Quality of debate

It is ironic that it should happen in the same week as the first serious, head-to-head television debate on the independence issue involving Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Secretary Michael Moore.

I share Brian Monteith’s plea for First Minister Alex Salmond to appeal for a raising of standards in democratic protocol (Perspective, 20 May).

How would we here feel if an address by Mr Salmond, let’s say to a university union in the south of England on the constitutional question, was broken up by a cacophony of intolerant students?

What if they were to shout and swear at him, decry him for trying to break up the country they love, and tell him to get back north of the Border?

I think we would be outraged, and justifiably so. It is vital that all political leaders make the case for civilised argument.

It would be wrong to use Mr Farage’s subsequent, ill-judged remarks on radio to excuse the Radical Independence Campaign’s behaviour.

This is not to say that old- fashioned, 19th-century University of Glasgow debating techniques are the only way to  convey and challenge arguments. Technology has widened the array of polemical tools.

But there are many disaffected voters watching from the sidelines. Both sides in the independence argument must know they are likely to be turned off even more by rabble-rousing and childish chants.

Perhaps they will turn off altogether if they see that violence is becoming part of the currency of strongly held differences.

Bob Taylor

Shiel Court

Glenrothes