It’s time to stop branding ordinary Scots who want independence as hate-filled

Alexander Mckay has long made his opinions clear on your pages, but today (12 November) he has exceeded himself.

In his hatred of Scottish nationalism, he has equated our largely inclusive form with an almost Nazi paranoia. There are, it must be admitted, a few diehard Anglophobes and trolls, but most modern Scots with nationalist tendencies are positive people, seek- ing a new future, free from the ignorance and indifference of the Westminster government.

When not ignored or forgotten, we are patronised. Almost every news item about a domestic matter on TV is qualified by the phrase “in England”, so taking our situation completely out of the debate.

This is not an anti English or hate-filled statement but a simple statement of the reality of the way the Union presently works. Our version of nationalism is inclusive. It wants to welcome immigrants, since we manifestly need them for the health service, care sector and hospitality industry, not to repel them or remove them.

Mr Mckay rails against the compulsion to demonstrate, as if this is somehow the equivalent of goose-stepping stormtroopers. He speaks of “demented flag wavers” as if these good-natured mums and dads and kids have turned into brain-washed zombies. He points out the hate-filled messages online, when your online page opposite Letters consistently features rude, negative anti-separatist vitriol.

No Mr Mckay, our vision of the future is not a raging nationalism, but a hope for a peaceful land living in harmony with its neighbours, welcoming to foreigners who want to be here, and settled in its own skin, shorn of imperial pretentions and arrogance. BRIAN BANNATYNE-SCOTT

Murrayfield Drive, Edinburgh

He may have been aiming his remarks at Trump and Putin, but President Macron’s speech to 72 world leaders rejecting nationalism as a “betrayal of patriotism” obviously applies to Scotland too.

I have a feeling the world may accept his assertions, but they will be rejected here in Scotland.

Having made their position clear (“Independence transcends everything”) the SNP really have fallen foul of Macron’s claim that by putting “[SNP} interests first and never mind the others, you stamp out the most precious thing a nation has – its moral values”. We should pay attention.

KEN CURRIE Liberton Drive, Edinburgh