Letters: The SNP has spent years perfecting the art of deception

Ian Balloch, Grangemouth.

* IN April 2017 Nicola Sturgeon was interviewed on stage at a conference for women in New York. Behind her just happened to be a huge projection of a Saltire and the words "Queen of Scots".

That was "peak Sturgeon". Back home Transport Scotland warned of delays on the Ferguson ferries.

These days she's not even Helen of Troy, she's "the face that didn't launch any ships". Other than one with the windows painted on, that is.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven.

INQUIRY MUST BE FAR-REACHING

SOME years ago I represented a company at a sub-contractors acceptance meeting to discuss what would have been our largest project by some margin. In the middle of the meeting a man entered from an adjacent office (presumably the project manager not at the meeting but listening) who made an ill-informed comment about our estimate. After a minute's thought I closed my file and said: “You know what, guys, I’d love the job but I’ll leave you to it and withdraw our offer” to much jaw-dropping.

Where was Jim McColl at the point of award of the Scottish ferries? What was his company’s thinking in accepting a contract it had no chance of fulfilling? Perhaps prominently on the bandwagon of delight that a Scottish firm was going to build Scottish ships and now blaming everyone but themselves for this fiasco.

There should be an inquiry but all aspects must be looked at, not just the politicians who, historically, have neither the experience nor understanding to award such contracts, which is why there is an audited method of placing them – apparently not followed.

Ken Mackay, Glasgow.

FAR GREATER SINS IN LONDON

PROFESSOR Douglas Pitt (Letters, March 29) seems to conveniently overlook, as does perhaps not unsurprisingly most of the western media, that the UK along with the US was a signatory in 1994 to the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances with Russia which prohibited the use of military force against Ukraine "except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations".

While both the US and the UK have indeed provided Ukraine with military training and defensive weaponry, this level of support falls far short of what was clearly expected by the Government of Ukraine, which has repeatedly called for the imposition of a no-fly zone over its country. However, not honouring commitments and responsibilities has regrettably not only become a hallmark of Boris Johnson but of the UK Government, which in spite of hypocritically welcoming propaganda effectively shuns all refugees, even those fleeing the devastation caused by UK weapons delivered by UK-trained armed forces.

As for comments by Jane Lax (Letters, March 29) and others disingenuously castigating the Scottish Government over the procurement of two ferries while not commenting on the far greater "over-spend" on two aircraft carriers (without planes) as pertinently highlighted on the same page by Mary Thomas, it should be objectively noted that the UK Government has not only also wasted many more billions (not millions) of pounds through deliberate short-cut procurement, via its friends and political allies, of PPE supplies and associated coronavirus services but that this corrupt process was illegal – surely a far greater "crime" and worthy of these correspondents' insights?

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.

REMEMBER THE TORIES' FERRY FAILURE

I COULD have taken Jane Lax’s resignation call to the Scottish Government seriously if she had applied the same call to the Westminster Cabinet, interestingly over ferry failings. After all, we all remember the Brexit ferry contract being awarded by the UK Government to Seaborne Freight, a company which did not own a single ferry and a company which had not previously operated ferry services. The UK Government was forced to cancel the contract at a cost in excess of £50 million to UK taxpayers.

Ms Lax is rightly concerned about the misuse of taxpayers' money, something of which the UK Government has made a habit; we all remember contracts awarded for unusable PPE products during the early days of the pandemic.

She talks about collective responsibility of government at Holyrood, especially within the Cabinet as a whole and notes that to vote against Cabinet decisions is a resignation matter, while avoiding any mention of collective responsibility at Westminster. Only a matter of months ago (December 2021) 100 Conservative MPs rebelled against their Government'' policy on Covid passports. Collective responsibility is one thing, but when Government policy is only secured with votes from the opposition benches, the Government’s authority to continue in office must come into question.

Catriona C Clark, Falkirk.

IRONY OF THE COMPARISONS

ONE of the most common tools used by independence supporters when faced with examples of SNP incompetence at Holyrood is to point at something the Conservatives at Westminster did wrong. So, references to the inability to build a ferry will evoke mentions of HS2 while a long list of the money wasted on various projects will lead to an equally long list of similar misuses of public funds by the Tories. The interesting thing is this line of thinking seem to imply that it is OK for the SNP to make these kinds of mistakes because the Conservatives make them too. Alternatively, these mistakes are only unacceptable when it is the Conservatives or Westminster making them.

This is especially ironic when one considers the other frequent argument of the SNP and its supporters: comparing Scotland to [insert country with a similar population or smaller here]. They never seem to want to compare the situation with Scottish ferries with the Denmark ferry service or compare the education systems of Scotland and Norway. I may be missing something but I thought the point of independence was that the Scottish Government was more competent than the UK one, not competing for second-last place.

John Shanks, Glasgow.

BE PREPARED FOR THE STATUS QUO

IT would seem not even proportionally Watergate-level events in Scottish politics are shifting support for the parties presently in power and making very bad decisions that affect us all. With this level of apathy and a diehard, sheep-like support, it looks like a long period of as you were is in store.

The local elections polls appear to be indicating little or no shift. Not that it will make any difference to the outcome of any independence referendum, were one to be imposed on the majority who resolutely have indicated they do not want it and whose support appears to be increasing. This is the one occasion where those opposing the nationalists show a united front. The nationalist side will lose it, whatever the case.

Methinks those at present running the coalition are more than aware of this and wish to spin the present state out as long as possible, ferry and other fiascos notwithstanding. They are guaranteed eye-watering salaries and expenses and constant exposure and very little or no media criticism. Who would want to give all that up?

So, fasten your seat belts for the status quo.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

SNP SHOULD QUIT AFTER YES WIN

I WAS interested in Kevin McKenna’s article ("SNP must vow to walk away if we win independence", The Herald, March 28) as I thought just before the 2014 independence vote that many voters were confusing the cause with the party espousing it. I thought then and still do now that had the SNP vowed on the eve of the vote to disband in the event of a Yes result, Yes would have carried the day.

This is a mistake it shouldn’t make twice. Should a Yes vote ever be successful, the purpose of the SNP has been achieved. A popular commission or other democratic means should then be created to resolve all the “how” questions between vote and independence being declared. This would neatly remove all the “how” questions from the debate so the populace can focus on whether they as a people want to run their own affairs or not.

Neil Robertson, Aberdeen.

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