WHEN I was younger I boxed for Scotland.
My first international was in Nova Scotia, where I heard the Scottish national anthem being played as I walked to the ring. I was 16.
From then, I boxed all over Europe. I saw how England took the lion’s share of sporting funds.
This, and the way Westminster has shown contempt for us Scots, makes me want independence in the same way as I need to breathe. It’s who I am.
Keith Ellwood
TELL US WHAT SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE MEANS TO YOU
SCOTTISH independence for me means we are free to govern ourselves, we are free to take our place in the world.
After 2014, I was downhearted and could not face being subservient to another nation. Then I learned through The National that our fight was still very much alive.
I attend rallies, I have met people who used to be No who are now Yes.
It gives me heart to know we are so close.
We must separate ourselves from the dysfunctional family in the south. We have a right to self determination. Our day is coming, I can feel it.
Saor alba gu brath.
Isabella Main
HAVING a drink with my wife in a Netherlands bar we were approached by two British tourists who asked if we were English.
“No”, I replied to which one of them said she thought she heard us speaking English. I explained that English is the language we use but we are Scots.
Her reply “so you are British then” was met with “no we are Scots!”
TELL US WHAT SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE MEANS TO YOU
I want my national identity to be recognised and never again to be considered as a part of someone else’s country. I believe this is my right.
Evidence for the applicability of the latter is not a matter of history alone but is found today in the attitude demonstrated in the preceding anecdote, in Donald Trump’s assertion that “you can say ‘England’, you can say ‘UK’, you can say ‘United Kingdom’. So many different names, Great Britain”, in the statements last summer from members of the Cabinet in London that there is no border between Scotland and England, and in the insidious creep of the Union flag onto Scottish produce.
Independence is the natural condition of any country just as freedom is the natural condition of any human being.
Our time has come.
Ni Holmes
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We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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