Letter: SNP supporters

I always considered myself somewhat to the right politicially of Joan McAlpine until she wrote "Salmond's new fan is boost for SNP" (Perspective, 1 March), which included the words: "Entrepreneurs tend to be people who wish to give something back...There is considerable patriotism among this group..."

Anyone reading the histories of working-class Scotland penned by TC Smout, William Knox, and indeed her fellow SNP intellectual Christopher Harvie, would be overwhelmed by evidence to the contrary.

Just as some newspaper editors elsewhere have got too close to wealth creators with a dismal impact on their independence of judgment, so it appears the SNP is rushing to embrace captains of industry without thinking of the consequences.

One is that Alex Salmond will have to make a decision about how far the state regulates Old Firm matches, something that could have a big impact on the balance sheet of Sir David Murray, whose decision to back the SNP in May provoked Joan's gushing article.

The elephant in the room in the article was of course the fan-base of Glasgow Rangers. When she talked enigmatically about the Murray move making "others look at the party afresh", it was to them that I think she was referring.

This assumes that they are as big a herd of cattle as many in her party view the Scottish electorate to be in general. I think she will be disappointed to learn otherwise in May.

Tom Gallagher

Department of Peace Studies

University of Bradford

Bradford

Yorkshire