Scotland on Sunday readers' letters: Display of any other flag not tolerated in Scotland

As neither a Royalist or anti-Royalist, it matters not a jot to me whether we have a Monarch, King or Queen, a President, a Prime Minister or a Chancellor as our head of state.

But we can be sure of one thing – we will always have an elite tier or hierarchy that will have a privileged position in our society and will represent us on the world stage.

Our present Queen has done this for 70 years and is held in high regard around the world by other nations, so it seems odd that here in Scotland we see next to nothing by way of celebrating her carrying out those state duties in a diplomatic and dignified manner on our behalf, around the world.

Why, we may ask ourselves, do we not see more bunting and Union flags at more doors and windows? Unfortunately, I think we all know the answer to this.

Royal fans take up their spots on the Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour ceremony on day one of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Picture: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire

In present-day Scotland the political mis-appropriation of our Saltire means that the display of any other flag is not tolerated and shouted down. There may also be other consequences, as we witnessed during the 2014 referendum.

This is why we do not see the Union flag on public transport, cars, gardens, windows or the celebrations that others in the UK express freely.

Allan Thompson, Bearsden, Glasgow

Into the mist

It is hard to find any real and positive things to say about the present First Minister’s seven years plus in office. Her party’s raison d’être is in a worse place than it was when she took over the reins from her predecessor. As for running the country over the period, she and her party have been, quite frankly, abysmal in performance and obsessed with one-issue.

Of course nationalist voters do not choose her and her party for any skill in running Scotland’s affairs – perhaps for the SNP that is just as well – but for attaining the Holy Grail of breaking up the UK, which has been drip-fed to them for many years as being the only solution and which is now disappearing into a very thick Scotch mist.

Like their fellow one-issue separatists in Canada, who are now political nonentities, the SNP will over the following years disappear into oblivion from which they emerged and become merely a blot on Scotland’s on history.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Party games

It's often been said that Labour and Tory parties in Scotland are like two peas in the proverbial pod and, by joining together in a number of constituencies to “keep out the SNP”, in that respect they continue to reinforce that perception.

The biggest thing they have in common, however, is that they are – as has been described by one of their own – branch offices of their respective London-based parties and, until one of them bites the bullet and “becomes independent”, they will continue to be likened to each other in any major sense.

The latest ploy by the Tories, when faced with the antics of their London leaders that were apparent even before the Sue Gray report, was to tell voters "you should vote for us on local issues, not on what Boris Johnson and others have done". Well, voters didn't see it that way. It's your party – you can cry if you want to?

Ian Waugh, Dumfries

Trivial tremors

Earlier this week three earthquakes were recorded across the UK. A 2.1 magnitude in Ayrshire, 2.3 in Cheshire and 3.8 in Shropshire. The British Geological Survey said that there are approximately 200 to 300 earthquakes felt in the UK each year and are usually below a magnitude of 3.0 so why was fracking for shale gas stopped when a miniscule tremor of 0.5 on the Richter scale was recorded?

A study by Liverpool University equated this 0.5 as a micro-seismic event equivalent to sitting down heavily on an office chair. The UK must immediately recommence drilling on land and sea and become energy independent and not be held to ransom by Russia and other aggressive and unfriendly nations.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow

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