Up the pole

After reading Laura Waddell’s column I was somewhat disgusted at the rhetoric used throughout its entirety.

“Now add a giant Union Jack and some pictures of Royalty… what you have is a pivot to a Tory hipster vibe”. “But when I see a gaudy Union Jack”. “It’s brutal”.

Might I enlighten Ms Waddell what sticks in my thrapple. Anti-english drivel, for this is not Just an attack on the Union, it is directly aimed at the English. For if confirmation were needed we need go no further than the following, ”But it seemed entirely to be aiming for the kind of crowd who gets the train up from London for Edinburgh Fringe and makes jokes about fried Mars bars and the lack of salad”.

What also sticks is the disgusting language used against the flag of the Union. Gaudy is it?

If that term was used to describe the Saltire, all hell would break loose, because when you sully a flag, you sully the people it represents. Ms Waddell may feel it does not represent her, but it seemed to do so for the “people of Scotland” who decided “better under the flag of the Union than under the Saltire-waving SNP”.

Nationalism is a vile trait, one which, as history has proved over and over again, when pursued with the kind of ultra-enthusiasm we see in Scotland (I choose my words there carefully) causes national unrest, division and animosity to ridiculous levels.

As for what also sticks in my throat, that is the appalling misuse of my national flag.

For when I see it now, it does not represent my wonderful country, it represents mass gatherings of people advocating senseless and unsupportable division, bitterness, animosity and hatred.

I was born a Scot, I will die a Scot, but there will be no Saltire on my casket – nor will there be a “See you Jimmy” hat either. DAVID MILLAR West High Street, Lauder