Sir, – John Schofield wants an independent Scotland and claimed that 10,000 people marched in Dumfries (in Letters, June 9 issue).

Our pro-UK organisation met this march with our Union Jack flags at the Burns Statue. I spoke to them via our PA system and reminded them of the value of being British together.

We were told by a Police liaison officer that the official Police estimate was 3500. This tallied approximately with our count of 3000 – we do not know why the Police later changed their count to the fantasy of '10,000'.

In any case, exaggerating and stretching the truth is part and parcel of Scottish Nationalism.

For example, Mr Schofield claimed that it does not divide the English against the Scots. It clearly does and it also divides Scots against Scots.

All the directors of our organisation are Scottish and British, but every day on our Facebook page we have to deal with people who are telling us to 'move South' or 'move back to England', or that we are 'traitors to Scotland'. That's just the polite ones.

He claimed that 'Scotland should get the government that Scotland elected, run by people who know Scotland best and who care about its future'. I have news for him. We already do, twice. At both Holyrood and Westminster.

He also claimed that Scotland 'badly needs lots of new Scots', and he

referenced the SNP's Growth Commission report. The author of this SNP document is on record as saying that he envisaged 400,000 more workers

(The Sunday Times Scotland, May 27, 2018). With family, that's at least 1m new people in a country of 5m.

For those of us who don't live in leafy Dumfries and Galloway – but in

the already over-crowded Central Belt – this is the awful and destructive future that people like Mr Schofield want for us. It's one of the reasons why most of us will always say, 'No thanks!'

Alistair McConnachie

A Force For Good,

Clyde Offices,

48 West George Street,

Glasgow.