Professor Tom Devine’s article was timely and welcome (The ‘Ulsterisation of Scottish politics’ is a vacuous term with no grounding in history, Comment, May 15). There is a cadre of anti-independence (and SNP) “commentators” more keen on promoting themselves than the positive potential of the Scottish people and who find it easy to posit problems but not solutions. Hence their adoption of the “vacuous” (as Prof Devine so accurately put it) propositions of Scotland’s 'Ulsterisation'.
It was not the SNP or other pro-independence parties who raised the issue of a second referendum time after time. In fact, Ruth Davidson is to be congratulated that such a strategy removed the spotlight from the toxic policies promulgated by her national party. I rarely recall her having to defend Westminster’s policies and she was assisted by an ineffectual Labour Party who seem unable to differentiate between allies and enemies.
One hopes she has not sown the seeds of poisonous division and we don’t reap the harvest of her own toxic campaign. With sensible voices like those of Prof Devine, however, we have reason to hope for the best.
William Thomson
Denny
While I have the greatest respect for historian, Tom Devine, it was not “Ulster” that was created under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act with the partition of Ireland, but Northern Ireland. While the province of Ulster has nine counties, the act saw the border with the Irish Free State passing through the province and creating Northern Ireland, incorporating six of the nine Ulster counties. Ulster and Northern Ireland should therefore not be used interchangeably.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
It looks certain that Holyrood’s opposition parties will unite to abolish the SNP’s anti-sectarianism legislation, despite opinion polls showing overwhelming public support for the law (Offensive Behaviour at Football Act set to be abolished, News, May 15). The rationale for repeal appears to be that the law unjustly punishes football fans merely for engaging in “free speech”. The concern of the SNP’s critics appears to be, not that thousands of people are regularly engaging in bigoted behaviour and violent hate speech, but that a small number of them are actually being punished for it.
As Prof Tom Devine eloquently counselled, Scotland is not Ulster. However, the eagerness of four of Scotland’s mainstream political parties to signal that violent, bigoted hate speech is socially acceptable – coupled with the deafening silence of the SFA and mainstream media after the prejudicial bile on show at April’s Old Firm match – suggests we remain profoundly complacent about our persistent problem with sectarianism.
David Kelly.
Edinburgh
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