Readers' Letters: Here's how John Swinney can dig himself out of a hole

He may have found, however, a tightrope with which to pull himself out of the Indyref2 hole, if he succeeds in arguing down the planned motion to use a majority of list votes cast for pro-independence parties as a mandate for skipping Indyref2 and starting negotiations to leave the Union.

That should be easy because for the past several years the vote share of anti-UK parties in council and Westminster by-elections has hovered around 30 per cent, peaking at 35 per cent (30 per cent for the SNP) in last year's general election.

Winning an outright majority of seats is going to be a big ask, but forming a government might be possible because it is very possible that the pro-UK party vote will be split in favour of the SNP. In that scenario I suspect Mr Swinney will then look at the total percentage of votes cast for Scexit parties, decide to stay put and leave it to the new intake to sort out.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Festival fatality?

Has the left wing damaged the Edinburgh Festival irreparably? Last year it was the Baillie Gifford crisis and now the Scottish Government is having to bail out the book festival. This year it is the Palestinians and the hard left versus anyone associated with Israel that is the battleground, with Israel effectively being “sent off” even before kick-off.

The Scotsman front page (2 August) featured the smiling face of Miriam Margolyes, with the strapline regarding humour, political content and shocking language. Ms Margoyles has herself used shocking language against Israel to the extent of calls for her OBE to be removed. There appears to be no one left to take Israel's side. How can an arts festival be so biased. There are always two sides, or more, to the same story. This flies in the face of just what art is all about.

Can the Edinburgh Festival survive constant controversy especially given the steep costs for performers and the public alike and even the Fringe's Best Joke competition being cancelled? Exit stage left?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Sort cladding

The SNP’s progress in removing possible fatal cladding from residential properties would embarrass a snail (your report, 2 August). Only 0.2 per cent of the possibly 1,500 buildings concerned have had the work completed. Unless they begin to take this seriously, it could perhaps outdo the ferries fiasco. Or worse. Forget the meetings with the US President, Mr Swinney. Or your regular missives on Gaza. This is something over which you have total responsibility.

The SNP walk straight into avoidable quagmires time after time after time. We must hope and pray there is no tragic ending to this instance.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Going bananas

A few days ago a correspondent referred to Scotland as something akin to “becoming a banana republic”. This stuck with me when I read about the plight of children in England living in temporary accommodation with their families. There are 164,040 children in this sorry position, the highest number on record (in Scotland the figure is a little over 10,000). Child poverty is a scourge in the UK (particularly in England and Wales) at the moment and the Labour government could mitigate things if they introduced an equivalent to the Scottish Child Payment or were not joined at the hip to the Tories’ two-child benefit cap. They could also initiate a wealth tax to be applied to billionaires/millionaires but Rachel Reeves has made her opposition to this crystal clear.

I have no wish to indulge in point scoring on what is clearly a serious issue right across the UK, but surely the desperate situation south of the Border in terms of child poverty and children without permanent homes makes England much closer to a banana republic than Scotland!

Alan Woodcock, Dundee

Time to deliver

Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s Special Envoy, will visit Russia this week on the back of the President ordering two nuclear submarines to be “repositioned” closer to Russia. This unprecedented situation came after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the President’s trade ultimatums of taking “a step towards war”, potentially nuclear war.

This war of words is not new but the action is. The timing of Trump’s decision may not be accidental given Witkoff’s pending meeting with Putin. Russia seems to have been taken by surprise, with no Kremlin response so far. Medvedev is known to be a close comrade of Putin, having yielded power to him; it is possible Putin may have endorsed or even authored his comments.

Since Witkoff’s last trip to Moscow in April the war with Ukraine has escalated. Trump has ramped up the rhetoric and his latest action may help persuade Putin he will follow through on threats of punitive sanctions on Russia and its trading partners. Witkoff, however, is the weak link. The billionaire has very little political experience and his negotiating strategy is based on real estate dealing. After multiple trips to Israel and Russia, talks have yielded little. Like President Biden’s principal negotiator, Antony Blinken, Witkoff is Jewish, which will rankle with Gaza’s leaders, especially with his habit of blaming only Hamas for the conflict and failure to find peace. He has been described as “out of his depth” when negotiating with Putin, whom he considers honest, smart and a great guy. With Trump upping the pressure, Witkoff’s rapprochement with Putin will be put to the test. More is at stake, and it’s time he delivers.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

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