HERE in Scotland we have learned the hard way that referendums tend to bring out the worst in people. So Alan Cumming’s views should not perhaps have come as too much of a surprise (Alan Cumming: 'Who's to blame for Brexit? Stupid. English. People.', News, July 24). Yet it would be wrong to let such a statement go unchallenged. His puerile comment seeks by inference to dismiss the views of 17 million Leave voters as ‘stupid’. They of course included a million Scots, but Mr Cumming keeps to the nationalist line by giving his full summation an ugly twist, saying it is ‘stupid English people’ that are at fault.

He can be imagined saying this with a twinkle in his eye, as if we are to smile at how he can get away with such a slur, because his words are to be reported in Scotland, a place where for all its normally open minded and positive attitudes, this is a kind of discrimination that is somehow ‘okay’. But racist comments aimed at English people are still racist, and as such completely unacceptable. As one of the 400,000 or so people who live here, but started out their lives in England, and are happy now to consider themselves Scottish as much as British, I think it important to say that Mr Cumming’s turn of phrase is not amusing or smart. Instead, it is wrong in fact, and deplorable in sentiment.

Keith Howell

West Linton

Did Alan Cumming’s phrase “Stupid English People” really deserve red-top headline prominence on the front page of Scotland’s only Sunday newspaper for grown –ups? It is already boring enough having to explain to simple folk that support for Scottish political secession has nothing to do with antagonisms towards any nationality whatsoever .

Douglas Hunter

Ancrum

FOR someone like Alan Cumming (Sunday Herald) to blame the "stupid English" for Brexit automatically puts the one million plus Scots who voted out in the same category - a number who no doubt were SNP supporters. He clearly has difficulty in grasping the situation that the "peasants revolt" ran very raw for all the workers and people who have suffered with globalisation and free movement of people (mainly the North of England) depressing wages and diminution of public services for the least well off in our society.

He also confuses the arguments made at the time of the referendum regarding EU membership for an independent Scotland. Clearly if Scotland had voted Yes then we would have had to re-apply to be accepted for membership and be dependent on support from all the 28 member countries including Spain to be successful. That is still true today but with a twist. Not only would Scotland be out of the EU (perhaps temporary) but it would also be outside a Brexit UK with a different currency like the Scottish pound - with crippling cuts in public services and transaction costs for Scottish businesses.

Having said that, for the many like myself who voted to Remain in the UK-wide referendum it was determined by the current favourable opt-out clauses (rebate, currency, not part of Schengen and so on) negotiated by the UK and not for the no compromise conditions facing new member states like which would be on offer to an independent Scotland - including the requirement for closer political and fiscal union with the EU.

Furthermore, for those who supported Remain it is interesting to note how the SNP have attempted to the hijack the whole of the 41.6% of the Scottish electorate who voted in favour of remaining in the EU and use the result to threaten yet another referendum. They ignore the fact that much of the support like mine was qualified and for the much better UK terms mentioned above.

No matter, Alan Cummings lives in the US and would be totally unaffected by years of uncertainty and massive cuts to our public services if we joined the EU and turned our backs on rUK - if you don't believe me ask the Greeks.

Ian Lakin

Milltimber