FORMER NORTHERN Ireland first minister David Trimble has accused Scottish Nationalists of “doing violence” to people’s identity with their bid to take the country out of the United Kingdom.
Lord Trimble said that every Scot had a “British component” in their national identity, and that to “separate that is to do violence to people’s own sense of identity”.
He was speaking at a rally to defend the union at the Scottish Conservative conference in Troon in Ayrshire.
Tory politicians from all four countries in the United Kingdom joined together to make the case for Scotland staying in the union.
Lord Trimble, who won a Nobel Prize for his contribution to the Northern peace process, argued that there was a “common component” in the national identity of people from all parts of the UK.
And he stated: “I have to say to Scottish nationalists that by fighting for a programme of separatism, saying that you want to take Scotland out and take the Scottish identity out into a separate place, you are doing violence to part of the identity of every Scotsman, because there is a British component in the identity of every Scotsman.”
Lord Trimble said Northern Ireland had “come out of a huge campaign that was intended to break the union”. But he said that had failed because of the efforts of the police and the armed forces, but also because “we won the political argument”.
The number of voters in Northern Ireland now supporting nationalism was declining significantly, he said.
Reacting to the comments, SNP deputy Humza Yousaf said that Lord Trimble “appears to know as little about modern Scottish identity as David Cameron does”.
He added: “It is precisely this sort of negative nonsense that is so damaging to the Tory-led anti-independence campaign.
“Lord Trimble couldn’t be more wrong about Scotland.
“Independence is the broad, inclusive and positive option for Scotland, in which the wide range of identities we have in our modern nation – Scottish, British, Pakistani, Chinese, Polish, Irish and many, many more can all be reflected and celebrated.” – (PA)