SNP is victory key

Following recent major scandals like the Windrush business and NHS incompetence over breast screening, plus the worst Prime Minister in living memory, Labour in England failed to make any electoral impression on the Tories. And still supporters like Ayesha Hazarika (Perspective, 9 May) come up with the perennial thesis that Scotland can decide the fate of the UK at the next election.

Labour may be targeting 20 SNP seats but in most Toryheld seats the SNP is the main challenger and on only two occasions since 1945, the most recent of them being 42 years ago, have Scottish MPS given Labour a majority they wouldn’t have had from England and Wales alone.

In many local authorities, including Midlothian and Aberdeen, voters will be disillusioned that Labour has shared power with the Tories rather than forming any kind of progressive alliance with the SNP. SNP spokespersons such as Ian Blackford and Joanna Cherry have been far more effective at holding Theresa May to account than Jeremy Corbyn, whose default position is to abstain on a whole range of major issues.

Scotland rarely gets the government it votes for at Westminster, and the Tories can always rely on the DUP or the Lib Dems to bail them out, whereas with independence we will always get the government the majority vote for.

MARY THOMAS

Watson Crescent, Edinburgh