Saying TV show on Edinburgh International Festival isn’t Scottish enough is odd

Having thoroughly appreciated Lesley Riddoch’s trenchant and well-argued critique of Police Scotland in her Scottish Perspective piece some weeks ago I began to harbour hopes that at long last Ms Riddoch had decided to jump off the Snp/independence grievance-seeking bandwagon and return to being the incisive investigative journalist and broadcaster who contributed richly to Scottish life through the years. Unfortunately, with her subsequent articles I was starting to fear that my hopes would be dashed, and this was confirmed in her diatribe about BBC2’S Festival Tales: Edinburgh at 70 (28 August). This piece really took the biscuit – or perhaps to spare Ms Riddoch’s sensitivities I should say “shortbread”.

It takes a particular talent to use an article, ostensibly a review of a TV programme, to criticise the BBC (for whom Ms Rid dochproduc ed much good work in the past) and the late, lamented Kenneth Tynan, insult “metropolitan” Britain (whatever that is) and continue to propagate the ridiculous myth that Scotland is somehow more internationalist and outgoing than any other nation on earth. I speak as someone who was actually born in Scotland, has lived in Edinburgh for 50 years is proud to be both Scottish and British and (due to my education and family ties ) is actually probably a more enthusiastic European than Ms Riddoch, so her closing paragraphs, with thinly veiled references to the supposed moral superiority of people like her and the wish that Scots make “big decisions about national identity before the 80th Festival anniversary comes around” are both insulting and cringeworthy. I would remind Ms Riddoch that the Festival is called Edinburgh International Festival, and that the performers in Beyond the Fringe were English and practiced distinctly English comedy, so Kenneth Tynan’s remark was perfectly correct. It is ironic that Ms Riddoch objected to a distinction being made between Scottish and English comedy, when she would normally strive to separate Scotland from anything south of the Border.

Finally, I would respectfully ask Ms Riddoch to desist from inserting independence- seeking, Uk-decrying snide references in everything she writes, however irrelevant they are to the topic in hand.

JOHN DONALD Essex Road, Edinburgh Lesley Riddoch is at it again. Cherry picking the contributions to Festival Tales in order to foster her grievance against all things English and promote her separatist views.

As we all know, the festival is a wonderful celebration of internationalism and unification but throughout her article Ms Riddoch picks on what she sees as antiscottish or, worse still, slights on Edinburgh and its citizens, all to promote her nationalist agenda.

I have to say the bottom of the barrel has now been well and truly scraped by Ms Riddoch and her like and I would suggest to them that the culture of grievance agenda they continue to follow is, and has been proven to be, self defeating. The catastrophic fall in support for independence bears this out.

Ms Riddoch finishes with the hope that some big decisions on national identity will be made before the 80th anniversary of the Festival, apparently oblivious to the fact these decisions were made in 2014 and all that has occurred since has reinforced where the Scottish people stand. GRAHAM HAMMOND

ARBOREM Hoghill Court, East Calder