YOUR correspondent Gerald Edwards asks in his letter (May 11), “after 11 years in power, what are the Scottish National Party’s achievements?”

No tuition fees for Scottish students, prescription charges abolished, the lowest recorded crime levels in 42 years, Higher exam passes up by one-third since 2007 and the world-leading target of a 42 per cent reduction of emissions by 2020 exceeded and delivered six years early – to name but five of a list of more than 140.

I would be happy to send this list to Dr Edwards but I suspect he would be too busy searching for bad news to read it.

David Hay,

12 Victoria Park, Minard, Argyll.

FREQUENT correspondents Keith Howell, Martin Redfern and today’s contributor Dr Gerald Edwards seem to have a fixation about just one topic, the Scottish National Party and what they perceive to be its total failure on every conceivable matter and occasion. Have these letter-writers no interest in, or views about, any other subject?

What about the probable hard Brexit now looming, and the damaging effects it will have on the UK and Scottish economies? What about President Trump’s extraordinary behaviour in general, and specifically his current dealing with Iran and the looming crisis in much of the Middle East? What about the constant problems of providing ever-increasing funding for the National Health Service? At a more mundane level, what about fracking in Scotland, the state of our roads and the problems of our public transport services? Are these matters and others of no interest or concern to them?

Every political realist knows that the SNP Government is doing its best within its limited administrative powers and financial resources to cope with all today’s challenging economic and social problems, not of its own making but created by UK-wide and external political policies and actions. The current Westminster Conservative government’s obvious lack of interest in (and often ill-disguised contempt for) Scotland and its separate needs and problems doesn’t help.

Iain AD Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

KENNY Wilson (Letters, May 11) ascribes to me the suggestion that Scotland has “No Problem Here” when it comes to racism. Of course, my letter made no such assertion. We have problems, of course we do, but they are not the same now, or historically, as England’s.

Nor, though I now believe in Scottish self-government, do I believe in any sense of exceptionalism for this small country. My politics is driven by economics and culture, neither of which Scotland has the power to do anything about. The country which does have that sense of nationalist exceptionalism appears to be the UK. The Brexit campaign had it in abundance, as does the “power grab”; the “special” relationship; “Putting Great back in Britain”; “Our place in the world”; ”Taking back control”. All tokens of exceptionalism.

GR Weir,

17 Mill Street, Ochiltree.

I AGREE with the view expressed by Hugh Phillips that casual racism can still be found among many ordinary people sitting chatting, for example, in some pubs (Letters May 11). I suspect that this is particularly so among the older generation whose schooling at the time did not fully embrace an understanding of the importance of accepting diversity in our society.

However I always think of the issue as rather wider and more profound than the scenario Mr Phillips exposes. Our Equality Act (2010) in the UK was designed to legally protect people against discrimination covering a range of characteristics including age, race, colour, religion, gender and sexual orientation. Nevertheless, I always consider the Act to be in a sense suspended on the day of a general or local election. In the few seconds it takes in the privacy of a voting booth the public can exercise their right of personal freedom to secretly vote with discrimination employing the motivations of prejudice, intolerance and bigotry.

I feel that as a nation we don’t like to talk in public about such aspects of our personal freedom and perhaps refer to it as sacrosanct and simply our precious democracy in action. I would rather refer to it as the price we have to pay for democracy.

Bill Brown,

46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.

IT appears that the petro-chemical company Ineos’s legal challenge to the Scottish Government’s fracking ban may be premature.

The company headed into court this week to be told by James Mure, QC for the Scottish Government that the First Minister’s statements on an effective ban were merely a PR “gloss”. This is some PR “gloss”, especially if you watch the First Minister’s speech in Holyrood last year where she adamantly stated: “Fracking is banned in Scotland, end of story and we should all be happy.” How can present and future business people in the UK and abroad plan investments in Scotland when our Government is driven by PR gloss and not sensible and proper decision-making that would allow our country’s economy to thrive and move forward? This fracking ban is a classic example of the SNP trying to win “popular” votes and keep the Green Party onside so it can push through any other ill-thought-out ideas and PR-seeking opportunities that may sway people towards independence.

John Godsman,

East Lodge, Kirktown of Fetteresso, Stonehaven.

SCOTLAND is the most over-governed country on planet Earth. Only Scots have local councillors, MSPs, List MSPs, MPs, and MEPs. Each elected person has a plethora of advisers and assistants, culminating in the First Minister, who has a virtual army of special advisers, one at least of whom is an elector-rejected MSP.

The post of MEP, MP and MSP could effortlessly and with a minimum of constitutional tweaking be reduced to a one-person job, sitting at Westminster, Brussels and Edinburgh as and when required. At a stroke we could release perhaps billions and make a huge hole in the bed-blocking and GP and education crises, fix our third world roads, and reduce the burden on our crippled finances.

Anyone tending to scoff, please remember that for more than a century Scotland was governed in exactly that way, without MSPs, or List MSPs, or MEPs, and their hangers-on. We functioned just as efficiently and well as we do now, many would argue perhaps even better.

Alexander McKay,

8/7 New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh.