Scotsman Letters: Reform have nothing to offer Scotland

That one man's popularity, as a self styled man of the people, has become a sick joke. He is rarely seen in his parliamentary constituency of Clacton, more often than not hobnobbing with his pal in the US. Even that friendship has faded, through the ongoing war in Iran.

Reform UK's record for the Councils they lead in England is absolutely atrocious. Much has been written about how Labour will fare in the May elections. It will be fascinating to see how Reform UK will do. The shine has well and truly gone from any lustre they possessed. Somewhat ambitiously, Reform UK have positioned themselves as the main opposition to the SNP in Scotland, where they have never been popular. They are very much an English party and, as some of their supporters might say, “should go back where they've come from”.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

No consensus

In the letter “If Anas Sarwar hasn't been talking to Malcolm Offord, why not?” (22 April), Callum Watson asks: “Is it not the duty of the leaders of the unionist parties to at least meet and see what can be done to try to increase the number of anti-independence seats in the interest of the country?”

Mr Watson has, perhaps, missed the point that Holyrood was always intended to be a consensus parliament, with all parties working together for the benefit of Scotland as a whole. That's why the particular system of Proportional Representation was put in place. The fact that it's mainly the unionist parties who don't want to join in with consensus politics tells us pretty-well everything we need to know about the London party branch-office representatives.

Those of us who support independence for Scotland do so, and give our votes mainly to the SNP, with the ultimate view to removing all London-party branch office MSPs from Holyrood altogether – and having a parliament where all our MSPs are elected from genuinely Scottish parties or persons standing as independent of any political party.

The last thing Scotland needs is for Mr Watson's favoured right-wing parties (of which Labour is now one) working together to keep us in thrall to Westminster. Having said that: their propensity for fighting like rats in the proverbial sack suggests he's unlikely to be heard or, if he is, those elected as a result won't be able to find consensus once they've won their own seats.

My own Mum usually voted Tory while my Dad voted Labour. Neither of them would recognise either party if they were still with us.

Ian Waugh, Dumfries

Panel show

Stand-in SNP leader Mairi McAllan’s face lit up after a turgid performance on BBC’s Question Time in Aberdeen. After being out-debated by all except the Greens’ Gillian Mackay she knew she was on safe ground on independence, or so she thought. After a well rehearsed pitch the audience gave her what at best can be described as muted applause.

John Swinney’s protege fell down on the Scottish government flip flopping over future oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Its seismic shift from outright rejection to giving the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil fields the green light if energy security and environmental tests pass got a cool reception from the audience. As Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay stated, John Swinney could not look the Aberdeen audience in the eye, given the loss of thousands of oil related jobs. This clearly irked Ms McAllan, who accused Mr Findlay of an aversion to female politicians.

It’s difficult not to conclude that the SNP think they have the election in the bag. Unlike the other parties, their leader does not feel the need to turn up at TV debates.

The SNP government treats Scots with contempt, just as they have for over 20 years by cutting public services and increasing taxes. As Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said, “continuity won’t cut it”, but if Ms McAllan is to become first minister expect much more of the same.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Wasted energy

Anyone watching BBC Debate Night from Inverurie or Question Time from Aberdeen who is against the enforced crashing of the oil industry and littering the country with uneconomic windfarms, turbines and substations must have been appalled by the attitude, lack of common sense and zealotry of the Green and SNP panellists.

On Debate Night we had Green MSP Lorna Slater lecturing the audience on the economics and practicalities of energy policy when she couldn't even organise a simple bottle return scheme, and SNP MP Kirsty Blackman, who once told the House of Commons she doesn't have a clue what her chromosones are...”probably XY”, spouting impenetrable waffle.

We had a repeat performance on Question Time from Mairi McAllan – tipped, unbelievably, to be the next SNP leader – hiding behind the mysterious “environmental criteria” settee and tying herself in knots in her efforts not to say she opposed new drilling

With the admirable exception of Labour's Michael Marra on Debate Night, the obvious conclusion was that only the Conservatives and Reform are serious about saving and exploiting the North Sea.

Quite how they avoid eating each other up and letting the SNP win is beyond me, however.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Rotten system

It is unfortunate that columnist Joyce McMillan did not address the failure at Holyrood to follow the lead of the Welsh Assembly and change the voting system for the May election (“How Swinney’s wise words on independence were twisted so quickly”, Perspective 24 April).

In Cardiff the revised voting system is meant to ensure a closer match between votes cast and seats won, so it is very democratic.

At Holyrood, polls suggest the SNP will obtain around half the seats with support from only one-third of the votes cast. That is not a mandate from the people of Scotland as it results in voters supporting Labour, Liberal, Reform or Tory parties being short changed by the system – a vote for any of these parties is worth less than a vote for the Greens or the SNP.

When is the system going to be altered, or are Scots to be faced with a system worse than the 19th century rotten boroughs for all eternity?

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Best before

John Swinney certainly has a strange way of appealing for votes. (“Swinney hints at ‘voluntary’ food price cap scheme”, 23 April).

After his huge criticism of Keir Starmer for not doing his homework over Peter Mandelson it now transpires Mr Swinney did likewise over his big election “promise” to cap essential food prices. Everyone else could see the problems.

The growing feeling is that the SNP really has lost its way after 20 years of failures and its shopping basket of new ideas is rather empty. Has Mr Swinney over-run his “best before” date?

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Vow to dither

The SNP manifesto has a list of 50 “Next Steps”. Third on the list is “Cap prices for essential foods” with the party claiming it would “establish legal price ceilings on a basket of essential food items such as bread, milk and eggs”.

Having said he would use public health powers to introduce this legislation, John Swinney has now started backpedalling on this and is hinting at a voluntary scheme.

If a manifesto pledge is watered down even before the election has taken place, you wouldn’t put much trust in any of the other 49 being fulfilled, would you?

Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray

A Donald duck?

Last week, John Swinney announced that he would cap the prices of around 50 staple food products. The notion was met with complete opposition from every retail and grocer's organisation in Scotland.

Now, Mr Swinney says that a voluntary scheme might be a better way to look at this. Another week, another U-turn. A case of SACO – Swinney Always Chickens Out – maybe?

Jim Houston, Edinburgh

Stirring the pot

The SNP's rhetoric on leading Scotland into Independence is totally without any political or economic justification. And furthermore, it is obvious John Swinney is completely out of his depth.

To date, the would-be government of an independent Scotland has singularly failed to explain to members of the electorate how they would cope with governance of this northerly part of the UK without: a central bank; the pound sterling; a foreign office; embassies; defence; the block grant funding received from the Westminster Exchequer in the form of the Barnett formula payments etc. Need I go on?

Let us all remember full well that Alex Salmond failed in his independence campaign, in spite of having obtained permission from the prime minister at the time, David Cameron, to hold a referendum on the matter. The electorate rejected the concept of independence by a sizeable margin; Nicola Sturgeon also threatened to invoke the terms of the Scotland Acts, but never did.

So why is John Swinney wasting everybody's time by trying to stir the independence pot yet again?

Robert I G Scott, Northfield, Ceres, Fife

Write to The Scotsman

We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, and in the body of the email – no attachments – and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading. No poems.