Sturgeon’s puerile insult to the Queen

FOR years the SNP has tried to annexe the Saltire, attempting to convert it to the de facto symbol of its separatist cause.

So the decision to restrict the flying of the Union Flag over Scottish Government buildings to Remembrance Day is no accident.

Rather, it is a calculated slight – as insulting as it is puerile – to the vast majority of Scots who are comfortable with being both Scottish and British.

Remarkable, too, is that permission to fly the Union Flag outwith the prescribed day would have to be sought direct from the ‘First Minister via the protocol and honours team’.

You might have imagined Nicola Sturgeon was a bit busy for all that, what with the ongoing crisis in the NHS, the trouble at the top of Police Scotland, sliding standards in schools, sclerotic transport…

And one of the days on which it was previously permissible to fly the Union Flag was the Queen’s birthday. No longer.

Even allowing for the Nationalists’ scarcely concealed disdain for the Royal Family, this is an insult to a monarch who knows more about public service and self-sacrifice than any here-today, gonetomorrow politician.

Our forefathers helped forge an Empire under that red, white and blue banner. It was to the fore in the hell of the Somme and Passchendaele as Britain confronted raw aggression.

And it was a beacon of global freedom when we stood alone against the might of Hitler and one of history’s most depraved and evil regimes.

In more peaceful times it has adorned the vests of Team GB athletes. Astronaut Tim Peake, married to a Scot, took it to the International Space Station.

The SNP strives constantly to drive a wedge between Scots and the rest of the United Kingdom, trying to portray us as different.

We have, of course, many small differences. But far more unites than divides us in this island.

The Union Flag links us in respect for all the positives it symbolises in the democratic, tolerant and courageous United Kingdom.

How dare Miss Sturgeon traduce the flag as part of her insidious campaign to tear apart the most successful political alliance in 300 years.