January 30.

I am grateful to W. S. Wilson and M. G. Kerr for their responses to my

earlier letter. I could not have wished for more convincing

justification of my criticism of the SNP or more ample demonstration of

the SNP preference for personal abuse in default of reasoned argument.

It is the Scot Gnats who want to break up a union that has lasted for

nearly 300 years, so it is entirely their responsibility to demonstrate

beyond reasonable doubt why Scotland should give them any credence.

This they have never done -- and for one very simple reason. Their

creed is nothing more than superstition inflated into a religion. They

can produce no factual basis for their dogma because all experience in

the real world is contrary.

However, in an attempt to guide them towards the light of reason,

allow me to suggest one or two of the wide range of issues in respect of

which they leave themselves wide open to hilarity, concern, disbelief,

or contempt -- depending on one's point of view.

Their base argument is that we are subjugated by the English. Do they

ever watch TV or read a newspaper, I wonder? Government and Opposition

benches, the media, big business, entertainment -- the whole

Establishment is crawling with Scots. And in positions of power.

They claim that Scotland would gain enormously in wealth if it were

independent. However, they are impressively economical with the truth

and selective in their accounting. They trumpet about the augmented

income we would acquire (much of which exists in their imagination

though in no-one else's) but I have yet to see any admission of the

costs -- and crippling they would be if one looks honestly at it.

They claim that we would be much better governed if we vote for them.

However, despite their professed antipathy towards Labour, they

apparently expect us to ignore the fact that if Scotland became

independent in the foreseeable future we would be controlled by

socialists at district level, controlled by socialists at regional

level, controlled by socialists in Edinburgh, controlled by socialists

in Strasbourg, and controlled by socialists in Brussels.

Finally, they are so besotted with their own ideas and their grab for

personal power that their conscience is apparently untroubled by the

damage they are inflicting on the international reputation of Scotland.

There is every reason to be proud of what Scotland has given to the

world but one can only feel ashamed when asked to justify the divisive

preachings of the SNP.

J. F. Montgomerie,

7A West Lennox Drive,

Helensburgh.