Putting party first

I read the latest column from Stephen Kerr with a mixture of confusion and dismay.

He starts off well, talking about how it is an honour to represent Stirling and that an MP can be many things.

However he then hypocritically goes on to use the column to celebrate his claimed achievements and have a dig at the SNP.

From what I can see politicians such as Stephen Kerr and David Mundell forget that they should be representing the people who live in Scotland's interests at Westminster. In reality they represent Westminster and/or Conservative party policies in Scotland, which is a fundamental problem with modern politics and current affairs: putting your political party's ideology first.

My understanding of the Police Scotland centralisation is that it was proposed in a Conservative manifesto and that the issue placed the SNP Scottish Government between a rock and a hard place: either centralise the force or accept cuts which would have meant the loss of several thousand officers.

The SNP should not escape scrutiny but the whole point of the way the Scottish Parliament is set up is for there to be multiple parties, rather than an outright majority, to discuss the issues affecting Scotland so they can thrash out a decision or progress between them. I find it difficult to align to just one party across every topic so this makes sense to me.

Mr Kerr making smug references to Scottish Conservative MPs tackling issues with a better approach than the SNP is pretty petty and unhelpful, as well as unlikely overall as part of the governing of local and national interests.

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