Scotland needs opposition

Sir, - I have attended several hustings and debates recently and I have been surprised at the low quality of SNP candidates.

In one debate (Aberdeen University) the motion: “That this house has no confidence in the Scottish Government” was unanimously carried.

The three local SNP candidates struggled to defend their party’s record or promote its case.

They lost the debate overwhelmingly to the convincing, evidenced, often funny, speeches of the Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem speakers.

At another (The Energy Debate on April 12) Energy Minister Fergus Ewing was tellingly quiet when the Conservative speaker, Murdo Fraser, “outed” him as being in favour of fracking.

In my area we have an invisible MP and an MSP who had to apologise for saying that there is no oil crisis.

To cap it all, our decent SNP constituency MSP, Nigel Don, has been deselected allegedly because his face doesn’t fit.

The one local MP of undoubted talent, Alex Salmond, was last week in the United States promoting his book while his putative successor struggled badly at a debate in Ellon last Thursday.

Until recently it seemed that all you needed to be elected was to wear an SNP badge, but there is a limit to how much voters can be taken for granted and I hope they will think carefully about the need for strong local representation and the need for an effective opposition in Holyrood to hold what looks to be

another SNP government to account. Allan Sutherland. 1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.