Thanks for the essay by Eileen Reid about her father (The lessons my father taught me, Essay of the week, July 6).
Jimmy Reid was and is, rightly, an inspiration to many.
In view of the quote about him not being interested "in tartans and kilts", I recall meeting him at an event at which tartans and kilts were much in evidence and Jimmy seemed comfortable. They may not have been for him but he did not object to their use by others. I normally wear the kilt and he chatted amiably with me.
The unveiling of the uniform for Scotland's Commonwealth Games team has brought both positive and negative reactions. Some Scots seem uncomfortable with tartan and the kilt; most people elsewhere seem to like them.
After I had worked for a year advising on the training of health workers in Nepal, the Nepali Dean of the Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu, said to me: "Do you know why I chose you for this job, rather than any of the other doctors I met in the UK? Because the fact that you wore the kilt showed that you would not be a 'yes' man". Now, like other admirers of Jimmy Reid, I am definitely a Yes man in a Scottish context.
David Stevenson
Edinburgh
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