ENGLISH Scots for Yes D&G will be at front of the largest demonstration Dumfries has ever seen this Saturday, when thousands of people will march in support of Scottish independence. Joining them will be a number of people who originated from south of the Border and who actively support the Yes campaign.
Those who attack the wider Yes movement state that the independence movement divides people according to whether you’re English or Scottish. Let me be clear. It absolutely does not. The Yes movement is absolutely not anti-English. As an English Scot, born in England, with English parents, and being an active Yes campaigner, I absolutely know this. Where I come from is not an issue in Scotland. The very existence of this group and its 1,500 members across D&G and Scotland shows this. Scottish nationalism is purely about deciding who runs Scotland. There is no us and them.
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I urge everyone in Scotland to recognise the fantastic work of the Scottish Government in trying to protect the poorest in society from Conservative cuts, in fighting against a disastrous hard Brexit and in building our excellent new Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.
The opposition of English Scots for Yes to Westminster rule is because we feel that Scotland should get the government that Scotland elects, run by people who know Scotland best and who care about its future. To suggest that to support this is in some way racism is not only patent nonsense, it’s offensive to boot.
The Scottish independence movement is one of civic, not ethnic nationalism. Scotland welcomes people irrespective of their gender, sexuality or county of origin and Scotland badly needs lots of new Scots to ensure the Scottish economy thrives, as the Growth Commission correctly pointed out last week. Lack of control over immigration in Scotland is one of the many disastrous consequences of Brexit, and the UK is unfortunately dividing families on a daily basis with its attitudes to immigration.
John Schofield
Convenor, English Scots for Yes Dumfries and Galloway
THANKS to Frances Roberts for the most thoughtful letter I’ve read for some time (Letters, May 30). We are slowly tearing ourselves apart about what will happen after independence, and not spending enough time with how to get independence in the first place.
Like someone said in a letter the previous day, I too am not so sure about some of the ways the SNP are going, if indeed they are moving at all. I have never voted for anybody else and I am in my seventies now so I don’t expect to change. They should get on with running our country efficiently (sounds like Ruthie) and let those of us who have the time and energy organise the independence campaign, which they can join nearer the date. This would lose the opposition someone to shout at. Just get us a date and let’s get on with it.
Watt Smillie
Whitburn
PLEASE allow me to sing the praises of Wee Ginger Dug.
For many months I have been asking the question of myself and anyone who would listen: “What should the Scottish Government do if Westminster says NO to a second independence referendum?”
It would be (I thought) a massive and dangerous constitutional crisis. The will of the democratically elected government of the people of Scotland confronted by the will of the British state.
In his article yesterday (This is what happens if May says No to indyref2, May 30), Wee Ginger Dug shows us the way. He does so with boldness and wisdom, and I for one am profoundly reassured. We are certainly privileged to be living through one of the most fascinating chapters of our nation’s history. Thanks to Wee Ginger Dug I now look forward with confident anticipation.
Billy Scobie
Alexandria
YON Wee Dug had his ginger up yesterday and no mistake, barking away for Scotland in The National. Wee Dug’s masterly plan is that, at the next Holyrood election, voters would pick their MSPs of course and, by their vote, would be saying Yes or No in a built-in indy plebiscite. Clever dog indeed.
As the WGD pointed out, Mrs May, temporary leader of precious British nationalists, has no jurisdiction in any of this. And if the said Union Jackists boycott such a vote, hoping to make it seem worthless, how many Tories will end up in Holyrood this time around?
Naturally there’s important stuff still to be settled. Choosing candidates, for instance, and polling day – scheduled for May 2021, unless a snap election is called when “the time is right” to purloin a phrase. Not for Mrs May or the next Tory PM, but for the people of Scotland. And you too, WGD.
Jack Newbigging
Irvine
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