Why has Nicola Sturgeon stopped proclaiming her pride in being a nationalist?

Kirst y Gunn is right to question Nicola Sturgeon’s spin on nationalism” ( Perspective, 28 August). Nicola Sturgeon has quickly gone from somebody who proudly welcomed her “fellow nationalists” at the SNP annual conference to a leader who now appears ashamed to be labelled a nationalist.

The wider public, however, will not be fooled by her rhetoric as it fails the duck test: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

Like nationalists around the world, Nicola Sturgeon likes to blame others for the problems we face. Trump blames Mexicans ( and others). Farage blames the EU. Sturgeon blames the rest of the UK. The SNP use the basic nationalist trick of blaming others as an alternative to tackling the hard choices we face as a nation if we want to improve education, healthcare and welfare.

Like a true nationalist, Nicola Sturgeon repeatedly accuses anyone who dares to question her record in government as “talking Scotland down”.

Like nationalists the world over, the hardcore in the SNP ranks engage in conspiracy theories and label legitimate news sources like the BBC as “fake news” – Trump would be proud!

Ask them where they get their news and they will quickly tell you Facebook or Russia Today ( the propaganda arm of the Russian state). The SNP elite sit quietly as bitterness is stoked by stories of secret oil fields and the streets of London being paved with Scottish gold.

The hardcore of nationalists in Scotland, however, are now torn. Should they back their leader, or continue to be proud Nationalists? I have noticed that some have started using the term “patriot”, to describe SNP members – the irony is, of course, lost on them.

I almost feel sorry for them. Nicola Sturgeon did not have to put them in this position. What’s wrong withbeing a proud nationalist? After all, just take a look at what nationalism has achieved in Scotland and across the world!

( CLLR) SCOTT ARTHUR Colinton/ Fairmilehead Ward Buckstone Gardens

Edinburgh Channel4 is partly funded by t he UK Government and partly from advertising revenue.

If they moved to Scotland which then became in dependent they would be cut off immediately from their publicfunding and advertisers may think twice about giving money to a company based in a country then foreign to more than 90 per cent of their potential market.

Would Nicola Sturgeon like to explain what she finds so ridiculous about this situation ( your report, 26 August)? If she cannot, then she should admit that the SNP regional government is losing the opportunities for Scotland that devolution should be creating.

It was also inevitable that Ms Sturgeon would complain about the BBC’S new Scottish channel.

A more legitimate complaint would come from the fine residents of Yorkshire, as numerous as those in Scotland, who might ask why they are not getting £ 30 million for programming specific to them.

( DR) SJ CLARK Easter Road, Edinburgh