Anti-tory stance

Undoubtedly the Tories will increase their Uk-wide majority on 8 June and Theresa May will have strengthened her position.

In the past this would be music to Nicola Sturgeon’s ears. Her “Tories are toxic” rhetoric would be turned up – full volume – with the relentless implication that Conservatism is something happening elsewhere in the UK. It’s different, she’d suggest, to our belief set because Scots are somehow more caring and socially responsible. Indeed, implicitly superior.

The Tories are, of course, now the second largest party in Holyrood on the back of a vehemently anti-independence stance. In the local elections, SNP share of “first preference” votes held steady at 32 per cent yet the Tories’ soared to 25 per cent.

The SNP will win the general election in Scotland but the Tories may increase their seat count to anything between five and 15.

So will Nicola Sturgeon change her tune? Will she consider it appropriate to continue to demonise the Tories and therefore a quarter or more of Scots with her current savagery? After all, she claims she’s stronger for all Scotland.

I suspect Ms Sturgeon won’t – or can’t – soften her current anti-tory stance. She’s unable to resist using the Tories to claim Scots are different from our southern neighbours.

But is this now a higher risk strategy for the SNP? To many, pro-tory merely means antiindependence, nothing more.

Ms Sturgeon’s approach may play well in SNP urban heartlands of Dundee and Glasgow, but in Edinburgh and rural Scotland will this relentless anti-tory spiel help win over Indyref2 voters in the significant numbers the SNP needs? Right now it seems unlikely.

MARTIN REDFERN Merchiston Gardens, Edinburgh Once again, Nicola Sturgeon has been blaming the Tories for austerity.

Much of the austerity in Scotland is the direct result of SNP policies. For example, the council tax freeze which was in place for a number of years. The benefits of this freeze were disproportionately enjoyed by those living in expensive properties while the adverse effects on local services impacted disproportionately on poorer families.

In much the same way the benefits of free university education are enjoyed by betteroff graduates, including those from other EU countries. The cost of free tuition is covered by taxation which impacts on all taxpayers, including those on modest incomes. The same is true for free prescriptions, as only the better-off would be expected to pay while the poor and those with greatest need would be exempt.

The pattern developing is that the SNP are keen to help the rich but expect everyone else to pay for that help. Constantly repeating the myth that all austerity is the fault of the Tories does not make it true.

MICHAEL VANSITTART The Cribbs, St Monans, Fife