MUCH has been made of Nicola Sturgeon’s choice of old friends and associates as Cabinet members.

Certainly, one would scarcely use the word "refreshed" about her Cabinet ("Sturgeon accused of ‘recycling’ old faces as Cabinet is unveiled", The Herald, May 20). This does, however, raise another question.

The only Cabinet member from the 2021 intake is Angus Robertson, and he is scarcely a new face, having been an SNP Westminster MP for 10 years. His job as Constitution Secretary, in any case, is a non-job, given that the constitution is a reserved matter and is not devolved.

Ms Sturgeon has two MSPs from the 2016 intake in her cabinet, Kate Forbes and Mairi Gougeon. The SNP membership was once 125,000 and is now said to be some 85,000. Yet it seems that numbers are no guarantee of quality. What does it say about the SNP membership when the old guard remains so entrenched in power?

Even if several old war horses have retired or have been released from duty, their places are not filled by any stars from the large 2011 and 2016 intakes of SNP MSPs. To put it another way, is there really no-one in the SNP who could do better than John Swinney, Keith Brown, Humza Yousaf, Michael Matheson, Shona Robison and Shirley-Anne Somerville?

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.

OPPORTUNITY MISSED

NICOLA Sturgeon's Cabinet reshuffle is underwhelming and without ambition, which can only lead to five more years of stale government during which time only independence will be prioritised.

Some MSPs who have left the Government were well past their sell-by date and it was an opportunity for the First Minister to bring in fresh blood and some stimulation of a moribund administration. She has failed to do this and we can now look forward to the continuing costly incompetence which has dogged our public services. Much of the media has likened the reshuffle to a game of musical chairs, and I hope for Scotland's sake that it will turn out to be just that and not something akin to filling the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen.

* IF John Swinney is as successful as he was as Education Secretary in his new role as Covid Recovery Secretary then we are in for a very long haul indeed. For sure this is a master stroke by Nicola Sturgeon, who has promised not to engage in any discussion of a second referendum until recovery from the pandemic is accomplished.

Michael B H Ashmore, Gatehouse of Fleet.

* THERE is the story of a tenor who performed at La Scala, Milan and was called back for encore after encore. He asked the conductor why they called him back. The conductor said: "You'll do it till you get it right."

Why did this story flash into my mind when I saw the First Minister's Cabinet reshuffle?

Eric McKenzie, Fort William.

CAMPAIGN CLEARLY NOT WORKING

TOM Gordon rattles off the names of pro-Union groups "working in concert" and claims, which I do not doubt, that they have been "regularly co-ordinating their activity to avoid duplicated effort for more than a year" ("Union chorus sings as FM muted on independence", The Herald, May 20). But not very successfully, given the result of the Scottish Parliament election.

Mr Gordon tells us that since the election there has been a marked surge in activity from these organisations, but as they had long known the date of the election, surely it would have been more to the point if they'd thrown everything at it in the run-up to polling day; perhaps the truth of the matter is that they did throw everything at it, and it just didn't work. The SNP won its highest-ever share of the Holyrood vote, lost not a single seat and made gains, as did the pro-independence Greens.

Although saturated with unionist leaflets arriving through their letter boxes, Scottish voters rejected Project Fear, and no matter how the pro-Union cabal tries to dress up the Union, and keep the toxic Tory Prime Minister away from Scotland, the inference will always be that Scots are better off leaving their future in the hands of governments and policies they've repeatedly rejected. As Mr Gordon admits, "the idea that the people who live and work in a nation should decide and supply its system of government is straightforward and appealing"; it is also normal, and if it can work for every other country in Europe, it will work for Scotland too.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

THE MADNESS OF BREXIT

THE Brexit fiasco just keeps on giving. Not content with having sold the Scottish fishing industry down the river, the latest Tory betrayal in this post-Brexit brave new world is of Scottish farmers ("SNP warn Boris Johnson his first post-Brexit trade deal risks crofting way of life", The Herald, May 20). After flouncing out of the world’s largest free-trading bloc on our doorstep, the Tories are feverishly scouring the Australian Outback for any scraps to replace the monumental loss in tariff-free trade.

However, the Australian and New Zealand trade negotiators know how desperately Boris Johnson needs any deal and are not backing down from demanding tariff-free access to UK markets for Australian lamb and beef, undercutting Scottish farmers. Mr Johnson has confirmed he’ll sacrifice our farmers for another drop-in-the-bucket trade deal. This is the madness of Brexit – stiffing Scottish producers in exchange for transporting inferior hormone-injected Aussie beef and lamb halfway around the world. So much for climate awareness.

That’s how this precious Union really works. The UK, aka the British ruling class, doesn’t care about Scotland because it doesn’t do equal partnership. The UK does domination, because it believes in its God-given superiority and right to rule over others at any cost.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh.

GREAT BRITAIN, THE ISLAND

WILLIE Maclean (Letters, May 19) admits that history is not his strongest subject. To that he can also add geography if he thinks that Great Britain could consist of just England and Wales.

Great Britain is an island off the north-west coast of Europe to the east of the island of Ireland. If Scotland were an independent country then it would remain as part of Great Britain, and the island would be divided into two separate nations, as is the case with the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic).

Sandy Gemmill, Edinburgh.

IBROX EVENTS WOULD HAVE BEEN UNFAIR

JUDITH Gillespie (Letters, May 20) is critical of the Scottish Government for not allowing Rangers to invite “on four successive nights, 10,000 season ticket holders ... to Ibrox to join an in-stadium celebration”.

Compared to the above suggestion to celebrate winning a sporting competition, we would do well to remember that attendance at a funeral is limited to 50 people. Perhaps Ms Gillespie has her priorities somewhat askew?

It might always have been easy to forecast that a certain section of the Rangers following – for it is wrong to besmirch all, or even most of them – were always likely to behave as they did last weekend, but this says more about them than anything else. The question is what do about it. To offer a group carte blanche, because they cannot easily be controlled, is going to be perceived – correctly – by the rest of us as monstrously unfair and would only encourage others to act as they see fit.

Moreover, Ms Gillespie's comparison of last weekend’s "events" with the vigil for Sarah Everard is beyond calumny. The latter, albeit against Covid restrictions, would have been a quiet and respectful gathering of individuals to express their concern about the murder of a young woman, were it not for the heavy-handed approach of the Metropolitan Police. The gathering of Rangers fans was, likewise, against Covid restrictions, but do the words “quiet” or “respectful” come to mind when looking at film footage of these events?

There are two facts in this sorry embarrassment to our country. First, that the Rangers fans involved last weekend were given no licence to behave as they did. What they did was wrong, and should be condemned without reservation. Secondly that in the circumstances, the police response of containment was about as much as could be done, other than mass arrests, in circumstances which arose only because of the warped perception of certain individuals of their own rights, and total disregard for anyone else.

Alasdair Galloway, Dumbarton.

POLICE WERE NOT BLOCKED

ROBIN Johnston (Letters, May 20) clearly does not know much about law. If Parliament created the offending law and put in place measures to keep it beyond court jurisdiction, then neither of these institutions will be able or willing to help. He is not too good on facts either. The police have emphasised repeatedly that they were not there to support the "removal", so there is no question of them being "blocked".

Finally, as for lying under a vehicle, what better way to socially distance in such a crowded environment?

George F Campbell, Glasgow.

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