HOW unsurprising to read The National’s front-page headline regarding the latest anti-Scotland/anti-indy stance from the Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton.

This man is an arch-Unionist who has a history of putting down Scotland and the right of the Scottish people to push for self-determination.

Who was his pro-indy opponent in the Oxford Union debate and how on earth did this individual not wipe the floor with Cole-Hamilton’s argument, especially with so much ammunition to fire at him when it comes to his biased opinion on the usual narrow and tired assertion that Scotland is too wee, too poor and too stupid to go it alone.

The follow-up statement from the LibDems was astounding: “The nationalist idea of Scotland cut off and going it alone is outdated and illiterate.”

That is an opinion, pure and simple, from a political party that has always been opposed to Scotland becoming independent – constantly favouring the status quo and a fractured Union that doesn’t work any more with an economy mismanaged for decades by failed UK governments that Scots didn’t vote for.

Shameless “bitter together” politicians such as Cole-Hamilton, Labour’s Ian Murray (plus Sarwar and Baillie) and of course, the Scots Tory branch manager DRoss (and others), all share a common sentiment that Scotland should never exist again and is a region of Englandshire.

More damning is the fact that our population will never be allowed to have any constitutional right to decide on our own separate future well away from the bullish diktat and interference of a UK government in London.

These political collaborators effectively deem us second-class citizens who have no right to decide on our own progressive future. It is a depressingly undemocratic stance.

More alarmingly, there is a supportive element, thankfully a minority, within our population who share the view that Bella Caledonia should be subjugated to rule from England.

This is fundamentally wrong and I despair that many more Scots are still not seeing through this political skulduggery.

I appreciate there are other understandable distractions (eg the cost of living crisis) at the current time but this is a huge constitutional issue that is not going to go away anytime soon regardless of the political attacks from said antagonists (plus the usual media cohorts from England).

Bernie Japs

Edinburgh