Sinister new legislation

Sir, - Whatever their failings and incompetence while in government, the SNP has shown an extraordinary competence in wielding authoritarian control over their elected members and potential candidates bordering on an Orwellian vision of party loyalty.

Dissent is not tolerated in a party having only one ideological purpose which is to create an independent Scottish state that it will dominate and control.

Authoritarian states destroy trust within communities, between individuals and families to exercise their power as they see fit with a reluctantly compliant society.

History is littered with examples of this political prison camp that state control can create.

I feel the SNP is now displaying this tendency through the named person scheme.

Legislation that is passed by one-party states, usually billed as being designed to improve the quality, security, care and wellbeing of its citizens, can become blunt instruments of intrusive state control that is unleashed on a population complacent and casual about their rights and freedoms, so bitterly won by their forebears.

Whether by accident or design, the Scottish Government has enacted exactly the very legislation that smacks of sinister state control that every Scot who values freedom should resist.

I believe we are witnessing the ultimate in government control freakery with the named person legislation.

The SNP has decided that every parent, every grandparent every relative of every child is not capable of caring for that child without the supervision of a guardian appointed by the state.

Government power to intrude into family life will be substantial. It will see sharing of data and confidential information about children and their parents who may not even be informed.

Young children will be asked to fill in forms requiring very personal information about themselves and their family to be shared among shadowy figures in state employment.

Parents who refuse to engage in this compulsory scheme and unable to opt out, will be regarded as hostile or non-engaging, leading to further state involvement.

I sincerely hope that Scots will not willingly succumb to this sinister move to allow the ultimate control of their lives by the state. Let’s hope it becomes an election issue. Iain G Richmond. Guildy House, Monikie.