The British Parliament is the saving grace for many Scots
YOUR nationalist letter writers who are upset that 58 out of 59 MPs in Scotland are against Trident but its renewal will go ahead anyway, appear to miss the bigger democratic perspective (Letters, 20 July).
Polls shows that Scotland is fairly evenly split on the matter of Trident renewal. What about those of us who support it? Who speaks for us? How can it be right that the one in two of us who support renewal are represented by one MP out of 59? What about that massive representation deficit?
Thankfully, those of us who are unrepresented by our MPs in Scotland are grateful for the rest of the British Parliament, which includes MPs who can speak for us on this matter.
We saw a similar lack of representation between voters in Scotland and our political class at the EU referendum. Around two in five Scots voted Leave. Yet we are represented by no MPs at all, and fewer than one in 20 MSPs.
How is this effective representation? Again, we can be grateful for the rest of the British Parliament, some of whose MPs help to provide a voice for the two out of five of us who voted Leave.
It is of increasing concern that huge swathes of opinion in Scotland are now going entirely unrepresented in our democratic structures and in the media. In this regard, the British Parliament is our saving grace. Indeed, one of the strongest arguments for it is that it can help to provide this democratic balance when Scotland’s structures provide none.
Your letter writers who imagine that we would be better represented outside the UK appear to be happy for Scotland to be a one-party state; and where those of us who don’t go along with their programme will have no recourse to other centres of political power. Alistair McConnachie, 268 Bath Street, Glasgow. IN the wake of the recent EU referendum the venerable BBC correspondent Edward Stourton wrote that politics is not like the end of some village cricket match where everybody shakes hands before heading into the clubhouse for a cup of tea. It is a little more complicated. Hence when Rosemary Goring (“Democracy is not a pick and mix ... we must accept Brexit”, The Herald, July 19), perhaps a little too reasonably, and some of your other correspondents, often quite unreasonably, write about accepting the result of the vote as if the losing side were sitting with their eyes shut and their hands over their ears, they are rather over-simplifying the situation.
True democracy includes two important features, respect for the votes of the majority certainly, but also respect for the rights of the minority.
Even before last weekend’s attempted coup in Turkey we should have been aware that all was not right with the democratic process there. President Erdogan and his government were certainly democratically elected but his harassment of political opponents, use of the mob to enforce his authority and the imprisonment of journalists critical of his policies does not suggest a country run in a particularly democratic way.
We are indeed fortunate to live in a country which goes beyond mere democratic process and it is to her credit that Theresa May has begun her time in office stating that she seeks a Brexit that will work for all. How this is achieved remains to be seen but it will be necessary to discuss a wide range of possibilities from both sides of the argument.
Attempts to close down this discussion will be to nobody’s benefit. Robin Irvine, 4 Abercromby Place West, Helensburgh.