LAST weekend, my wife and I visited The Great Polish Map of Scotland in the grounds of the Barony House Hotel in Eddleston near Peebles (and I urge other readers of The National to do likewise).

This is a 3D map (the world’s largest) of Scotland created by Poles in the 1970s and was the brainchild of one of the Poles who fought in the Second World War for the UK, who wanted to give back to Scotland something tangible in gratitude for the warmth of the hospitality he and his countrymen received when they were billeted here.

Two days later, when in Bo’ness, I noticed that the Polish shop there had closed down. This has been established for years. I do not know the reasons for this closure but could not help wondering if this were another casualty of the toxic Brexit environment.

These two encounters so close together seemed to throw into marked relief the different attitudes prevailing between the modern climate of opinion and a time when the British state recognised the community of interest with, and welcomed the contribution of, nationalities such as the Polish people.

Gavin Brown
Linlithgow