SNP is driving a wedge between parents and kids

SINISTER RISE OF STATE SNOOPERS

It has always been accepted that the family is the basic building block of any state.

Yet this does not seem to ring a bell with the Scottish Government.

Your article last week on the SNP’s insistence on rolling out – both surreptitiously and insidiously – a body of state ‘snooper’ guardians to oversee the development of our youngsters will drive a wedge between parents and their children.

Under the proposed Named Person scheme, the state will be seen to have first call upon youths, when it has always been accepted that the authorities would move in only when a child is in moral or physical danger.

We have to ask ourselves, what kind of state do we wish to live in?

Do we really want to accept the onward march of these state mentors, thereby weakening the relationship which ought to exist between parent and child? Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs, Dunbartonshire Hell would freeze over before the SNP would say anything complimentary about Westminster, and the Tory Party in particular.

Theresa May announced that a number of UK Government departments responsible for reserved powers are to review their interactions with the devolved administrations.

Right on cue at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, up jumped Ian Blackford to maintain his 100 per cent record of moaning and grievance. Predictably, he condemned the Government for ignoring Holyrood for years and for not producing the goods demanded by the SNP.

Mr Blackford ignored the fact that, over the years, the UK Government has extended the reach of devolution to such an extent that Holyrood is incapable of using these additional powers. Indeed, the Scottish Government has asked for some aspects of taxation and social security to be delayed as Nicola Sturgeon’s inept administration cannot cope.

Apart from the SNP’s zealots, most Scottish voters are sick of the never-changing rhetoric in Westminster and Holyrood from the one-track Nationalists. Graham Wyllie, Greengairs, Lanarkshire Nicola Sturgeon wants us to believe that Brexit and a new prime minister means independence is ‘inevitable’.

Yet before joining her on a leap of faith, Scots need to be convinced that her team – which has failed to impress over the past decade when it comes to looking after education, health and our economy – can make a coherent case for why leaving the UK will be better rather than worse for us. Keith Howell, West Linton, Peeblesshire