AS the co-founder of both Australia’s Gaelic summer school and an award-winning awareness campaign for Irish-Gaelic speaking immigrants, and now living & working in Scotland, I have very strong views on the Brain case and the support of leading Scottish public representatives for Gaelic-speaking Australians is hugely encouraging.

While issues of broader sovereign control over immigration require a careful, strategic eye on the path to independence, particularly in the current political climate, George Osborne’s suggestion that the SNP should use their “very substantial tax and enterprise powers if they want to attract people to the Highlands of Scotland” from the rest of the UK” is a disgusting insult to the intelligence of the Scottish public and typical of the arrogance and deceit with which we have become so acquainted since his party’s MPs voted down nearly all Scottish amendments on proposals for additional powers under the Smith Commission (Frenzy over brain case on TV and among politicians, The National, May 26).

Osborne’s taunt is also a display of grotesque ignorance of the sociocultural and linguistic history of Scotland and Scotland’s special relationship with people across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America, where so many of Scotland’s citizens landed after being forced from their Highland and Island homes. That this special relationship remains strong is reflected by the huge number of Highland Games and Gatherings every year across all these countries, as well as many towns bearing Scottish names, as displaced migrants sought to forever cement remembrance of their origins in their new surroundings. Osborne clearly has no understanding of the fact that the treatment of Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and American nationals of Scots descent as third-class citizens in terms of immigration serves to inflict a double injustice on the descendants of the widespread injustices wrought across the Highlands during the Clearances. Many of these areas still suffer the contemporary consequences of that depopulation today, and the taunts about Scotland’s new enterprise powers ignores the ongoing squandering of the rich resource of entrepreneurship, energy and passion the Scottish diaspora can bring to Scotland, borne of family histories carefully preserved over many generations.

Just how rich this resource can be? In just over three and a half years, my work has facilitated paid employment for some 27 people, working directly with well over 8,000 children, young people and adults in 168 schools and communities, reaching many thousands more through my bilingual Gaelic street theatre and spectacle work.

I am not special. The potential, passion and ability lies not just within me or the Brain family, but within hundreds of thousands of people of Scottish descent across the globe, far too many of whom are only able to reconnect for the duration of a measly two or five year visa with that deeper sense of self that comes from living, laughing and loving in this land that their ancestors called home. Many of us also bring an acute awareness of injustices often wrought by our Scottish and British ancestors against local indigenous populations and the grievous contemporary consequences, giving us a uniquely personal insight into issues of language and justice relevant to Scotland’s diverse indigenous populations and their varying fortunes in Scotland today.

Scotland’s diaspora dare to dream and hold incredible entrepreneurial power, passion and potential, which George Osborne would do well to recognise.

It has long been clear however that Westminster Tories refuse to pay any heed to the well-founded recommendations and desires of Scots for their own country, and the Brain family case proves more than ever that Scotland’s future will only be best served in Scotland’s hands.

Ariel Killick, Glasgow

AFTER reading the ‘Brain family face no imminent risk of deportation after UK government bows to public pressure’ article, (The National, May 26) I was left wondering about the double standards that surround immigration deportations. Of course it is absurd that the Brain family, with their child born in Scotland, risked removal back to Australia.

They are here as part of an important initiative to repopulate the Highlands, which has since become a playground for middle class bloodsports, instead of the vibrant centre of population it once was (and has the potential to be again). I am glad that their removal is off the cards for now. However call me a cynic, but I think the huge media coverage and outpouring of public sympathy for the young family is inextricably linked to the colour of their skin. Lets be honest here: would there really be such an outrage if a black-skinned Zimbabwean family faced deportation from Scotland? I don’t think so.

Hundreds of families, fleeing war, sweatshop economics, dictatorship and persecution abroad are deported back to certain death every year, and nobody bats an eyelid. And unlike the Brains, these people are not being deported back to safe, prosperous Australia – they are being returned to countries wrought with famine, civil war, homophobia and totalitarianism. Surely it is time to reject all deportations – whether they be white Australian families seeking to repopulate Scotland, or terrorised Syrian children fleeing barrel bombs. Immigration is a human right – Scotland must extend the hand of friendship to all.

Ruth Mawere, Glasgow

AS I cross the Forth Road Bridge several times a week, on my journeys to Dunfermline, I have watched “Alex’s Crossing” come to life.

It is, already, a breathtaking work of civil engineering, and as it heads for completion, I must put forward my proposition.

There is only one person qualified, and worthy of the honour of opening Alex’s Crossing when it is complete, and that person is Alex, or, for the sake of political brownie points, Alex’s lovely wife, Moira.

I say that no other person can even be considered for the honour of opening Alex’s crossing, except Nicola, of course, but let The Scottish Parliament vote on the issue.

Angus C M Condy, Address supplied