LAST Saturday Scottish independence supporters, clad in hazmat suits brandishing an SNP banner, staged a protest at the border with England near Berwick.
Their express intention was to deter vehicles from entering Scotland. Drivers were verbally abused and their registration plates recorded.
Although not widely reported in the mainstream media, this protest was shared on social media where leading SNP figures such as Humza Yousaf, Paul Wheelhouse, Pete Wishart and Joanne Cherry, condemned it as racist and wholly unacceptable. One SNP MP Angus B MacNeil endorsed it.
Despite numerous invitations, the First Minister remained resolutely silent about the Berwick protest. This was all the more surprising since she takes to twitter to comment on everything under the sun if it gives her an opportunity to badmouth unionists, Tories or the UK Government. Indeed Nicola Sturgeon did manage to find the time on Saturday evening to tweet about a walk she took and a film she watched.
The reason for the First Minister's silence is that she needs to keep the radical wing of the independence movement on board because they are useful to the cause. The protestors will not be alone in reading her silence as an endorsement of their racist and potentially violent tactics.
Nicola Sturgeon politicised the issue of Covid and the border with England with her dog-whistling remarks which led directly to Saturday's ugly and destructive scenes in Berwick. Her refusal to condemn them immediately means they won't be the last, or the worst.
LINDA HOLT (Independent councillor for East Neuk & Landward),
Dreel House,
Pittenweem.
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