In June 2021, the Scottish poet Erin Boyle published a Scots poem via the BBC ‘The Social’ page. She received a number of unkind and hateful comments through prejudice against the Scots language and Scottish accents.

Lesley McDonald, the Education Convener & member of the board of the Robert Burns World Federation, agreed with a number of prejudiced comments against Miss Boyle’s accent, including comments that hoped people outside of Scotland would realise that not everyone speaks like Miss Boyle, and made at least one anti-Gaelic language comment. 

The Robert Burns World Federation (RBWF) states one of its aims is to promote and celebrate Scottish heritage & languages, as well as the works of Robert Burns, who wrote a number of his poems in Scots. 

An open letter was written to the RBWF outlining Ms McDonald’s comments, as they are diametrically opposed to the aims of the RBWF’s Mission Statement. The RBWF issued a response that Ms McDonald’s comments were her personal views, are not aligned with the RBWF & the RBWF wishes to promote all of Scotland’s languages. At the present time, Ms McDonald remains in post.

We feel that given the stated aims of the RBWF, Ms McDonald should not remain in her post as Education Convener as her prejudices towards modern Scots, their accents and their usage of Scots language or Gaelic language may hinder the RBWF’s mission of promoting Scottish culture and celebrating it. Ms McDonald should resign from her post, or be removed from her post, to prevent any further damage to the RBWF’s reputation.