New SNP deputy leader must be able to work for independence in Westminster
What criteria should determine who should be the SNP’S fourth deputy leader in just over three years? I can understand Lesley Riddoch’s reservations about the post going to the existing parliamentary leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford (Perspective, 5 February). If an important part of the role is to help sustain party morale and develop the membership, the case for choosing a less high-profile candi- date with fewer responsibilities in the House of Commons is a strong one. On the other hand it is not wise to create too much confusion in the public mind about who is in charge of what.
A leader at Holyrood and a deputy leader in Westminster at least provides a coherent platform: the party will run government and make the case for independence in Edinburgh, and its group in Westminster can act, among other things, as a supporting pressure group in London. It is doubtful whether the departed Angus Robertson lost his Moray constituency because it was difficult to combine two roles.
Strong opposition among middle income voters to another independence referendum, so soon after the last one, was reflected in a Conservative surge particularly in the north east of Scotland. The SNP difficulty was caused by tactics but not over strategy.
A credible strategy for the future will need the highest degree of political finesse in both chambers where the party is represented. It already has enough members; they are not likely to be enthused simply by regular pep-talks in obscure meeting rooms. they are likely to be enthused by high-profile teamwork in Edinburgh and London on the case for autonomy. Mr Blackford is ideally placed to be an essential part of that team and deserves to be given the number two slot.
BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes
Angus Robertson’s party may feel they owe him a huge vote of thanks but not, as the SNP claim, his country. He was a key individual at the heart of a pack of lies made up to win independence and split Scotland. The “vote” of thanks he got from the electorate in 2017 was well deserved. He joins a growing band of the SNP old guard who are gradually getting voted out or departing the scene before the true scale of damage thay have done in the past ten years kicks in, leaving Sturgeon, Mackay and Matheson to switch the lights off. ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven