Who is keeping class barriers in place?

In HER piece on the problem of youth unemployment in Scotland (Perspective, 14 March), Susan Watt made many constructive, cost-effective and helpful suggestions, which could be taken up by the Scottish Government.

I’ll be interested to see the responses to her article on Scotsman.com. When I have written in the Letters’ pages on the need for a more inclusive Scotland that minimises the gap between very rich and very poor, one of the more frequent printable comments, from posters using a nom de guerre, has accused me of being a “middle-class do-gooder”.

My own origins are firmly within the working class and, despite a period of employment in academia, I’m now back in a manual worker job. As for “do-gooder” – would anyone want to be described as a “do-badder”?

Regardless of the motives of anonymous posters in attempting to irritate me, the comments set me wondering about their own views on the current state of Scotland. Do they believe that the classes should be kept firmly apart, and only those who could prove they belonged to a specific social class be allowed to comment on its behalf?

Do they assume that those in the “middle class” don’t have problems in finding suitable employment in the way Ms Watt describes? If so, I can assure them that several young people among my family and friends are in jobs well below their abilities.

The saddest thought, though, is that people who use the term “middle class” as an insult may wish to trap us in a world where the class system is still accepted – where the “underclass” knows its place at the bottom of the pile, and the lairds, although hated, are allowed to run society as they wish without challenge or dissent.

If so, this is not the sort of Scotland I wish to live in, and I suspect few others do either, regardless of the “class” they see themselves belonging to.

In particular, I would love to see more letters in The Scotsman from individuals from all walks of life who feel they have something to offer in improving life for the majority.

Those who make democratic decisions on our behalf do take note of such suggestions, and if the rest of us don’t comment, then we have only ourselves to blame when they make their judgments unilaterally.

Dr Mary Brown

Dalvenie Road

Banchory, Aberdeenshire