Herald letter: Pity traditional working-class decorum never reached Yousaf and Anderson

IT is a sad reflection of the divided state of Scottish discourse that everything must be reduced to the simplistic binary level of Yes vs No, or SNP vs Tory and it is depressing to see that the modern propensity to foul language is part of that process, as demonstrated by Neil Mackay’s article on the subject (“A tale of two ‘f***s’ … and why they are so different”, The Herald, August 10).

I am sure I am not alone amongst your readers in remembering the days when habitual and fluent swearing was a feature of the working day for many men, but outside of the factory gates was subject to a code of “no need for that – ladies present” or “mind your language in front of the children”. As children ourselves, we were taught never to say anything in public that you would not say to your mother in private and that swearing was neither grown-up nor funny nor clever. We can only assume that these lessons of working-class decorum were never passed on to the likes of Humza Yousaf, Lee Anderson or indeed Neil Mackay.

Those individuals should consider the example that they have set and indeed, I think in earlier age, Mr Yousaf’s position as First Minister would not have been tenable. And they should ponder on the example of Labour’s Wes Streeting in an earlier Edinburgh conversation. As reported in this paper, he “mocked the idea that he would ever tell Scottish Labour what to do, and if he tried that with Dame Jackie [Baillie] the second word would be ‘off’.”

The point was made with humour, articulacy and decency – qualities that are apparently absent from Messrs Yousaf and Anderson, and not valued by Mr Mackay.

Peter A Russell, Glasgow.