Mob rule

In any case of abuse I tend to have a bias towards the victim rather than the perpetrator. Call me old-fashioned that way.

C Murphy (Letters, 8 April) takes a diametrically opposed view, preferring, it seems, to have a bias towards the perpetrators.

The reason why the victims of the abuse should not be named (“Labour MP – ‘I’m terrified by threats from rogue nationalists’”, 7 April) is that naming the accuser would only encourage people of a similar bullying persuasion to join, mob-like, in the abuse.

Or is C Murphy implying that the MP in question is lying in some Machiavellian way and that no abuse in fact occurred?

I fully expect that the independence debate will become uglier and uglier the closer we get to referendum day. In an ideal world I would quit Scotland until 19 September and the deed is done.

Neil Sinclair

Clarence Street

Edinburgh