Saddened by childish antics of the SNP’s rabble in Commons
ANOTHER superb Essay from John MacLeod on the many shortcomings of Scottish political life. I only remember the SNP’s Ian Blackford for his contributions to Charlie Kennedy’s untimely passing. Not only does he look like a bully, he ticks all the boxes for being one. I am of an age when I remember politics from the late 1950s onwards. Members of the Commons may not have particularly liked one another, but they were at least respectful and polite to one another. With the likes of Mr Blackford and Mhairi Black, all we can look forward to is increasing coarseness in the Commons and elsewhere. It is saddening to observe how politicians elected to serve their constituents descend quickly into point-scoring for their own benefit. Not all, of course. G. RobeRtson, Kilmaurs, Ayrshire. THE 35 SNP MPs are like a childish rabble and the conductor is Ian Blackford, a man seemingly taking his orders from Alex Salmond when it comes to shows of defiance. If they cannot abide Westminster, stand down! Stop taking the salary and the expenses. June thomson, Glasgow. EVEN when Scottish Labour were battling with the Tories under Mrs Thatcher – and there was no love lost there – few sank to the fingerjabbing roaring and violent gestures of the SNP. bill smith, Kirkcaldy, Fife. ‘STRONGER for Scotland’ claim the SNP. Stroppier, certainly! elAine bRown, Glasgow. IT was less than ideal that the unwell Labour MP Naz Shah had to attend Parliament in a wheelchair for a key Brexit vote. Normally the ‘nodding through’ and pairing arrangements would apply and the sick could stay away. But the Opposition have jumped on the Brexit bandwagon and so the
Government has to play hardball.And I had to laugh at MP Mhairi Black, who seems to have gone part-time, moaning about the issue. It’s her party who have withdrawn co-operation of all kinds, and that has consequences. L. KENNEDY, Ayr. NICOLA Sturgeon says trust in Westminster has been ‘eroded’. But she does not mention how she and her SNP leadership colleagues have been trying to engineer that outcome through their increasingly bad-tempered and grievance-ridden interventions over Brexit. But is Scotland’s quiet majority largely unmoved? KEITH HOWELL, West Linton. THE SNP are in a bind at Westminster, reduced to daft walk-outs to get headlines. Their Brexit strategy – overturn the Brexit vote and get us back into Europe – is farcical. They’ve picked a pointless fight with the Tories over a non-existent power-grab and everyone knows they don’t want to make a go of devolution. So 35 MPs get their snouts in the trough at Westminster and achieve nothing for the people of Scotland, especially those who voted No in 2014. TOM WILLIAMS, Glasgow. BREXIT, no matter how the SNP try to repackage it, is not driving people towards independence. They wouldd rather face the problems it will bring as part of the UK than as an independent Scotland trying to get back under the Brussels rules with the euro. Nicola Sturgeon keeps saying the EU is the place to be, but look at Greece and Italy – they’re rejecting the superstate, too. LESLEY HAMILTON, Edinburgh.