Holyrood is a shambles we can do without
John MacLeod’s Essay (Mail) exposes the rotten heart of holyrood.
To justify their existence, MSPs churn out rules and regulations but few are of any value and some – such as the named Person scheme – are so hopeless as to be illegal.
hard to argue with the picture used to illustrate the essay: A protester outside the parliament with a placard reading ‘We do not need this.’ J. WhorloW, Aberdeen. WhAT a shambles holyrood is! how is it possible that the named Person legislation got so far down the line before being ruled illegal?
This is not about party politics. had the architects of the Bill been any other party, it would have been just as embarrassing that our lawmakers are incapable of drafting competent legislation.
Is it really the case that no one at holyrood considered whether or not this law was in fact compliant with European law? And it is shameful that private citizens had to go to the courts to get a decision.
The Scottish parliament costs us all a fortune, but it seems it’s simply not very good at its job.
F. Knox, Coatbridge, lanarkshire. corrESPondEnTS regularly either say the Scottish parliament doesn’t do anything, or what it does it mucks up. So let’s have a second referendum on whether or not to abolish it. VinCent SAunderS, troon, Ayrshire.
SNP’s dividing line
coMMEnTIng on the UK Supreme court decision to block the ill-thought-out named Person scheme nationalist Paul Monaghan, MP for caithness, Sutherland and Easter ross, resorts to Twitter to vent his spleen on the verdict.
Ludicrously and provocatively he said: ‘Scotland’s high court has been over-ruled by the UK Supreme court,’ resorting to the usual divisive SnP strategy that the UK is subverting the ‘will of the Scottish people’. Significantly, his party leader, a trained lawyer, accepted the verdict.
depressingly, Mr Monaghan is only one of many SnP politicians resorting to social media to provoke dissent about Scotland’s relationship with the UK.
M. CAMpbell, troon, Ayrshire.
Get on and govern
IS it not probable that Scottish industry is having a more difficult time than England because we have had not one but two referendums creating major uncertainty?
now the SnP wants to subject us to a third referendum.
Surely it’s time to stop talking about perceived injustices and get on with what it has been tasked to do by the electorate – govern.
MiKe SoMerS, perth.
Radicalisation folly
JUST what does ‘radicalisation’ mean? If someone told me to chop off the head of a policeman, soldier or anybody else, I’d simply refuse.
Why, then, do some people, who are often young and say they are Muslim, do such a thing just because they were told to do so?
Such people are just thugs and murderers. They can hide behind the meaningless word ‘radicalisation’ because our governments feel comfortable in allotting a ‘tag’ to the crimes of these people. It is time that these atrocities were labelled as just that and the word ‘radicalisation’ erased as an excuse for such acts. terry MullArd, dymchurch, Kent. ThE increasing number of recent Islamist attacks on Western targets, such as those in France and germany, make it ever more likely that Americans will choose as their next president someone who promises to keep them safe via aggressive means, such as banning certain ethnicities from entering the country. AdeyeMi bAnJo, peckham, london Se15. In LIghT of the appalling terrorist attacks in Europe (where armed police have quickly responded) we may well have to review arming our police force on a permanent basis.
It is unreasonable to expect our officers to tackle terrorists with just cS spray. denniS ForbeS GrAttAn,
bucksburn, Aberdeen.
Ungrateful Miriam
I WAS furious yesterday reading the snide comment of Mrs clegg (I know she doesn’t like being called that) about dining with the camerons — how dare she undermine Sam cam, who has far more style and was a brilliant ‘First Lady’ in many ways.
So, Miriam, you’re certainly not going to be flavour of the month reaping earnings with your silly book.
GlyniS WilliAMS, Cornwall. I’M sure Samantha cameron has been served some dreadful meals as a guest, and I’m also sure she is far too well-mannered to write an ‘amusing’ book about the disasters.
Mrs clegg — sorry, Miss gonzalez durantez — appears very rude and unkind, first for writing disparaging remarks about her meal at the camerons (sounded delicious to me), and also for serving her unfortunate guests over-spiced food and fish full of bones, then enjoying their dismay. Are these the actions of a good hostess?
Anne penney, hamble, hants.
Maxwell’s death
In your piece on robert Maxwell and Sir Philip green (Mail), you reported that the pathologists could not agree about the cause of Maxwell’s death.
In fact, all four pathologists unanimously agreed it was a heart attack, and, contrary to what you reported, the family’s insurers did pay up because the death was neither a suicide, nor murder, but occurred through natural causes.
toM boWer, london nW3.
Angered by Green
ThE fact that Sir Philip green got richer off the back of BhS and treated its employees with contempt is not news to me.
I was offered the starvation-level wage of £1.75 an hour, in 1991, to catch shoplifters at a branch of a chain store he owned in nottingham: What Everyone Wants was owned by green under his Amber day enterprise, a holding company that went bankrupt.
no money was ever forthcoming for maintenance or cleaning in that store. carpets were threadbare and the filthy lavatories were blocked, necessitating that women staff were obliged to use the gents!
It was commonplace for me to be standing at a urinal while a redfaced female walked past me muttering an apology.
green should forfeit his fortune as well as his knighthood.
AlAn G. bArStoW, Skåne, Sweden.
We will bounce back
I APProAchEd ruth Sunderland’s article ‘It’s too late for dad, but my home town’s finally fighting back’ (Mail) with the usual trepidation when reading about Middlesbrough in the national media.
What a breath of fresh air, then, to find a realistic, but positive, portrayal of the Tees Valley!
This region is leading the way in devolution, has a progressive combined authority championing its cause and boasts its fair share of entrepreneurs who are creating employment opportunities.
Yes, the demise of SSI steelworks at redcar was a huge blow. But, as ruth says, we’re ‘fighting back’, and it’s a fight I’d bet on us winning!
SteVe CoChrAne, Middlesbrough.