Born on Islay, not from Surrey

Sir, In response to Mr McCall’s letter in the March 10 edition of the Argyllshire Advertiser, I would like to set the record straight.

I am 29 years old so I’m not sure calling me elderly is entirely accurate. I was born and have lived all my life on Islay, not Surrey like was stated in the letter. In fact, I have never even visited there.

I don’t wear tweed or smoke a pipe, though frankly I’m not really sure what difference that makes. I left school at 16 and started working as a farm labourer until I took over the local post office at 17.

I am currently a West Highland Housing Association tenant and take the bus to work every day. I am from a working class background and I’m currently earning the minimum wage at best, so to try to paint me as a rich Tory stereotype from the south of England shows how out of touch many nationalists have become with the unionist majority in Scotland that are increasingly supporting my party.

The biggest problem I have with the letter, though, is the portrayal of Islay as being drizzly, midge-infested and away from civilisation. This is complete nonsense. Our island is the Queen of the Hebrides, with a rich history steeped in culture. We have beautiful scenery, a productive agriculture and fishing industry and, of course, our massive world famous whisky industry which is seeing tremendous growth and produces more tax revenue than many different areas of mainland Argyll put together.

The people on Islay are some of friendliest you will ever meet so why someone would go out of their way to put down my home island is beyond me. It’s hardly the best way for mainland nationalists to win friends and influence people.

With my latest letter getting such an emotional reaction from one of your paper’s nationalist readers, someone might think my statement had touched a nerve. Alastair Redman, Isle of Islay.