History repeats

What a great analogy Angus Mcneil MP uses comparing the current push for independence to the Jacobite march on England to win the British crown in 1745, urging that independence supporters today do not “dither like the Jacobites at Derby” (Scotsman 8 October).

Alas, the comparison is an unfortunate one, which Mr Mcneil might have realised had he thought about it for a moment longer. The Jacobites had to withdraw from Derby and head home again because the French help they were promised had not materialised.

If they had pushed on, they would have all been captured or killed or, at the very least, completely humiliated. On returning to Scotland they found the country was against them, and when the final battle took place at Culloden, the Bonnie Prince had more Scots fighting against him than for him. The Highlanders should never have followed that man, and have spent the past 250 years regretting it.

It was a minority of scots that supported the Jacobites, and it is a minority who support independence now. The European help they expected then let them down. History repeats itself today with the SNP trying to use Europe to further their cause, failing to realise that Scottish independence is not a priority for any other EU country.

Getting their relationship right with the UK as a whole

is much more important. One may also go further back to 1513 at Flodden field when the Scots needlessly attacked the English to help the French and were utterly destroyed, setting the country into a 200-year spiral of decline, eventually requiring the Union with England to stabilise its economy.

Rather than setting out on such a journey only to find later that it was a mistake, surely it would be better to engage our brains a little first. Now is neither the time nor the hour for such misguided nonsense. Europe is the wrong issue on which to frame any push for independence. VICTOR CLEMENTS

Taybridge Terrace, Aberfeldy, Perthshire

Who are we to believe? Police Scotland says there were 20,000 marchers in Edinburgh, Lesley Riddoch, with the reputation of The Scotsman behind her, says there were 100,000 – five times as many!

This is the same Lesley Riddoch who used her column in The Scotsman in 2014 to say that the reason for the No vote in the independence referendum was due to the elderly, something all the statistics said was a false premise.

Most of us do not have the luxury of a reputable national newspaper with which to promote fake news – why is Ms Riddoch so privileged?

(DR) ROGER I CARTWRIGHT Turretbank Place,

Crieff, Perthshire

Those of us who were at the All Under One Banner march and rally in Edinburgh on Saturday can be allowed an indulgent smile at the attempts at folk like Alexander Mckay (Letters, 8 October) to diminish the number present.

Those of us who had to wait for more than an hour to leave Johnston Terrace as others had already reached Holyrood Park know that to say only 20,000 attended is a complete nonsense.

Indeed, it appears that the police have already poured scorn on the Edinburgh Council employee who gave them

that figure, as did the policeman who stated that the march had taken two hours to pass his standpoint.

What we saw on a beautiful day in Edinburgh was a massive demonstration for independence comprised of a high-spirited group of all ages and from all walks of life who even enjoyed good-humoured banter with the small band of courageous Unionists who

mounted a counter demonstration. Mr Mckay will be disappointed to hear that grim zealots and fanatics were noticeable by their absence.

Most encouraging of all was the very large number of young people present, their enthusiasm and optimism epitomised by a banner which said “We are the next generation and we’re not feart”. Whatever your political standlistening

point, these are young citizens of Scotland we can be proud of.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh

In 2014, Better Together asked HES for permission to hold a rally in Holyrood Park. This was refused, but Unionists respected the decision. HES also barred Saturday’s Nationalist march from the park, but the ban was simply ignored. This demonstrates the separatist movement’s worrying disregard for the rule of law.

A total of 61 per cent of Edinburgh residents who voted in the independence referendum said No, so unsurprisingly most onlookers reacted to the event with indifference.

Conspicuous amongst the protestors were colourful New Age folk, revolutionary students, Jacobite impersonators, Catalan and Irish Republican agitators, even a few flagwaving anarchists. It was a carnival of the economically illiterate, weekend subversives and people who watched Braveheart once too often.

Should these demonstrators ever succed in their ambition to turn Scotland into a tartan Venezuela, God help the rest of us.

M O’GORMAN Colinton Road, Edinburgh

Please can someone let the First Minister know that Scotland has already voted on independence and the majority don’t want it. It is not democratic to keep asking people to vote until she gets the answer she wants.

Equally, the EU referendum was a British vote and not a Scottish one and yet again she doesn’t accept the wishes of the British people but wants to get her own way by having another vote.

What does Nicola Sturgeon not understand about democracy? I should say I am passionately Scottish, British and European and would have preferred to remain in Europe, as I wish to remain in the UK but, on the European question, I accept the democratic decision of the majority in the UK.

YVONNE MILLS Oswald Road, Edinburgh

carefully to Ms Sturgeon, I take it that in a vote, one is entitled to presume that those not voting are against!

Using the same view of our voting system, may I take it that it would be fair to say that a large proportion of Scotland is against the SNP.

JAMES WATSON Randolph Crescent, Dunbar, East Lothian

Brian Wilson’s Perspective article on Saturday (6 October) is a page of dishonest apologist drivel. Most nations of the world, with some vile exceptions, conduct relations with their neighbours in a spirit of mutually beneficial harmony.

If the final EU/UK settlement, whatever it turns out to be, results in the return of bombing, murder and kneecapping to Ireland, it will be because the people of Ireland are incapable of conducting their politics in a civilised manner, and for no other reason.

GRAHAM M MCLEOD

Muirs, Kinross

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