Naval gazing

Has Alexander Mckay moved beyond his usual distorted view of SNP policy to the telling of blatant untruths? (Letters, 8 September)

The fact is that Scotland was told that if we voted No, we would be given contracts to build 13 frigates. Like so many other promises made at the time, that commitment has been reneged upon and that is why shipyard workers feel betrayed.

Mr Mckay then says that it is SNP policy to close all naval bases in an independent Scotland. The SNP is, in fact, committed to removing Trident; the defence policy included the construction of naval warships in Scotland to be based at Faslane. The defence plan also included the commitment to negotiate Scotland’s share of UK naval assets from the MOD.

If we build and acquire naval assets and then close all the bases, where does Mr Mckay think we would park them? Or does he actually contend that the SNP plan was for an independent Scotland to exist without any conventional defence force?

The SNP plan also included a plan to join Nato, and with it a commitment to monitor the upper reaches of Scotland which, following the idiocy of the UK Government, had been left with no suitable naval forces or even a maritime reconnaissance aircraft based in Scotland. Who can forget the humiliation of having to rely on foreign air forces to monitor Russian vessels while the Royal Navy made its way up from Southampton. And, while I personally disagree

with the commitment to join Nato, all the commitments noted above make a complete nonsense of Mr Mckay’s contentions.

GILL TURNER

Derby Street, Edinburgh

The First Minister gave her fushionless and exhausted government a list of projects which would stagger even the omni-competent administration Angela Merkel is likely once again to lead.

Within a few years it will end petrol and diesel cars, rough sleeping and the public sector pay cap, toss a £2 billion bung to the NHS, build 50,000 affordable homes, start a basic income whilst founding entirely new agencies for social security and for enterprise and skills.then it will reform Scotland’s land, hand out free sanitary products, make our education the “best in the world” and, of course, end climate change as well as Third World poverty.

How this is to be done by a government which has made a Horlicks of every power devolved to it while running a budget deficit of over £13 billion is not disclosed.

(REV DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place,st Andrews

I read Joyce Mcmillan’s article (Perspective, 8 September) with great interest given that it appears to have been based on a draft provided by the SNP government’s spin machine.

May I strongly recommend Ms Mcmillan read Brian Wilson’s article in the same section, headlined “Before giving credibility to new SNP announcements, ask what became of last year’s”, which focuses on a 2016 announcement of a £500m Scottish growth scheme which was a headline-grabbing matter at the time but has since led to absolutely nothing whatsoever.

HEW R DUNDAS

St Colme Street, Edinburgh

Getting on with the day job is a mantra applied to the First Minister with telling effect as she endeavours to convince the unbelievers that “yes she can”. Is it too much to hope Joyce Mcmillan will

try to apply this to her own career and forget her political obsessions? Her latest article regarding Nicola Sturgeon with the conclusion “fortune may yet favour her” did make me smile at her genuine enthusiasm though!

JAMES BUIST

Camphill Road, Broughty Ferry