SNP ‘anti-English’, claims composer

THE Scottish composer James MacMillan has accused the SNP of stoking up anti-English sentiment as part of its drive towards independence.

THE Scottish composer James MacMillan has accused the SNP of stoking up anti-English sentiment as part of its drive towards independence.

MacMillan claimed that Alex Salmond’s party needs “a reservoir of anti-Englishness to power their secessionist agenda”.

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The composer was also critical of the SNP MSP Joan McAlpine, who has been accused of “political racism” after she said that interfering in the independence referendum was “anti-Scottish”.

In his blog, the composer said he had eaten out in London recently and had overheard four neighbouring diners discussing the experiences of their relatives and friends in Scotland. “All were outraged at the degree of anti-English feeling that had been reported to them,” wrote MacMillan, who wrote the fanfare for the opening of the Holyrood Parliament.

“They all had their individual stories – of insults in pubs, of abuse in the street of sour remarks in the workplace and office – and that it seemed to be getting worse. I felt ashamed. ‘It’s only banter’ is what you usually hear, and there is a kind of accepted orthodoxy here that the Scots are not racist in the way that the English can be. All rubbish of course, but dangerous rubbish too. The SNP need this reservoir of anti-Englishness to power their secessionist agenda.”

Ayrshire-born MacMillan went on to claim that the SNP fuelled anti-English sentiment, citing McAlpine’s remarks. He added that he had met McAlpine once saying: “All I can remember about Ms McAlpine was her whiney Glaswegian accent, de rigueur for parish-pump envy-and-grievance politics in these parts, and so beloved by the rest of the country. Not.”

Yesterday it emerged that Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Anas Sarwar has written to Salmond urging him to reconsider her position as his aide. McAlpine said: “I have repeatedly stressed that my remarks were not aimed at any individual.”