An honest MP

It is heartening to see that there is at least one honest SNP MP. Angus Macneil alone had the gumption to resist his party’s call for a general election (Scotsman, October 30). His reasoning was that the last thing the country (Britain) needs is to give the Tories the gift they craved of an early poll.

Mr Macneil was out of step with his own party on this issue because they clearly saw what a gift such a scenario would be for them. Unlike Mr Macneil they have no interest in what is good for Britain but only for the creation of or exploitation of any circumstance which they perceive will aid their separatist cause. And in their eyes voting for the likely outcome of five years of a majority Tory government under Boris Johnson just about creates the perfect storm.

Will their strategy– that independence is the answer to everything – backfire? The recent poll commissioned by Angus Robertson finding that support for independence was seriously on the wane surely put a spoke in that wheel. And daily reports of the failures of the SNP to get on with the day job – such as Scottish Police Federation general secretary Calum Steele describing cuts to Police Scotland as “policing vandalism” (Scotsman, as above) – may continue to convince voters that the SNP have a long way to go to establish a case for exiting a union which,

like the EU, is not perfect but is better to be in than out.

COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh