Undemocratic?

In a televised “dialogue” with Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, president of Iceland, during the Arctic Circle conference, Nicola Sturgeon explains that she acts as though Scotland were an independent country.

In doing so, Ms Sturgeon of course behaves unconstitutionally but also, and possibly more importantly, undemocratically.

In the 2014 referendum the majority of Scots, by making clear we did not want Scotland to be independent, told the Nationalists that we require Scotland’s First Minister to serve as the head of a partially devolved domestic administration with no international or foreign affairs responsibility. No more, no less.

Arguably she should not even be at the conference since it’s beyond her remit, but Ms Sturgeon should certainly not be using it as a forum to boast that her modus operandi is to act in contravention of the democratically expressed wishes of the people.

A further thought since Scotland is to host the next Arctic Circle conference: she was educated before the SNP came to power – she should know that Scotland is nowhere near the Arctic Circle.

MARTIN REDFERN Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh The use – or misuse – of political power in Scotland under the SNP never fails to amaze. Irony abounds, to the extent that at times you wonder if it is all some kind of elaborate prank; no one, it would be thought, could be so crass.

The latest is the allegations that taxpayer-funded official vehicles were used by the SNP for non-governmental reasons. Recently we had the First Minister adding to her vast army of special advisers by reemploying an SNP representative who had been rejected by voters and lost his seat.

The fact that they think noone will notice and if they do, who cares, should ring a bell with any fair-minded person in Scotland – of every party and none. Yet these same people have the effrontery to criticise others.

ALEXANDER MCKAY New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh Despite many promises from the SNP on reducing Scottish class sizes they have increased by a massive 40 per cent in classes of 30 or more since 2011.

This was highlighted as a key promise to the Scottish electorate, but classes are getting bigger, not smaller under their minority government. The SNP leadership seems to have been weakened considerably by the loss of key MPS at the recent general elections and are failing to achieve targets in a wide range of performance indicators, leaving Scottish education in a very poor state and teacher morale at an alltime low. DENNIS FORBES GRATTAN Mugiemoss Road, Bucksburn