Out of touch

While it is wonderful to see that BBC journalist and presenter Andrew Marr’s health is recovering, the picture he paints of Scotland is more than a little disappointing and indicative of someone who since their move to London has maybe lost touch with their homeland (your report, 17 August).

In addition, his comments that anti-English sentiment is “entrenched” in the SNP and warning it may become toxic is simply not one I recognise in a party that espouses civic, not ethnic nationalism, and boasts members of all nationalities and ethnic groups.

The treatment of Ukip leader Nigel Farage on his recent trip to Edinburgh, which Mr Marr cites as an example of anti-English hatred, was not this but an attack on racism. In fact, one of those arrested in the protest, the president of the Edinburgh University Student Association’s Socialist Society, is himself English.

Mr Marr is an excellent commentator but, unfortunately, these comments mean he is clearly not impartial on the independence issue and cannot have any involvement with the BBC on this matter.

Alex Orr

Leamington Terrace

Edinburgh