Not digging Neil

People such as Kathleen H Marshall and Victor Clements (Letters, 6 October) who are rushing to defend the appointment of Neil Oliver as NTS President are slightly missing the point by attempting to set the appointment purely in the context of a debate on the respective merits of the Union or independence.

Personally, I can live with Mr Oliver’s somewhat picaresque presentation of Scottish history, although historians have questioned the accuracy of some of his opinions and the interpretation of our history which has flowed from them. We should also allow for fact that Mr Oliver is an archeologist and not an historian and it seems that Mr Oliver’s

appointment has more to do with the fact that he is a public persona with a high public profile. Speaking as a member, I sincerely hope that this does not turn out to be yet another strategic error of the kind which have dogged the Trust in recent years.

Supporters of independence should calm down and perhaps consider that in his role of ambassador for the NTS, surely Neil Oliver will have to moderate the intemperate and divisive language he has used to describe the independence movement and its supporters. Even reasonable NTS members such as myself will take umbrage at being described as “cancerous”.

GILL TURNER

Derby Street, Edinburgh

Neil Oliver’s NTS appointment is not divisive because he is an avowed unionist (Kathleen Marshall, Letters, 6 October) but due to his use of provocative rhetoric such as “cancerous”, “poisonous” and “hate fest” when describing SNP leaders and those who seek self-government for Scotland.

Although a good TV presenter, he is not a historian and, according to some eminent Scottish historians, he presents history from an anglocentric perspective, so perhaps the NTS will be rebranded the North British Trust for Scotland.

MARY THOMAS

Watson Crescent, Edinburgh

We are often informed by the Scottish National Party of their wish to be differentiated from the other, nasty, foreign types who profess the same creed. Nicola Sturgeon even said she regretted the word ‘’nationalist’’ being associated with the party she led. Ours is different from nationalism elsewhere; this is friendly wee Scotland, we are constantly assured.

Oh yeah? With the reaction of some in the SNP to

the appointment of the eminently qualified Neil Oliver to a prestigious national post, the veil dropped and the real face of Scottish Nationalism appeared. The Thought Police elements of the party are not happy. How dare anyone professing the view that the country would be better remaining part of the UK be allowed such prominence? Their argument seems to be that only a rabid nationalist should have been considered for the post.

There is a stark warning in all this for every Scot about our future in a separated Scotland, run by the SNP.

ALEXANDER MCKAY

New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh