IT was with a little interest - not to say surprise - that I read John Macleod's article (May 12) in which he referred to me as an SNP MP in the 1970s who kicked ''ass on TV and roused Nationalist gatherings to passionate levels''.

I don't think I ever did so and may I refer him and you, sir, to a quote from my maiden speech in the House of Commons away back in 1974 when I said that, after Scotland had regained self-government, ''England will have lost a surly neighbour and found an understanding friend''. With respect to John Macleod, that would hardly seem to be the rabble-rousing stuff which he has attributed to me, an Anglophile Scottish Nationalist.

Douglas Crawford,

8 Hall Street, Campbeltown. May 13.