Anti-English

I agree with Angela Innes (Letters, 6 May) that much of the “Jock bashing” in England is affectionate (even if rooted in the charming ignorance of many English about Scotland), but those who wring their hands in horror at “anti-English” comment need to grow up.

In the 1950s and 1960s it was a badge of honour to be “anti-American”, and an increasing number of English people are “anti-EU” (many of the same probably were and might still be “anti-Irish”) and so on.

The sky does not fall down. The Irish, after all, were brutally abused by the English over many centuries, as were many of the pink bits on the globe, but I am not aware of any residual “anti-English” behaviour in those countries – they just got on with building a nation.

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The cynical “stirring”, such as some I saw on TV this week by a lawyer predicting some sort of anti-English pogrom or at least the kind of unpleasantness and discrimination suffered by Russians in the post-liberation Baltic republics – if we become independent is disgraceful. Stupid too, as some kind of anti-English backlash is more likely if we do not achieve independence.

David Roche

Alder Grove

Scone

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