Readers' Letters: Whoever wins election will not 'speak for Scotland'

Once all the votes are counted, it will be the turnout that might be the most telling statistic. How much trust will be given on the strength of promises made and how much will be delivered? On this basis it may well be that no one really “wins”.

The problem we may well face is that the winning politicians will quickly assume they speak “for Scotland”, as Nicola Sturgeon was often heard saying.

A little humility would be nice and a realisation that, no matter which party is represented, many did not vote for it.

Sadly, it may well be “business as usual” at Holyrood with the “winner” taking all. Are we simply in for another five years of higher taxes, declining public services and ever more exotic excuses?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Low blow

If turnout today is low and the SNP gains a majority as a result, how in any way is that a support for independence? Maybe in John Swinney’s world, but not in the real one.

Martin Calder, Aberdeen

Getting things done

John Swinney complains that the election campaigns of rival parties is “negative” on the grounds that all they want to do is get rid of the SNP (your report, 5 May). Somewhat ironic coming from the leader of a party which kicked off its own campaign promising to get rid of Keir Starmer before moving on to pleas to vote SNP to keep out Reform!

Now his promise if you vote for him is that he will “get things done” (your report, 6 May). Well that would make a very welcome change, Mr Swinney. At least it is recognition that his party has spent the previous two decades not getting things done.

The NHS, education, the justice system, the environment, the A9, the ferries, the drugs deaths, the economy. On and on goes the list of abject failures to get anywhere near the “world leading” targets they are so adept at proclaiming.

Why should anybody believe they will get things done in the next five years? Contrary to Mr Swinney’s claims, the main thrust of the other parties is a very positive message. If you really want things to get done then vote for anybody but the SNP.

Colin Hamilton, Edinburgh

Vote wisely

The first priority for supporters of democracy today must be not only to vote, but to also encourage family, friends and neighbours to make the effort to cast their votes.

The second priority must be to vote for a candidate in the constituencies (lilac-coloured ballot paper) who will work to bring about real change in Scotland, not the change promised by Labour at the last election which proved illusory, nor the change promised by parties that espouse reform but which will insist on rejecting membership of the EEA or EFTA, never mind the EU, while seeking to impose the failed economic policies of Westminster (as under PM Liz Truss) on an increasingly undermined Holyrood legislature.

The third priority, must be to vote for a party on the regional list (peach-coloured ballot paper) that not only will work hard to safeguard the wellbeing of Scotland’s citizens and seek to make our country more prosperous but will look beyond broken Britain and the failings of Brexit to offer hope of the fundamental constitutional change that will enable all of the nations of these islands to more democratically, and more positively, determine the futures of their respective peoples.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Refreshing change

Ah, there’s nothing quite like an election to see all the big policy flagships come sailing out into the open.

Thank you, though, to the Scottish Socialist Party canvassers who came along my street in Leith. Really refreshing to hear ideas well within Holyrood’s reach that speak more to easing the cost of living in the day-to-day, rather than big headline-catching gimmicks, or maddeningly ambiguous slogans. Perhaps little surprise that polling has suggested some of Holyrood’s most popular measures (such as free prescriptions and overhaul to reduce commuter costs of public transport) are ones pioneered by SSP MSPs in prior parliaments, and then delivered in full or part by genuine cross-party consensus.

Real dialogue is so important in our politics, bringing different perspectives to the same shared principles.

Personally, I’m hoping we can both see an SSP MSP or two back in Holyrood; and that rather than just seeing all this year’s big policy flagships sailing by each other like the proverbial “ships in the night”, that all our new MSPs of any party persuasion are willing to really engage with one another meaningfully and serve at the heart of our national conversation.

Calum Martin, Edinburgh

Put adults in charge

Retired long-serving police officer Doug Keil describes the frightening deterioration of Scotland’s law enforcement under the SNP/Greens (Letters, 1 May).

“We have lost over 1,000 police officers since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, large numbers are on sick leave or restricted duties, with many of the remainder stressed, overworked and subject to regular disruption of their working and family lives.”

He also mentions 180 closed police stations and £2 billion removed from the force’s budget. Anyone would think the Scottish government were on the side of criminals; after all, the SNP brought in legislation allowing some prisoners to vote, while their Green allies seem to favour the abolition of prisons altogether.

In the same edition you report on entrepreneur Sir David Murray warning of an anti-enterprise culture embedded in the current Holyrood administration, observing that certain politicians “sneer at business people as if we’ve done something wrong to build a business to make money”.

Sir David also criticises the fact that the ruling party are running an “unsustainable” budget deficit of almost 12 per cent and deplores the chaotic wastage on public building projects, remarking that if Scotland were a business, it would be “insolvent”.

Separatists will no doubt scoff at the opinions of these two experts in their respective fields as well as the lived experiences of so many of us. We are, after all, just “anti-Scottish”. So wheesht for indy, everyone. Mr Keil concludes by urging, “For your safety and the future of Scotland, vote anything but SNP/Green.” Absolutely. After 20 years of misrule, let’s put some responsible adults back in charge again.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Poetic licence

I am amused by Gordon Wright’s very selective qotations of Scottish authors against the Union (Letters, 6 May).

Robert Burns chose to work for the Union government. He even asked the excise chief in Dumfries to sack one of his staff in order to give him the post, and in his private diary wrote: “Whatever might be my sentiments of republics, ancient or modern, as to Britain, I ever abjured the idea. A constitution, which, in its original principles, experience has proved to be every way fitted for our happiness, it would be insanity to abandon for an untried visionary theory.”

Sir Walter Scott was of course the inventor of Brigadoon Scotland (still a good source of income) and when, as a schoolboy, I proudly showed my recent purchase of a volume of Hugh MacDiarmid’s (actually C M Grieve) poems to a schoolmate’s father he informed me that the author was the nastiest person he ever knew (not sure, but I think he had been a classmate of Grieve in Langholm).

The great Scottish philosopher/historian David Hume was probably a much better judge. He was so ashamed of pre-union Scotland – religious wars, deporting its own citizens to be sold as slaves in Bermuda (almost all drowned en route), still burning witches into the 18th century, etc – that he almost refused even to recognise its existence.

A McCormick, Terregles, Dumfries

Orwell’s warning

To paraphrase Gordon Wright’s opening words, as the election looms with the possibility of another referendum, I am reminded what a famous writer, George Orwell, said about nationalism in a long essay written in 1945. “By nationalism I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ . But secondly – and this is much more important – I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests.”

As for Hugh MacDiarmid, quoted by Mr Wright, Orwell singles him out as supporter of the notion that “the Celt is simpler, more creative, less vulgar, less snobbish etc – but the usual power hunger is there under the surface, a symptom being the delusion that Eire, Scotland or even Wales could preserve its independence unaided and owes nothing to British protection”.

Orwell asserts that Welsh, Irish and Scottish nationalism have points of difference but are alike in their anti-English orientation. Such an alliance is being talked about right now. The election results may spur it on! As someone whose forbear John de Pennington was knighted for his services on the winning side at Flodden Field, I hope not.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

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