Personal crusade

I’M NOT sure now if I watched the same Andrew Marr interveiw with Alex Salmond that Brian Wilson did. In his article (“Sinister signals transmitted by SNP”, 22 March), Wilson states that “Salmond flipped completely in order to attack Marr”. I witnessed no such thing, he simply questioned whether Mr Marr was stating his personal viewpoint on the European Union issue.

Yes, Mr Salmond picked up on what appeared to be a senior BBC reporter expressing a personal view – and quite rightly so. That such a senior reporter made this gaffe is understandable, given the general climate of support for the unionist cause reflected by the BBC in general. Mr Wilson’s intemperate choice of language – for example, “the storm troopers of the social media, forces of menace, bludgeon” – when referring to the SNP is distasteful, to say the least. 

The only “sinister” thing about this piece is that Mr Wilson himself is a blinkered individual who is unable to look at the bigger picture, so wrapped up is he in his personal crusade against the SNP and independence.

His particular brand of bluff and bluster does neither him nor the unionist case any credit at all. Grow up Mr Wilson.

C Murphy

West Calder

West Lothian

Brian Wilson is correct: the SNP leadership and its party members are so hell-bent on achieving their lifetimes’ ambition, they will say anything – much of it without much in the way of foundation – on the basis that they can worry about the consequences after18 September.

Hence they have to try very hard to stifle not just all opposition, but all questioning. We must recognise that their sole aim is independence – the proclaiming of equality in an independent Scotland for instance being merely a means to an end.

There is such an obvious and growing touch of desperation about their unpleasant tactics that there is every likelihood that they will eventually self-destruct.

John Milne

Ardgowan Drive,

Uddingston

South Lanarkshire

I AM startled by Brian Wilson’s assertion that television interviewers “in the New Scotland” will know their place, express no opinions, pose no challenges, and draw no conclusions contrary to prevailing orthodoxy, and that if they break these rules there will be “consequences”.

His sarcasm misfires spectacularly when read by the many like me who look forward to voting for a Labour Party that believes genuinely in social justice once the SNP has completed the essential preliminary task of bringing us independence.

Ronald Black

Edderston Road

Peebles