NEWSREADER Fiona Armstrong has admitted to hiding her Scottish connections after they led to her being insulted.
The Dumfriesshire-based broadcaster, who became Lady MacGregor after marrying clan chieftain Sir Malcolm in 2005, now conceals her domicile when in England due to the increasingly acrimonious debate over independence.
She said: "This month, I've worked in London, Manchester and Yorkshire, and I've stopped telling taxi drivers where I live.
"'Oh, the north,' I say rather vaguely as I rifle in my handbag for one of those elusive, non-toxic Scottish £10 notes. Otherwise I'll be sure to get an earful of abuse."
The 55-year-old, who travels the globe promoting Scottish culture at Highland games and gatherings, claimed she was harangued over the issue of Scottish independence at a recent funeral at which she wore a tartan suit.
The Preston-born former ITN anchorwoman, who has lived in Scotland for 25 years, told how her family had expressed hostility over the drift towards independence.
She said: "My mother is sick of the Scots, too. She lives in the north of England and believes that every spare pound that the Chancellor has bypasses Cumbria and Northumberland and goes straight across the Border to pay for roads, bridges and hospitals.
"Many people in England tell me they're beginning to think they could manage quite nicely without their northern neighbours."
The part-time BBC News 24 presenter has called for the heat to be taken out of the debate over the country's future.
Writing in a field sports magazine, Armstrong added: "I'm not sure my nerves can stand much more and there are still more than two years to go."
Ms Armstrong recently described the BBC's decision to re-hire her as a "token" gesture towards showing more mature female broadcasters on screen. She was hired along with Julia Somerville, 62, at the same time as Zeinab Badawi and Carole Walker, then both 50, in 2009.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article