Readers' Letters: SNP has only itself to blame over falling support

SNP became 'a dictatorship' under Nicola Sturgeon and husband Peter Murrell, says reader (Picture: Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

Stewart McDonald’s view of all that is wrong with his party (“SNP faces defeat in 2026 Holyrood elections unless we change quickly”, Perspective, 13 July) and the need for soul searching shows that the nationalist politicians are still looking at themselves as they wish others to see them.

The claim that the SNP changed by accident in recent years would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that the party under the Murrells turned into a dictatorship where no independence (excuse the pun) of thought was tolerated.

As long as the party was doing well and the politicians were holding onto their seats, we heard no protestations at their style of leadership. It is over a year since chief SNP press officer Murray Foote resigned after denying false membership numbers. Did any of the SNP politicians raise this issue at the time? I can only remember silence from within the party.

Where was the outrage from the SNP politicians that one of their own misled the Presiding Officer and attempted to claim £11,000 of costs to which he was not entitled? The MSPs sat behind John Swinney while he defended Michael Matheson, keeping their heads down. Only one SNP MSP has any backbone when it comes to speaking out, Fergus Ewing. Clearly a man who realises that his job is to stand up for his constituents, not the party. The majority of SNP politicians were just happy to be receiving a large salary that they would never have achieved on civvie street and were willing to keep schtum in return.

Mr McDonald says that the party runs the risk of being consigned to irrelevance by voters who no longer see them as a serious party of government. The party has never been serious about governing. They wanted to create division and lay the blame for everything at Westminster’s door.

Maybe if they’d done the job of improving our lives and standing up for their constituents, they’d not be licking their wounds now.

Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray

Time to deliver

There was in interesting article in the Wall Street Journal last week about the increasing fragmentation now being witnessed in Europe’s parliaments. Former Italian premier Matteo Renzi opined that voters were rejecting the centrist parties as a consequence of people being promised change only for it not to materialise. While the UK media believes Labour bucked this European trend in the recent election, in reality it is following it.

New Chancellor Rachel Reeves is smart enough to recognise that voter retribution will follow if she fails to deliver change. However, barely four days in from taking office we have her warning that change can’t be guaranteed when growth is stalled. Voter cynicism is already appearing as a consequence.

In Scotland, meanwhile, we have former Labour MP Brian Wilson having a rant about the SNP’s “obsession” with centralising power. Instead he calls for Westminster to take back those powers and transfer them directly to local councils, thus cutting Holyrood out of the loop by directly funding Scottish bodies from Westminster. But that was Boris Johnston’s pet policy and was designed to kill devolution. Is this a backdoor Labour power grab?

Elsewhere the Sturgeon bashers are out in force in the shape of Jim Sillars representing the alleged ‘intellectual wing’ of the independence movement. Really? Is calling Nicola Sturgeon “Stalin’s wee sister” the summit of that cohort’s intellectual thought processes?

Diluting decision making, as he suggests, has consequences. People no longer know what they are voting for. They prefer to be shown a direction, not options. Margaret Thatcher claimed to be in a cabinet of collective responsibility. In reality she decided the direction. Options were not up for discussion. That blatantly dictatorial approach won her elections while Labour’s obsession with collegiate decision-making left it in the political wilderness. It’s called realpolitik.

Robert Menzies, Falkirk

Airport road rage

How bad does the surface of the A8 passing Edinburgh Airport have to get before it is completely resurfaced?

Cracks, ridges, patches, tears and the degradation of so-called anti-slip corrugations make driving across it an unpleasant experience. A short stretch has been resurfaced beyond the oddly named new housing development Lauder Grove, but the rest of it is a disgrace. It certainly does nothing for the visitor experience of those flying into Scotland choosing a taxi, a hire car or being picked up by friends or relatives.

Instead of a fast road link to the airport more than £1 billion has been squandered on a tram system and, as The Scotsman reported in May this year, one which has lost another £44 million in operating costs. The cost of this stop and go tram system would have resurfaced 625 miles of Scotland's trunk roads.

William Loneskie, Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire

Save the whales

A mass stranding of 77 pilot whales in Orkney last week followed the large stranding on the Isle of Lewis last year. It is known that on both occasions seismic surveys for offshore windfarms were being conducted off the islands. Dr Andrew Brownlow, Director of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, stated: “It is becoming more common in Scotland and it is vital to know why.”

Until those answers are forthcoming we need an immediate moratorium on offshore wind farm development or we risk losing everything we hold dear.

Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire

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, with no attachments, and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line – be specific. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.