Sir, Crossing the Forth Road Bridge last week I noticed the north tower had a large union flag flying from it. Once home, I enquired of FETA (Forth Estuary Transport Authority) the reason for this.
Apparently, some time ago Liz Smith Conservative list MSP made the request to fly the union flag to commemorate the start of the war to end wars 100 years ago and the board, made up of councillors from four regions, made the decision.
I don’t think too many people could object too such to a commemoration. After all any reminder we give ourselves of the futility of war, especially that war, can only be good.
However, why couldn’t this board have done the common sense thing at this sensitive time in our nation’s history by flying Scotland’s flag, the saltire, from the other tower at the same time?
All those men died fighting to keep everyone in Britain free, no doubt. However, just as importantly, they fought for Scotland, for their families and for their communities.
It just seems so churlish to deny that and not recognise that too. It smacks of authoritarian unionism at its worst.
After all, our country has just put on a superb, successful Commonwealth Games. Double-sided flags and Glasgow Councillors’ antics with the No flag aside, it went off without too much politicising and by mutual consent.
Then a day later we get this disingenuous politicising from unionist councillors in a similar way to the Stirling event debacle. This just underlines signs of their increasing desperation. I do hope that this clumsy one-upmanship isn’t going to continue through September and beyond.
Why can’t we, a mature democracy, make a decision like this without the childish histrionics. I think other “undecideds” will take a dim view of unionists turning their flags into political weapons. No matter how we’re voting we are Scots first and it’s our flag. Please get the saltire up where it belongs, FETA.
Gavin Markham. 22 Birrell Drive, Dunfermline.
Councillors have some cheek!
Sir, The Councillors trying to censure Councillor Bill Duff for tweeting that voting “no” makes you a second-rate Scot have some cheek.
This is the same gang, led by Councillor Myles, who were so ashamed of being Scots that they tried to remove Scotland’s national flag from Angus flagpoles.
That political posturing cost Angus taxpayers thousands of pounds, as will this censure motion, as well as wasting the time of councillors and officials.
I can find no fault with Councillor Duff’s description. Who on earth would not prefer to be governed by people who live and work in Scotland instead of that unsavoury crew at Westminster?
And, with Ed Miliband showing all the charisma and leadership skills of Humpty Dumpty, I can only foresee another five years of Tory misrule as from 2015.
Councillor Myles and his cronies really should learn to grow up and stop wasting taxpayers’ money.
Jim Robertson. 194 High Street, Montrose.
There are no 2nd class Scots
Sir, So the controversy surrounding Angus Councillor Bill Duff’s “second class Scots” tweet rumbles on. I note that Councillor Duff claims his comment was “taken out of context”.
I sincerely hope so.
Whilst I do not possess the considerable educational achievement or intellect of Councillor Duff, I do know that there is no such thing as a “second class Scot”.
There never has been and never will be!
Keith Richardson. Melgund Burn, Aberlemno.
Socialism is not the way
Sir, I refer to Mr K Clarke’s letter in The Courier (August 6). In it he equates the failure of Labour Government to the failure of “unionism”.
The truth of the matter is that both the union and Scotland would be better served by government that is not always focused on the minutiae of social engineering and intrusion into peoples lives, to say nothing of ill-advised foreign adventurism and a total mis-management of fiscal affairs, as demonstrated by 13 years of Labour in power.
Many denigrate the Tory Party and yet it is the Tory Party that has pulled the UK out of the economic crisis created by Labour mis-management and which, according to the IMF, now has the best GDP growth rate in Europe.
The same thing happened after the disasters of the Wilson and Callaghan governments the previous time socialists were in power.
Scotland needs to wake up to the fact that isolating itself in a socialist blanket by forever blindly voting for socialist ideologies and historical emotionalism is not the way for Scotland to go forward in an ever more competitive and aggressive world.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
Dividing, not uniting
Sir, Transparency is a word freely bandied about these days and after watching the recent TV debate on the referendum I have come to the conclusion that there is nobody more transparent than Alex Salmond.
You could see right through the man!
His failure to answer the currency issue claiming that the English pound belongs to Scotland is there anything this man will not lay claim to no matter how ludicrous it sounds?
He and his cronies will not succeed in wrecking the union but what he has done is split Scotland by setting Scot against Scot and creating such bitterness that the divisions will take many years to heal.
Robert Finlay. 6 Greenmount Drive, Burntisland.
About people and aspirations
Sir, Now that the referendum is kicking into the final lap and we have had debates on telly, and claim and counter-claim, I think it is time to reduce the debate to, as Aleksander the meerkat would say, “simples”.
If you are going to vote “no” then you obviously feel British and recognise Britain as being a country and that Scotland is merely a region of Britain.
This is proved by the fact that your passport plainly states British which means that Scotland does not really exist as a nation. By voting “no” you are stating, I am North British.
If you intend to vote “yes” you are stating that Scotland is a nation in its own right and should be governed in its own right with the ability for its citizens to make their own decisions and stand and fall by them.
I have heard all the guff about if it’s “yes” the sun will never shine it will rain every day and the world will end, and if it’s “no” it will be milk and honey all the way.
For me it’s “yes”, but there will be problems and it won’t be easy, but the rewards and opportunities for the future well-being of the people of Scotland are too great to miss.
If we stay in the same old, tired union where the politics bounce between Eton posh boy conservatives or Champagne socialists nothing will change. This country needs direction and something to work towards.
So let’s not kid ourselves about the need for more information. Scotland is an idea not just a collection of mind-numbing facts and balance sheets, it’s about people and aspirations.
Bryan Auchterlonie. Bluebell Cottage, Ardargie, Perth.