It would appear that the wheels are coming off the SNP wagon as it trundles downhill swamped in a sea of endless problems in health, education, police, cash for concerts, budget underspend and now in an unprecedented scandal with Michelle Thomson MSP who was speedily dumped from the SNP like a hot potato.

What next, one may ask ?

Dennis Forbes Grattan

3 Mugiemoss Road

Bucksburn

Aberdeen

With 25 per cent of the SNP contingent at Westminster having registered property interests with the Commons authorities and presumably expertise closer to home I foresee an easy transition to Scotia's National Property Company in the admittedly unlikely scenario that the Party currently on the crest of a wave ever find themselves rejected at Holyrood.

And with the consolation that estate agents are trusted more than politicians by the public what's there to lose?

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road

Kilbirnie

KA25 7HY

The First Minister has clearly been distracted and discomfited by both the implications of the case involving the SNP MP , Michelle Thomson, who has recently left the party whip at Westminster and is suspended from the SNP, and by the necessity to tighten up the vetting procedures for potential MP candidates from the SNP, [‘ Labour calls for answers on Thomson case’ The Herald October 3].

All of this has ,perhaps, prevented her from giving attention to fulfilling the promise she made on Sky television on September 6 when she said that she would absolutely be happy to give home to a refugee as part of a bigger, wider, more organised approach. The fact remains that potential recipients of that hospitality need to know soon whether it is to be full – board or bed-and – breakfast in Bute House or the Glasgow residence.

Ian W Thomson

38 Kirkintilloch Road

Lenzie

G66 4RL

Some people have begun writing in that the present SNP government have been concentrating so much on the Independence issue that they have neglected running the Country.

Certainly they have failed badly with the newly unified Police, with the NHS and Education.

Now it appears that they are taking on MP's whose ethos is dramatically different form the ethos espoused by Ms Sturgeon. An MP who uses the misery of the poor and elderly in order to enrich herself is surely not an example to which our government should aspire.

If the present SNP government keep pursuing the independence issue to the detriment of our services and fail to account for the unethical actions of their fellow MPs, even the most ardent supporters are liable to start drifting away.

James Evans

112 Highmains Ave

Dumbarton

G82 2QB

The ''honourable'' Alastair Carmichael, self-confessed liar and moral bankrupt, admits to wrong-doing over the release of material designed to smear another part , refuses to resign and goes to court to cling on to his MP's salary .

Michelle Thomson with a past connection to a disbarred solicitor but with no charges against her, resigns the SNP whip and makes herself available to help the police with any investigation they may undertake .

Regardless of whether she is guilty of any offence (other than being an SNP MP ) Michelle Thomson has behaved with a little more dignity than the former Secretary of State for Scotland.

James Mills

29 Armour Square ,

Johnstone