The National’s Hamish MacPherson was spot on again when he said that the “Brutality of the Clearances changed the nation forever.” I remember as a Mat Stud at Strathclyde Uni being unfashionable against the Academic (Labour Unionist) academic establishment and trendy Labour and Brit left Mature Students. All of them claimed that the Clearances never happened and when one argued against were told that the Clearances were good for you and you did it yourselves. The Governor General of Scotland and Labour Hero, Donald Dour also argued that that the Highland Clearances had been justified.

They even argued against the current and ghastly visual evidence the Glasgow Clearances going on round about them, as Glasgow’s inner city communities were destroyed and the people were cleared out to the failed Labour social experiments of peripheral Housing schemes, high flats, new towns, England and goodness know where else. By the mid 60’s the US were blowing up those single class high flats as a failure to humanity. One wonders if it would not be cheaper to buy all the residents of the Wyndford/Maryhill Barracks for the poor in the sky, for example, a big hoose in Mulgay or Bearsden, than continue such never-ending sky-high maintenance costs.

Anything remotely Scottish was sneered at by those London liege lovers. I wonder how many of these survivors, some of them my friends, have changed their minds by now? We were telt that tartans never existed, that it was invented by Walter Scott, etc. When told that was untrue and Scott himself denies such nonsense, or how could something be proscribed that did not exist? They would then shift ground to say, “Ah but clan tartans did not exist, which like their Highland Holocaust denial was not their original argument. Many of the district tartans were lost after the Proscription Acts. Some survived in some form as Government setts in the army. Lost local dyes and sett patterns would have decided clan dress. Many were ordered wear uniform tartans and dress by chiefs for hunting, social occasions and gatherings, war, etc. Charles ordered Tartan to be used as uniform for his army, Highland and Lowland and tartans manufactured in the Lowlands and Borders were often requisitioned. It is not true that when thousands of Glasgow brogues were ordered by the Jacobite Army the corned beef Provost gave them thousands of Glasgow Rogues. Targes, plaidies, broadswords, Glasgow Halters and bucklers were also among the Highland ordnances ordered from the toon. Jacobite sympathisers wore tartans. Anti Union MPs wore tartan waistcoats or “party colours” in the British Parliament. Not bad for something that did not exist.

Also it was useless, at the time, to quote classical Marxism, to these cherry pickers on Scotland, Such as Marx, Vol III, Chapter XVII on how in Ireland whole villages were cleared, but in Scotland, the land of romance and Sir Walter Scott, whole areas were cleared the size of German principalities were cleared. I could go on quoting Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky right back at them. Maybe I wasted too many years in the wilderness arguing for a Scottish socialist republic and arguing for Ireland against Green Labour loyalists. Maybe I should have listened to them and the wife and carved a career for myself? Or, maybe I should have stuck with the SNP who are now on course and steamrolling the lot of them? Anyways, it would be nice to get in touch with some of the old chums who studied in the (ex)Press Bar with me along with the good old Herald hacks, afore compuchters were invented and we’se noo press the key bars of social meejah. Be nice to see if the auld Hallelujah basturts have seen the light yet?

Donald Anderson, Glasgow

IN the rush for indyref2 there are a number of things Nicola Sturgeon needs to remember. We are looking for Independence in Europe, but there is no serious critique of the EU by any of the pro-independence parties – we are going to be asked to vote for an Independent Scotland IN Europe or to exit Europe by staying in the UK. It must be remembered that a substantial number (though a minority) of Scots and of SNP members voted to Leave the EU. Where are our interests being voiced? If we get independence in Europe, we may go from the frying pan into the fire.

In the last two years there has been a lot of flag-waving and hype but I believe we have not addressed the things that lost Yes the campaign last time. In particular, we seem to have written off significant groups who voted to stay in the UK but who can be reached and persuaded to vote Yes, or at least some of them:

1) Pensioners and older Scots in general: many lived through the war years and have an affinity with the UK which nothing will ever shift, but some were spooked by the threat to their pensions. We have not addressed their fears.

2) The 100,000 residents of Scotland born elsewhere in the UK, who seemed to vote mostly No, not all, as I can testify, as one who voted Yes, but I think the debate became hijacked into whether other UK nationals would need visas to stay here and so on. We also let it descend somewhat into anti-Englishness. I think if I had been a No voter back then, I would have felt quite threatened, especially by Jim Sillars’ Day of Retribution rant, even though that was not directed against the English, but it got a high media profile and we all have to be careful how we portray independence. We also let the debate be hijacked into independence making Scotland the enemy of England. Considering that the margin of defeat was 400,000, that 100,000 represents half the “swing” we would need to win.

3) Dare I say it, we need to bring the Haves on side. The UK media does not broadcast the fact that Yes/No was decided largely on economic lines — fears over jobs and the future, would we be £500 better/worse off, Scottish pounds, central banks, etc. It is an uncomfortable truth for Britain that in the 309 years they have controlled Scotland’s economy, that economy has withered and is limping along today instead of soaring. It is no coincidence that Scotland has only started to prosper since the advent of the Scottish Parliament. But still many are left behind. Many people voted for independence for Scotland as they did not have that much to lose economically, and others voted yes on behalf of the poorer in Scotland, but we need to have a vision for Scotland that brings everyone onside.

Frankly, I don’t know how you do this, as we are fighting powerful vested interests, but we have to do it somehow. We are currently rightly attacking the privileges of sporting estates in paying their fair share of taxes and we are talking about land bank taxes and so on, but we also need to present a positive vision of how better land use by big landowners can benefit Scotland as a whole and how they have a part to play in this. It doesn’t help when Ruth Davidson is talking about Mugabe-style land grabs.

4) We are tending to look at the 1.7 million Yes voters as being “in the bag”, but that may not be the case. Unless the SNP addresses SNP voters’ concerns about the EU, they may find at least some of them voting to stay in the UK (again, not me, I hasten to add – I would rather be independent in the odious EU than not independent).

I also believe Nicola Sturgeon should not take too seriously the warm words from various EU ministers she has been meeting. It is impossible for Scotland to remain in the EU while it remains in the UK, and the EU is not going to alter this for fear of fomenting independence movements elsewhere. I believe the warm words to Scotland were just to embarrass the UK for having the temerity to vote Out, but that was all it was.

Julia Pannell, Friockheim

Alex Salmond’s call for a knighthood for Andy Murray arouses mixed feelings on my part. I despise this system of awards, but at the same time I would dearly love to see him honoured.

Might I suggest that The Order of the Thistle would be the most appropriate form of knighthood for him?

Archie McArthur, Edinburgh