LAST year we had a Holyrood election in which we dealt with devolved issues and sent back an SNP government. This time it is a Westminster election which should relate to reserved responsibilities such as Trident, foreign policy, the economy, Brexit, etc.
I have sat through an endless series of debates and interviews by the BBC over the past few weeks and have been amazed by the stamina and abilities of our First Minister. What has left me angry and depressed has been the agenda set by the BBC from the outset. On every occasion they have ensured that a devolved issue (ie education) took centre stage.
These were all pre-arranged questions so it was not a matter of the studio audience going off-script. If you say something often enough, then people start to believe it and the BBC has repeated the education theme ad nauseum throughout this election.
A case in point was on our screens last night with the notorious Nick Robinson chairing a Question Time debate. After the BBC’s performance during the independence referendum, I had hoped that they would now be somewhat chastened but, unfortunately, they have no shame.
Alasdair Forbes
Inverness-shire
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General election focus should be Tory Brexit failure
THE misrepresentation of veracity is no stranger to the Conservative Party’s quiver but Mrs May’s accusation that the SNP were fighting this election on the issue of a second independence referendum must surely be up there high among the shots that went wild.
There she was, hiding in a furniture depository in Edinburgh, talking to a hundred or so acolytes from God knows where with a handful of selected journalists and she said the SNP are obsessing about the next independence referendum.
Actually, we are not. We know perfectly well it will be called when the people wish for it. The SNP is fighting this election on Westminster terms and challenging the terrifying inadequacy of May’s government to provide even a scintilla of wisdom to our European colleagues, her own ministers, the Commons and her electorate as to what she means by “Brexit means Brexit”.
It is now apparent to the entire United Kingdom that this is a tragic woman, unhappily out of her depth, thrust into circumstances beyond her control, who has reached too far for the sun. Aye, but the tragedy will be one we share if we let her back into power.
Do not underestimate the extent to which The Conservatives and Unionists are trying to distort the vote. They are arguing that it is about a second referendum on independence. They argued the same thing about the local elections. No such thing.
This election is about securing the best constituency members we can get to represent us in the Westminster Parliament. The Tories are very secretive about some of their candidates’ activities, as the discriminatory behaviour of two of their new councillors in Stirling would indicate. Both were suspended from the party but only after they had won their seats.
It might be helpful to electors in Stirling to learn that, in the absence of any statement of Tory policy other than opposition to the democratic will of Scots to determine their own future, the Tory candidate here is an evangelical member of an American religious organisation.
Misinformation can come in many forms. Silence is one of them. Silence on policies at this time insults us all.
KM Campbell
Doune
LIKE many others, I am fed up with this unnecessary election.
However, I shall definitely be voting, as I am concerned that some Scottish voters may be about to hand over tax revenues from the new oil and gas discoveries west of Shetland to the UK parties.
The Westminster government would, in due course, fritter away these riches, with no benefit to Scotland or the UK.
No oil fund to be invested, plenty of new wars and weapons of mass destruction, tax cuts for the already wealthy and nothing for the rest of us but impoverishment when the oil runs out. That is why it is best to support Scottish-headquartered parties or centre-left independents.
Yet I remain depressed at the constant harping on by the English and UK parties about a non-existent independence referendum and the possibility that some voters may become persuaded that this is what this election is about.
Andrew McCrae
Gourock
SOME time ago Paxman’s questions to Mrs May exposed effectively how ineffective she had been at the Home Office in dealing with immigration. She could not explain how Conservative policy has completely failed in this area (even to reduce non-European immigrants). So I will explore the possible causes.
As we have near full employment one must agree with Jonathan Wadsworth at London School of Economics that there is no statistical impact of immigrants on wages of UK workers. Scottish farmers have claimed that they can’t get local workers for seasonal work, so need immigrants, and in Scotland EU nationals make up 3.4 per cent of the population but 4.5 per cent of the workforce. So they are vital and skilled workers.
Now if industry (having benefited from five years of corporation tax concessions) is simply not training local workers then it’s necessary for the Government to tax industry and spend major sums of money on training.
And if years of austerity have not created a mood of business confidence in the UK (but instead has reduced consumer purchasing power) then perhaps the economy needs government stimulus to take us through the uncertainty which our changing trade relationship with Europe and other countries will create.
Unless government spends a lot of money on skills training and infrastructure it is most unlikely that we will not see significant falls in immigration. So in five years time Mrs May will be facing the same questions from Paxman with the same lack of answers.
Andrew Vass
Edinburgh
YOU report Kezia Dugdale saying Scottish Labour would never support a “progressive alliance” with the SNP which she claimed is not an “anti-austerity” party (It’s a fail in history for Dugdale if she thinks SNP aren’t a progressive party, The National, June 6).
Does Ms Dugdale have one line for national politics and another quite different one for council politics?
Or perhaps the power-sharing agreement between the SNP and Labour at Fife Council doesn’t count as a progressive alliance. And the Fife SNP is an anti-austerity party, unlike its mother party which since 2010 has inflicted a 20 per cent austerity cut in funding on Fife Council?
Linda Holt
Anstruther, Fife
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