IT is naturally unreasonable and insensitive to ridicule the death of a figurehead such as Margaret Thatcher, but equally it is unjust to ignore the profound questioning which has been directed at her period as Prime Minister of Great Britain, and when her funeral ceremony and parade is being suggested as costing in the region of £10m from the public purse ("Funeral for Thatcher will be policed by 4000 officers", The Herald, April 17).

It is to be expected that the Government will support the positive identity of its former leader but the extent of this is surely outwith the promotion by her own party and should have been the responsibility of an independent and neutral committee.

There can be no doubt that the most noteworthy act of Parliament passed in this country, subsequent to the post-war period, was the introduction of the National Health Service and which provided benefit for every person in Great Britain. It is a service which has been adopted and copied by many countries throughout the world. But where are the monuments, memorials and ceremonies to Aneurin Bevan, other than in Wales, to remember such a man who reached down and helped others up?

The celebrations now scheduled for the life of Lady Thatcher are surely well beyond the reasonable terms of recognition due to her and these are now reaching for the terms of a Vanity Fair.

James J Dempster,

Woodstock,

Uplawmoor.

IN response to William Durward (Letters, April 16), the SNP MPs' stance in 1979 was based on a principled position following the Callaghan Government's refusal to implement the majority Yes vote in the Scottish Assembly referendum.

However, a youthful Alex Salmond was opposed to the stance taken by the SNP MPs and along with others helped set up the left-of-centre 79 Group in the SNP.

The extent to which some Labour anti-devolutionists were prepared to go can be summed up in the words of Patrick Cosgrave in his book The Lives of Enoch Powell when he wrote: "Confidential exchanges took place between Thatcher's aides and a number of Labour back benchers hostile to devolution."

The survival of the Labour Government was therefore in the hands of its own MPs. If Mr Callaghan's Government had pushed ahead with the Assembly legislation, it would have been supported by the SNP in Parliament. The reason it did not do so is because it became clear that a substantial number of Labour MPs were prepared to vote against Mr Callaghan.

The SNP did not "bring in Margaret Thatcher", the Tories got in because they attracted two million more English voters than Labour. Following the Winter of Discontent and widespread strikes, English voters abandoned the Labour Party, which had not a hope of being re-elected in 1979.

Labour's anti-devolution zealots, such as Neil Kinnock, well aware that a Thatcher victory was on the cards, implicitly preferred this scenario to the establishment of a Scottish Assembly, and the survival of their own Government for the remaining six months it had left.

Most hypocritical of all was when the then-highly respected Lord Douglas Home promised that an incoming Tory government, which at the time had the support of 31% of Scottish voters, would produce a better devolution package if Scots voted No in 1979, a pledge which was not honoured by Mrs Thatcher and one which will haunt the "jam tomorrow" promises of the Better Together campaign.

Calum Stewart,

Montague Street,

Edinburgh.

A RATHER difficult task faced anyone who may have wished to avoid either the eulogies or the furore created not only by the death of Margaret Thatcher but equally it would seem, by the scale of her funeral.

Only one of the many interesting points raised was the possible credit that may be bestowed upon her if Scotland votes Yes in next year's referendum. It has been interesting to read in these pages the number of people who link both her policies and her approach to Scotland to the birth of the Scottish Parliament which runs alongside the demise of the Conservative Party here. It's then interesting to look back at the time New Labour had in office. Perhaps the Scottish electorate has finally given some thought to its lack of effort and willingness in addressing the carnage experienced here both socially and industrially. Hence New Labour's steady movement towards a minority party status in Scotland.

Jim McGuinness,

42 John Stuart Gait,

Oakley.