I WAS thrilled to be a part of what Lesley Riddoch beautifully described as “the wee river of light circling down the side of Arthur Seat” (Rally shows the need for targeted, canny activism that can garner column inches, Feb 2).

I watched in awe as folk (the majority of whom will be proud owners of a bus pass!) assembled in darkness and horizontal elements. They stoically repaired and reinforced their banners against the rainy wind, helped each other light wonderfully long torches and encouraged each other with self-deprecating banter. The camaraderie was uplifting.

It was special to be amongst like-minded souls, battling the swirling wind and rain together. Somehow it seemed to make us even more collectively determined, more resolute to reach our parliament.

READ MORE: Scotland's message to Europe: Leave a light on

I would like to thank the organisers, the drivers who honked their support, the band who led us down the mountain and those who gave the early warning of “big rocks” as we negotiated the rugged terrain of Scotland’s capital. To Lesley Riddoch and all the impassioned speakers, a big thank you also. And Lesley’s gratitude to us was so appreciated.

For me there is something very powerful about endeavour, and it was endeavour that shone through Tuesday night. It would have been so easy not to go, to get in the bath, shut the curtains and watch the telly. But layers of thermals and a hip flask won the day!

And let us not negate the Holyrood landscape designers. That setting, with its varying layers of standing spaces, so enhances the sense of voices being heard. And it compensated for the instruction that torches had to be extinguished as we crossed into its land.

READ MORE: Pro-European activists keep the light on across a wet Scotland

Next year, however, I hope that we might have small floating vessels sailing on the ornamental ponds, festooned in lights and Saltires!

The handmade banners somehow tugged at my patriotic heartstrings. Wooden poles had been duct-taped onto recycled cardboard, blue and white paint sourced, yellow EU stars adorned, suitably thought-provoking, poignant messages written and finally lights applied.

How much more inspiring than mass-produced, clinical, uniformly-fonted signs so evident within current picket lines. (I know there are some handmade ones too, but they are not what dominates).

Folk had risen to the challenge of “keeping a light on for Scotland”. Folk had rallied, and I for one decided not to pick off the wax now “decorating” my Europeanised Saltire. It will serve as a memory of a joyous experience where spirits rose rather than being dampened, where light shone, where a valiant wee army marched, where a gathering who believe in Scotland didn’t give up, where kindred souls refused to be extinguished.

Jenny Pearson
Edinburgh

IN her Thursday column Lesley Riddoch refers to the Baltic Way protest on 23 August 1989 which was held on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, which assigned Lithuania to the German sphere of influence and Finland, Estonia and Latvia to the Soviet sphere of influence.

The pact was later modified to assign Lithuania to the Soviet sphere and more of Poland to the German sphere. By the end of June 1940 the Soviet Union had occupied all three of the Baltic states and invaded and occupied eastern Poland, and Germany had invaded and occupied western Poland. Only resolute Finnish resistance to the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939/40 had spared Finland from occupation at the cost of massive loss of human life and territorial concessions.

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Lesley speaks of two million Balts holding hands along the 230km between Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, in some way underestimating the scale of the Baltic Way protest. In fact it is some 550km as the crow flies between Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius and the actual route of the Baltic Way was 690km. What Lesley does not say is that two million people represented 40% of the entire ethnic Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian population of five million at that time, there being around another 2.5 million non-Balts resident in the then Soviet Baltic Republics.

There is a fine monument to the Baltic Way protest in Vilnius on the side of the road to Riga.

Andrew Parrott
Perth

I OFTEN agree with Jim Taylor’s opinions, but I’m afraid on the trans issue he has a blind spot (Letters, Jan 30). “The impact on the sex status of women” – what does that even mean? It makes about as much sense as the phrase about “diminishing women”.

He brings up a number of issues – medical evaluation, age of starting transition – as if nobody had ever thought to discuss them during the long years leading to the the passing of the current legislation; and as if Scotland is somehow different from every other country which has carried out similar liberalisation of the law without adverse consequences.

As for “vested-interest external influences”, more detail is required to make any sense of that. And as for his “vociferous and intransigent lobby”, let’s agree to there being a problem, but one which exists on both sides of the argument.

Derek Ball
Bearsden

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WHERE is Anas?

Not renowned for being shy of TV cameras, Anas Sarwar has been conspicuous by his absence in the Gender Recognition Reform Bill debate in spite of the overwhelming backing for the bill by his Labour MSPs. Could it be that when the going got tough and the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland should have been bravely defending Scottish parliamentary democracy, the man who seemingly likes to preach to others about sticking to their principles suddenly lost his voice, as well as his principles and his courage?

Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian