BLM concerns

A lot of things bother me about the Black Lives Matter campaign, not least the cheering of some protesters when a mounted policewoman was almost killed when her horse bolted after flares and a Boris Bike were thrown at it and she crashed into a traffic light.

But the discussion it has caused has changed my thinking in two ways.

The first is, I am certain we should not remove statues and street signs. This would erase accessible reminders of our worst history, just as Germany has kept many buildings associated with Nazism. I agree that plaques explaining the whole context should be added.

The second is an article by David Alston, former Highland Lib Dem councillor and recently resigned chairman of NHS Highland.

It documents the disproportionate scale of Scottish involvement in slavery, not just by feckless sons of the aristocracy but also lower-class Scots, many of them Highlanders. One of his examples was the impoverished Robert Burns, who was able to

write such elevated poetry as A Man’s a Man for A’ That yet contemplate a job on a slave plantation.

Scotland’s – and Scots’ reputation in the world – was built mostly in the time since 1707, since the Union, and I have been proud of that all my life.

If we can come to terms with this part of our history without caving in to the extremist wing of BLM and other commentators who want to use it to destroy the United Kingdom we can be even prouder. ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven