AS one might have predicted, the English newspapers were all crowing on Monday about how wonderful it was that 11 English women had beaten 11 German women. At least two of my of my neighbours are flying St George’s flags. Why don’t they move to England if they want to support English victories? Why doesn’t my MP (John Lamont, God help us)?
My suspicion is that the English have nothing else to celebrate. Their government is a shambles, their NHS is in crisis, and the whole “United” Kingdom has been crippled by Tory austerity. Luckily, their women have succeeded in winning a game to restore their ailing confidence.
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And whatever happened to the Labour Party? It’s become almost as right-wing as Truss and Sunak. Our only hope is independence from these losers.
I have never understood why the English don’t want Scotland to be independent. They constantly complain that they’re subsidising us. I certainly don’t understand why John Lamont and my neighbours don’t move to England if they love the Union so much and hate the idea of a Scottish Government.
Tony Kime
Kelso
YOU missed a chance to display the broad-mindedness of Scots by failing to mention anything anywhere in the August 1 edition of The National about the Wembley final of the English/German woman’s football.
England is Scotland’s “best friend” and to display such narrow small-mindedness will have done nothing to support reasonable Scottish argument for independence.
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Junior playground politics has no place in our battle and more will be achieved by friendly discussion than by “yah boo” attitudes.
Dr Lindsay Neil
via email
WITH England’s women winning the European Championship, the worst-case scenario has come to pass. For me, it means a complete media blackout for several days to avoid the insufferable jingoism that will ensue (10 pages of it in yesterday’s Guardian alone). I think if the men won I’d have to leave the country.
I wish The National had paid tribute to the legendary Uwe Seeler, who died the other week. It was he who scored the equaliser against England in the 1970 World Cup, before West Germany went on to win 3-2 in extra time, an occasion where the English commentator David Coleman lost his voice. Seeler was unusual in today’s terms, in that the only club he ever played for was Hamburg FC.
Alastair McLeish
Edinburgh
I AM not particularly interested in football and especially since all of us who are not English will be bored to the back teeth by the English women’s football success for the next 56 years. However, I would like to know who was responsible for calling the English women’s team the “Lionesses”?
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The symbol of England, which all the women wore on their strip, is the three leopards. Scottish teams wear the rampant lion badge. Is this yet another example of English appropriation of Scotland’s assets – whether cultural or economic?
Peter J Lawrie
via email
I EXPECT in half a century the English media will still be banging on about 2022. Thank goodness Scotland will be independent soon so we won’t have to listen to it this time.
Ni Holmes
St Andrews
HOW I agreed with George M Mitchell when he said “High on the list of improvements has to be the absolute requirement for the actual owners to be known” when talking about the ownership of land in yesterday’s National.
This struck a chord with me as in the past weekend I had visited the gardens of Langwell House in Caithness, open under Scotland’s Garden Scheme. I was interested particularly because I had learned that there were clearances in the Strath of Langwell which I had not known about previously.
The walled gardens were indeed impressive but surrounded the gardener’s house, not the main house which was out of sight and has its very own garden and gardener.
“Who owns Langwell House now?” I enquired innocently of the pleasant manager on duty. “I am not allowed to say” was his surprising answer. Naturally I came straight home and googled it. It is owned by the Welbeck Trust. On further investigation it would appear that the owner is William Parente, nephew of Lady Anne Cavendish, a famous socialite and descendant of the Dukes of Portland, fabulously wealthy and long-time owners of the estate. She died in 2008.
I came to the conclusion that we need urgent transparency as to who owns Scotland. What an insult to be told that you are not allowed to know! Secondly, we do need a land tax so that these wealthy landowners pay for the privilege of owning Scotland’s land, and this may eventually lead to fairer land ownership by Scots.
Susan Grant
Tain
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