Letter: Unionists guilty of double standards

IT WOULD be easy to dismiss Walter J Allan's letter (11 May) as the sort of "cringey, fearty" stuff that should be consigned to the waste bin of history as of 6 May, but his concerns will be shared by many Scots and fully understood by the SNP.

Suffice to say that his definition of nationalism as negative is best challenged by the words of Andrew Fletcher in 1707 - "Show me a man who loves all countries equally with his own, and I will show you a man who is entirely deficient in a sense of proportion.

"But show me a man who respects the rights of all countries but is ready to defend his own against them all, and I will show you a man who is both nationalist and internationalist."

In any case, ruthless British nationalism (in the shape of the empire) always seems curiously exempt from the unionists' charge sheet, but Scottish Nationalists are used to the double standards of perfidious Albion, which are about to go into overdrive.

David Roche

Forest Way

Blairgowrie

IF SCOTS wanted independence they would vote in more SNP candidates at elections - this was the standard comment when the Labour and Conservative parties dominated Scotland's political landscape.

Now that the landscape is dramatically turned about, the comment is that the SNP election landslide does not ipso facto mean that Scots are desirous of independence. Heads they win, tails we lose.

As with resignations coming thick and fast from the leaders of parties opposed to independence - do we interpret these as meaning that when the electorate of a country dares to believe it is capable of looking after itself that it has become a threat to itself and everyone else?

Perhaps it is simply that Scotland has breathed in some of the heady perfumes of Arabia that are presently wafting across the political landscapes of the West.

Ian Johnstone

Forman Drive

Peterhead

Have the London-led parties in Scotland got confused about unionism? The union they should be supporting is the original 1603 union of the crowns rather than the tawdry political union of 1707. A union of crowns is now one shared across the world by the 16 Commonwealth Realms.

Scotland could be the 17th in that social, cultural and historical union instead of the politicians' fix of 1707. Keep the Queen as our shared head of state but it's high time we moved responsibilities pertaining and belonging to Scotland from Westminster to Holyrood, the most democratic forum representing Scotland.

These full independent powers would allow us to create jobs and grow our economy for the industries of the 21st century.

Angus Brendan MacNeil MP

SNP Na h-Eileanan an Iar

Stornoway

Isle of Lewis