Alex Salmond's 'Lord Snootys' gibe was 'not racist' However, he was told the matter would not be referred to prosecutors as officers took the view that the remark, ostensibly aimed at Andrew Mitchell, the former chief whip, and George Osborne, the Chancellor, was an attack on "people of the upper classes." He added: "Look, I don't like Salmond much, either - he's so smug, he'd drink his own bathwater. But I don't think he was applying it to the whole nation - after all, Liverpool (for example) is a toff-free-zone already, and Birmingham is not far behind. It's not a hate crime. Another message came from a woman thinking him for "taking our part." She added: "As an English person living in Scotland I am concerned about our fate should we find ourselves in an independent Scotland." An ex-patriate Scot living in Canada also contacted the lawyer to say that before he and his wife emigrated they were annoyed by the "institutionalised prejudice" north of the border. In his letter to the fiscal's office, Mr Shaughnessy said he did not believe "disaster would follow" if Scotland voted for separation. He added: "I believe that Mr Salmond had, and continues to have, an absolute right to exhort his supporters to push for separation. What I object to, and what my sensitivities picked up on last Saturday, is any crossing of a line that makes animosity, to those on these islands who regard themselves as English, a part of his campaign strategy. If Mr Salmond is not to be taken to task on the acceptable boundaries of his rhetoric, it is surely foreseeable that if he finds that he can say whatever he likes about those he opposes, because he judges such to be to his politicai advantage, things will ratchet up over the coming two years.