscientious objector”, she seems to praise him for “making a political point in not complying with his call-up 
notice” at what was still a very low point in the war in 1942.

Maybe he “would have failed his medical” due to his heart problem, but he could surely have done much more in insisting his talents were put to good use. Many would regard the SNP’s using the dire conditions of the Second World War to try to force through major constitutional change as akin to blackmail.

Her case rests largely on the SNP’s view in 1937 and 1939 that conscription by the UK government was neither desirable in Scotland nor constitutional under the Treaty of Union 230 years previously; talk about self-righteous holier-than-thou 
fiddling while Rome burned, or how many angels can dance on a pinhead!

John Birkett

Horseleys Park

St Andrews, Fife