Voting SNP is not being anti-english

I TAKE great exception to the letter from Labour councillor Alex Gallagher (March 21) accusing SNP members such as myself of being anti- English. I categorically do not hate England or the English. I count many Englishmen among my friends, particularly some Cumbrians and Yorkshiremen. My wife and I are members of the Glasgow Glenmore mountaineering club which is graced with many English-born members and normally has one weekend meet a year in England.

In recent years I have holidayed in Norfolk, Newton’s birthplace, Rutland Water Bird Sanctuary, Warwick, Forest of Bowland, The Lakes, the North York Moors, the Yorkshire Dales and Northumbria. Many English friends respect and admire Nicola Sturgeon.

What I do object to is being undemocratically misruled by Westminster. The incompetence of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn is breathtaking. £3 trillion in debt, two hugely vulnerable and useless aircraft carriers, Trident, the slow destruction of the NHS and austerity. Westminster is turning us from a second-rate power into a banana republic with the willing help of Mr Corbyn. At least we are doing a better job in Scotland. Councillor Gallagher maintains Labour’s cringe in Scotland – no wonder the Scottish electorate has comprehensively dumped the party. John Maclean,

385 Victoria Road, Glasgow.

HAVING enjoyed Labour’s previous monopoly of power it is clearly difficult for councillor Alex Gallagher to thole the SNP’S current position. Two-thirds of the SNP’S cabinet secretaries and ministers are know personally to me. They joined the SNP, as did I, seeing independence as the best means of improving the lives of people in Scotland, not because they were motivated by Anglophobia, as Mr. Gallagher desperately implies.

Councillor Gallagher’s opinion that independence is a “sacred cow” would not be endorsed by the colonies, dominions and elements of the British Isles which have removed themselves from the direct control of Westminster.

Colin Campbell,

Braeside, Shuttle Street,

Kilbarchan.

I REFER to Alex Gallagher’s letter and his faux praise for Brian Cox on the subject of anti-englishness in the SNP. I well recall Winnie Ewing just after her Hamilton by election in 1967 stating: “The enemy is on this side of the Border.” Labour councillor Gallagher is living proof of that statement.

Jim Lynch,

42 Corstorphine Hill Crescent, Edinburgh.

WHAT a disgraceful letter from Labour Councillor Alex Gallagher. The SNP stands for the right of Scotland to be an independent country, in common with other independent states. Does Mr Gallacher regard Denmark, for example, as being anti-swedish because they maintain their Danish identity?

Willie Douglas,

252 Nether Auldhouse Road, Glasgow.

COUNCILLOR Alex Gallagher claims I asserted that “it is wrong to compare the economic union of the EU with the political union of the UK”. However, this was the headline to my letter rather than anything in the letter itself, so councillor Gallagher would do better to direct his criticism toward the headline writer.

Indeed, my letter makes precisely the sort of comparison of the two unions that, according to Councillor Gallagher, “Nicola Sturgeon and other prominent Nationalists are currently making … on a daily, or even more frequent, basis”, that the EU is an economic Union while the UK is an incorporating political Union, thus validating Brian Cox’s claim that “leaving England is a different thing”. More importantly however, Cox’s statement and my defence of this only has anything to do with the “nasty reality” of nationalism, in councillor Gallagher’s imagination. Nor is there any more justification for Peter Russell’s quite sordid and ridiculous accusation (Letters, March 17) that Cox’s claim means that “England is such an exceptionally bad place that it is a uniquely unsuitable partner for Scotland, unlike France, Bulgaria, Croatia, Malta or any other country he can think of”.

What is certainly clear, though, is that making such generalised smears of racism remains part of the Unionist narrative against anyone who supports Scottish independence, as well as its significance in the mindset of Unionism.

Alasdair Galloway,

14 Silverton Avenue, Dumbarton.