New Scots

Published on 19/11/2012 00:00

David Roche struggles, as ever, to distance himself from any 
accusations of racial discrimination, but fails to explain on what terms he is prepared to accept “incomers” in an independent Scotland (Letters, 17 November).

Much abuse was heaped on politicians who wanted UK 
residents to prove their “Britishness”, but the idea of a Scottish equivalent is equally repugnant.

I know many English-born Scots residents who are totally absorbed in Scottish life, and are involved in artistic and musical pursuits to a great degree.

My own father was born south of the Border, but educated in
Edinburgh and lived here for most of his life.

I would defy Mr Roche to tell he was English, but would he have been allowed to gain 
employment here in a Roche-inspired Pictish/Celtic paradise? Would he have been barred from any cultural activities? The great anomaly, of course, in the 
Nationalists’ stance is their 
willingness, having wrested their sovereignty from the English, to hand it promptly to Brussels (given the option, which seems debatable).

I fear Mr Roche’s New European masters would take a dim view of any positive discrimination in the employment market.

It has always been a case of “Redcoats under the bed” with many Nationalists and will, sadly, be ever thus. Incidentally, Roche wouldn’t be an Irish name, by any chance?

Mike Wilkinson

Kirk Wynd

Strathmiglo, Fife