I FEEL I should respond to the letter from Pauline Taylor about Scots who voted to leave the EU but also intend to vote for Scottish independence (Letters, December 6), because I am one of these people and I know of quite a few others.

Can I set Pauline’s mind at ease on this issue right away. I voted to leave the EU twice, I voted against joining in the first referendum. I voted again in 2016 to leave, because I want to see Scotland out of this neoliberal political club before we establish our independence if this can be brought about. I do agree with Pauline however, that an independent Scotland should stay in the single market and should keep close economic and trading links with Europe both within and outwith the EU.

Much of the media attention to the Brexit issue has been to highlight the extreme-right vision of Brexit and present this as the only version of Brexit, but of course it is not.

I was delighted with the proposal on Brexit which Nicola Sturgeon put to Theresa May and which was ignored by the Tories. This was a soft Brexit like the Norway type, which still retained full access to the single market and single market rules, while not being a member of the EU political union or monetary union.

I am sure that many, among the minority in Scotland who voted Leave, have a similar view to my view rather than to the one expressed by Nigel Farage. So I expect that there are many thousands like myself who want to see us out of the EU political club, which is the club that deserted Greece and which is ignoring Catalonia, but keeping our trading links in Europe. I also expect that most of these will support the SNP in this election as I will. Le deagh dhùrachd,

Andy Anderson
Saltcoats

PAULINE Taylor is to be congratulated for submitting a timely plea to Brexit-voting Yes supporters. That plea is not to desert the SNP but, notwithstanding this difference in opinion, to vote SNP in this critical election. It would be a tragedy for the independence movement if they were to vote otherwise.

We are so close to achieving what many have aspired to for, yes generations, an independent Scotland. Please, please, please vote SNP on December 12.

The position of an independent Scotland and its relationship to Europe after the UK leaves Europe, now an assured fact, is for we Scots to decide alone. I would suggest that it should be the first referendum in a newly independent Scotland. That is when that difference should be addressed but not before.

I also commend her on her statement that: “An independent Scotland will be a small country with big ideas”. What a great slogan and one that not only captures our collective desire for our future but reflects the essence of our significant contribution to the modern world. As the American writer Arthur Herman acknowledges in his highly recommended book How the Scots invented the Modern World.

Come on all those who believe in independence for Scotland, now is not the time for hesitation nor dissent, seize the moment – vote SNP. Yours for an independent Scotland,

Ian Stewart
Isle of Skye

AS a fellow Borderer, I read Kenneth Gunn’s letter (Seven Days, December 1) with interest, and agree with some of what he had to say, but by no means all.

Like him, I hope and pray for an independent Scotland, but, unlike him, I want Scotland to remain a member of the European Union. Also, unlike him, I have no intention of quitting the SNP, as I see it as the only practical way of realising this objective.

I agree with him that the 1996 reorganisation of local government in Scotland was poorly conceived and took the “local” out of local government. However, he is wrong to say that “England still has its town and county councils”.

Whilst I think, as stated above, that the 1996 Scottish rearrangement was a very bad idea, at least the whole country was reorganised in one go. Not so in England. While some parts of that country still retain county and district councils – the two-tier system of local government – other areas were reorganised into having one-tier, or unitary council arrangements identical to what we have up here.

However there seems to be no rhyme or reason underlying the differential. For example, County Durham is a unitary authority, whereas its next door neighbour, Cumbria, has a county council and six district councils. Even more bizarre is the fact that Cornwall is unitary, whereas neighbouring, and very similar, Devon has two-tier local government.

All this happened a few years after the Scottish debacle, but it has been allowed to persist for more than a decade, with, apparently, no proposals to rationalise matters.

Charles Anderson
Melrose

I HAVE just received a LibDem election leaflet. Beneath some highly selective facts about Jo Swinson’s time in the coalition government, it states: “Britain is less fair than ever. People who work hard and play by the rules should be able to get on in life ...”

Aside from the fact that Britain has been made less fair partly by the actions of Swinson and her austerity-enabling party, the second part contains the exact same rhetoric used by her erstwhile bedfellows Cameron, Osborne et al to implicitly demonise unemployed, sick and disabled people, demonstrating yet again that the LibDems are Tories in all but name.

But there’s more. The leaflet also states: “Jo Swinson is the most popular party leader across the UK.”

It has a chart headed “challenging the SNP across much of Scotland” and showing the change in the vote share of the main parties in Scotland in the 2019 European Election – up 9% for the SNP and up 7% for the LibDems, and asserts that “The Liberal Democrats are winning across the country”.

Notice their fondness for the term “across” in these statements – a rather convenient device for stretching the truth?!

Mo Maclean
Glasgow

DURING the last Westminster Parliament the issue of bank and cash machine closures was afforded many debating hours, this being a major issue especially in rural areas around the country.

But ironically, and while the taxpayer still owns the majority shares in RBS, this has barely had a mention from the two parties who could ultimately get their hands on the keys to Number 10!

Bank closures go much further than ones access to cash, they have an impact on the local economy, often involves an impact on the environment with additional travel required, damaging impact on local communities and businesses.

Then we have the issue of local service closures impacting and exacerbating the issue of loneliness for many in local individuals and communities.

So why are we being deafened by the silence of the Conservative and Labour parties on this major economic issue for so many individuals and communities?

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

THE news of the passing of Andy Robbins of “Hercules The Bear” fame brought back into focus, for me, some very good memories of what is fast becoming a bygone age.

Andy was the product of a locality on the edge of nearby Stirling, and started his working life in the woodcutting industry around Scotland. He was to diversify into a career in wrestling; at that time a popular sport on weekend television, which brought him considerable success. He would go on to marry Maggie, in her own right a successful competitor in showjumping events around the country.

During the 70s they were to move into the Sheriffmuir Inn three miles up country from Dunblane, and situated on the eastern end of the stretch of country which had been the site of the famous battle in 1715.

My father lived at that time just half a mile up the road and was their nearest neighbour. I farmed nearby and would go on to graze some of my sheep on Andy’s land around the Inn.

The story of the acquisition of a bear cub from the Highland Wildlife park by Andy has been told many times and the progress which it was to make in growing up as a member of their family, and eventually as a successful wrestling companion for Andy, is well known. What isn’t so well documented is the affection which existed throughout everything concerning the enterprise.

One notable reaction was the surprise exhibited by those who would suddenly encounter Andy leading Hercules, for that was who he had become, down the road to the nearby Wharry Burn for a splash about in the water on a warm summer day. They would be joined merely a single strand of string from Hercules’s collar.

Andy would go on to build “Herc” his own house adjacent to the Inn, and an increasing number of visitors would come, usually accompanied by their family children, and go through the little gate to see Hercules. Sadly these buildings were all swept away by the alterations made by subsequent owners of the Inn.

Fame and fortune came the way of the Robbins household, with Hercules’s fame spreading world wide, as a result of his many advertising appearances, as well as up close events like opening fetes and similar appearances.

Then came the hugely dramatic event of Hercules going awol during a photoshoot on Benbecula.

This was, for me, the time that showed up as no other, the real character of those involved. By now nearly three weeks had elapsed, gloom had really descended on all concerned, and it was feared that Herc was gone forever.

On my normal daily routine of sheep minding I called in at the Inn. A little later I would be sitting in the kitchen with Andy and Maggie drinking coffee.

Andy was sitting beside me, with tears running down his face, saying “I’m never going to see him again.”

A few minutes later the phone rang. Maggie went to answer it; she came back and said that it was some newspaper or other to say that Hercules had been spotted out in the islands.

Without a word Andy put down his coffee mug, got up and was gone; away to the far north to get back a cherished member of his family. That is how I, for one, will remember Andy.

George M Mitchell
Sheriffmuir

IT was nice to see the front page picture of a modern Polish soldier in his tank. I checked out his unit.

He belongs to the same Armoured Brigade that was stationed in Scotland during the Second World War.

Thousands of Polish soldiers were stationed in Scotland from 1940 till 1944 and many remained after the war to settle and made a new home.

My father was one of these soldiers.

In this ever changing world it is good to see links that remind us of our common past and of the friendships that bind us.

Chris Sagan
Vice chairperson of the board of trustees, The General Wladyslaw Sikorski Memorial House