A HANDFUL of protesters who told holidaymakers approaching the Scottish border to stay at home was an “absolute disgrace”, the Scottish Tory leader has said.
A group of pro-independence activists staged a demonstration on the A1 on Saturday, hanging up a banner reading "Staycation - Keep Scotland Covid-Free" beneath the official Welcome To Scotland sign at the side of the road.
Yesterday, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf led SNP criticism of the incident, labelling it “horrible, reprehensible and vile”.
He added: “If you are a racist you are no friend of mine and no part of the movement I belong to.
“Luckily these morons don't represent the Scotland I know and love.”
I have no idea how anybody would think this would win over support for independence. It could not be more counter productive and ill-conceived. pic.twitter.com/182YFXsv5c
— Pete Wishart (@PeteWishart) July 4, 2020
Police have now issued “suitable advice” to the demonstrators.
READ MORE: Police speak to protesters at English border demanding for 'Covid-free' Scotland
The Scottish Conservative leader, Jackson Carlaw, has warned that no-one should be "put off" visiting Scotland.
Speaking on the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland show, Mr Carlaw said there should be a "real effort" into marketing Scotland as a tourist destination.
He said: "We've got to change the language because the scenes we saw on the border yesterday afternoon were an absolute disgrace.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson: 'No such thing as a border between England and Scotland'
"Nicola Sturgeon hasn't yet, and if she's watching now I really do hope even belatedly she will come out and stop that kind of rhetoric and language.
"We need people to come safely to Scotland to visit and to stay here on holiday and we should be encouraging that, not putting people off."
Asked by the BBC's Gordon Brewer if the protest was just a few people "clowning around", he said: "It is but these send messages out.
READ MORE: Matt Hancock claims Scots have been moving around more freely than English during lockdown
"We need to do everything we can to support our industry as best we can."
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Police in the Borders were called to a layby area near the A1 at Lamberton at around 2.25pm on Saturday July 4, following a report of protest activity at the side of the carriageway.
"Officers attended and suitable advice has been given to those in attendance."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel