Readers Letters: Are MSPs scared voters will turn on them?
Reader is dismayed MSPs rejected bill to give voters more power over them
The ethics of SNP and Green MSPs must be called into question.
They have rejected the proposed Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill which was introduced by Reform's Graham Simpson. This would have allowed constituents to throw out their MSPs if they were suspended from the Chamber for a minimum of ten days or sentenced to less than a year in jail.
The UK Parliament introduced such a Bill for England on 11 September 2014 so why are the MSPs still dragging their feet 12 years later? Are they scared their sins will catch up with them and they lose their jobs and gold-plated pensions?
The electorate should remember this on 7 May 2026 when they vote.
Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian
Power sharing
Interesting article by Martin Roche and Graham Watson (Perspective, 5 March), in which they admit that the European Union is about pooling sovereignty, ie, sharing power, which means giving up some powers.
Would someone please tell the SNP, as they seem to think the EU is still a union of nation states – it left this many years ago.
William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian
‘Thank you, briber’
John Swinney has taken to social media to highlight the latest SNP election bribe, which is a £2 bus fare cap across the Highlands and Islands. This scheme will, according to the First Minister, deliver real savings.
Not for the many taxpayers who are now going to be paying more tax to cover these costs while our A&E waiting times have recorded the worst month on record. In January this year, 8 per cent of all those who attended A&E waited more than 12 hours. We’ve also got increasing delayed discharge numbers, cancellations for planned operations, not to mention the children being let down sitting on the waiting list for mental health treatment.
Governing is all about doing the right thing for the electorate. Swinney would rather be pictured standing in front of a bus than own up to the fact that the nation’s health is suffering after 19 years of the SNP in power.
Perhaps he could concentrate on a system that saves lives rather than trying to save his own skin?
Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray
Broken promises
Iran is fast becoming Donald Trump's version of Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and possibly Ukraine, in which an intervention, meant to last weeks, extends to months and even years.
The assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whatever else, has stirred the Iranians, to respond in kind, with bombs and drones, aimed at the Middle East and beyond. Bombing and drones alone, will not win this illegal war and so Trump is mooting “boots on the ground”.
Has Trump learned anything from Iraq, which, to his credit, he was against, or Afghanistan or Vietnam, which he dodged for alleged medical reasons? Obviously not, as otherwise he would have prevaricated and stuck with the peace negotiations, which were making progress.
Trump was elected President, for a second term, with the promise that he would not embark on any wars against nations about whom he knew little or nothing. That's another broken promise.
Keir Starmer may well be no Winston Churchill, but Donald Trump is no Field Marshall Montgomery.
The war that began in Iran might well outlive his Presidency.
Ian Petrie, Edinburgh
Not so special
On 2 May 1982, at the height of the Falklands War, the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentinian cruiser ARA General Belgrano using SWW type Mark 8 torpedoes.
Yet the US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, mangling the English language with US slang, and employing inappropriate, offensive terminology like “toast” and “quiet death”, told us, as he triumphantly announced the sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, that it was the first sinking of a warship by a submarine since the Second World War. Only later was this amended to “American”.
It was the familiar ignorance displayed by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance as they minimised the Nato casualties in Afghanistan.
Why does the UK government maintain the pretence of the “Special Relationship”? It is the Emperor's New Clothes.
John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife
Poor response
Far be it from me to defend Sir Keir Starmer, who has the backbone of a jellyfish, but for once he had an opportunity to stand up for himself and Great Britain!
Donald Trump’s ludicrous attack on Britain comparing the Prime Minister to Winston Churchill demanded a robust response to defend the rule of law, the legitimacy of any non-declaration of war, and the guts to call out the Trump dictatorship.
Sadly, no response other than to send a “boat” to Cyprus, if it ever gets serviced and leaves any time soon. Sad.
David Jerdan, Crail, Fife
Trump’s folly
One has to wonder what exactly was going through Donald Trump’s mind when he decided to launch an attack on Iran, setting alight the tinderbox that the Middle East has always been.
Clearly his popularity ratings have nose-dived in the US and he had to do something with the mid-term elections imminent and not looking encouraging for him. On top of that, certain associations from his past will not go away, so something had to be done. And, of course, does anyone for a second believe that Trump cares a jot about Iranian human rights – or any human rights for that matter?
People much more expert than Donald Trump predict this war could grind on for months, if not years, so what will his deluded MAGA supporters think when innocent young American servicemen and women begin returning home in body bags after his pre-election promise of “America First”? His cosying up to Arab states will also come to an end as their oil facilities and cities are targeted by Iranian bombing.
The chances are that when the whole situation inevitably escalates and it looks like becoming another Vietnam for the US, he will walk away and leave them to it, having created chaos for countries and innocent people in the Middle East and beyond through his utterly thoughtless, narcissistic acts. It may make him feel powerful and the most supreme leader that the US has ever had but the human catastrophe he has caused will not go away.
Donald Trump has, predictably, bitten off much more than he can ever chew. It’s not going to end well for him or for anyone else caught the crossfire. The damage he has caused all over the world is incalculable.
D Mitchell, Doune, Perthshire
Kid gloves
Reports suggest that 30,000 deaths were inflicted by Iran’s authorities in 48 hours after the recent demonstrations; and other credible estimates put the regime’s death-toll at over 120,000 in the 45 years to 2025, one-third being women.
This brutality and Iran’s nuclear plans seem to have mobilised President Donald Trump’s current response, and placed Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine on the back burner (including, sadly, by BBC News).
In a mere four years that war has resulted in 500-600,000 estimated deaths, with many more wounded.
Maybe the US Embassy could explain Trump’s kid-glove view of Putin (an active ally of Iran’s theocracy) compared to his robust action against Ayatollah Khamenei?
John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife
Careful now
Dear Brits, do not go abroad. Anywhere. Ever. Stay at home or go to the pub (with a bouncy castle for the kids.) This is “genuine” advice from the Government (via me). And jist ca' canny.
Steve Hayes, Leven, Fife
Adverse reaction
Having learned that Gutter – a literary magazine that is funded by Creative Scotland – recently withdrew an already published, positive review of a poetry book after complaints about the poet’s lawful, widely shared gender critical views, I indulged in some gender critical splutter on reading that the same Creative Scotland, alongside the Scottish government, is behind Scotland’s gender ideological showing at the Venice Biennale arts festival (“A 'queer and trans' return to Venice Biennale”, The Scotsman, 4 March).
Our country’s offering is “a contemporary queer and trans reimagining of public shaming rituals”, framed by claims that trans people are being “impacted in the courts”, and an artistic inquiry into how “sound and cross-dressing” have been deployed as “tools of self-control”.
When Creative Scotland supports magazines, representations at arts festivals, and otherwise, surely there is an expectation – in the spirit, if not the strict letter, of the Equality Act and statutory equalities duties – that it avoids acting as a partisan gatekeeper on such hugely contested matters of gender identity?
Regrettably, I shall be washing my hair the night(s) this is on.
Brian Forsyth, Edinburgh
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