HAILING from a large McKenna family from the East End of Glasgow I suppose I should be welcoming Kevin McKenna’s weekly championing of his very narrow definition of the working class. Instead I find myself more and more frustrated that he simply doesn’t know or chooses to ignore the reality of what being working class is about ("The SNP has a big problem with the working class", The Herald, August 29).

For fifty years of his life my father crawled into 18-inch coal seams to earn money to keep his family. He won medals for taking part in rescues in mining disasters. He chose to spend the few shillings he had on buying books rather than the “Buckie” Mr McKenna seems to think is a manifestation of the working class. He invested in his children’s education so that his sons would have alternatives in life. His council house had a piano and he sacrificed other things to arrange piano lessons for his daughter. He had a dream that his family would enjoy a better life than he ever had. He was a humble man but would have regarded the goals he set himself as being achieved.

Am I, now to feel ashamed because I became a company director? Should my brother deny being a university professor or my sister a senior schoolteacher? Should we deny my father’s sacrifices in order to fall in line with Mr McKenna’s narrow views on who is working class?

The ludicrous comparison Mr McKenna makes between football and rugby supporters only goes to show how out of touch he is. When friends treat me, I sometimes attend Celtic Park. I also from time to time attend an international rugby match. I notice no difference between the nature nor the noise of the crowds. I have friends who buy season tickets for various stadia. They are working men or retired working men but they do not fit into Mckenna’s ludicrous narrow definition.

My definition of working class is quite simple. There are those who work or would if not deprived by age, illness or opportunity. Then there are those who choose to live off the backs of those who work. The latter are often found in marble palaces.

I think if Mr McKenna chooses to take off his blinkers he will find that the SNP is much more in tune with the working class than he presently is.

George Kay, Burntisland.