SNP is on a slippery slope

Sir, – The SNP still has too much support for predictions about its demise to be other than premature.

Still, its much-vaunted iron discipline seems to be breaking down.

Current MPs of long standing, Pete Wishart and Angus MacNeil, are publicly at odds over the timing of any future referendum.

The clock is ticking and the rank and file are restless, as stunts on bridges recently and a planned rally in Glasgow in May demonstrate.

Former minister Kenny Macaskill emerges to cast doubt on Ms Sturgeon’s judgment, something previously unheard of, and another former minister, Alex Neil, a Brexiteer, is a thorn in her side.

There have even been mutterings about the role played by Ms Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, as chief executive of the SNP.

And, hovering in the wings, is the spectre of Alex Salmond, always likely to say something to make Ms Sturgeon’s life more difficult.

What happened to the party where no disagreement was allowed, certainly not in public?

The SNP may not have had significant dealings with Cambridge Analytica, the company alleged to have used personal data from Facebook to try to influence elections in the UK and elsewhere, but what this incident shows is – apart from SNP hypocrisy – that party management is no longer as sure-footed as it was.

To have MPs unaware of the party’s activities and accusing other parties of hypocrisy and worse over Cambridge Analytica has brought the SNP’s management into disrepute .

The slope looks increasingly slippery. Jill Stephenson. Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.

To have MPs unaware of the party’s activities and accusing other parties of hypocrisy and worse over Cambridge Analytica has brought the SNP’s management into disrepute