RICHARD Walker’s column (Monarch’s funeral was a field day for British nationalists and the media, Sep 23) made me think back to my youth.
My father was a policeman, back in the Heartbeat days. I remember him saying policing was all about property. He walked a beat for years, checking the security of every business in the town.
The job was all about preserving property at the expense of the individual. He used to receive a brace of pheasants every Christmas as a reward for looking after the gentry’s gamekeepers. The original Peelers were all about protecting the property of the wealthy from the poor folk, often imprisoned for stealing food.
READ MORE: Watch Tom Devine say the monarchy has 'zero relevance' to debates on Union
Has anything changed in this century? No. The police are still protecting the gentry from those of us who disapprove of it. We are still being sent to prison for protesting, whether about climate change or poverty.
There are many good and generous policemen, but the Government continues to use them to support a society riven by inequality and maintained by the UK’s wealthy, largely self-appointed and hereditary, elite. Only in an independent Scotland can we escape from this tyranny.
Tony Kime
Kelso
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