People with an Ulster Scots background should be allowed to vote in Scotland’s independence referendum, a senior Orange Order member has said.
Dr David Hume said Ulster Scots had played a key role in Scottish history.
He said: “We are stakeholders as well. Surely a decision such as this should not ignore our input?”
Mr Hume spoke out at a Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland event in Glasgow to commemorate the centenary of the anti-Home Rule Ulster Covenant.
“In 1912 Scots unionists watched anxiously for Ulster, and in 2014 Ulster will watch anxiously for you as nationalists seek to win a referendum which would alter totally the constitution of our nation,” he said.
“A union without Scotland would be a poorer place.”
The SNP-run Scottish government is planning to hold a referendum on independence in autumn 2014.