Seven-way TV debate made clear Stephen Flynn is a future SNP leader

While Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt got involved in an unedifying cat fight and Nigel Farage indulged in his usual loud-mouthed self-promotion, Stephen Flynn remained calm and assured.

READ MORE: Audience laughs as Stephen Flynn mocks Nigel Farage at BBC debate

Confident and articulate, Flynn earned the applause of the studio audience on several occasions; they clearly identified with him. His performance was reminiscent of Nicola Sturgeon. Along with his leadership of the SNP in the House of Commons, Flynn continues to impress.

In my estimation, Stephen Flynn is a future leader of the SNP and the sooner the better. He has the charisma that John Swinney – decent guy that he is – lacks.

“Cometh the hour
Cometh the man.”

Sandy Gordon
Edinburgh

WATCHING the debates on TV, one has to say that the Unionist parties are desperate to remain in power.

The Tory lie about the Labour £2000 tax on voters was exposed as a misnomer by the ONS and senior personnel in the civil service yet Penny Mordaunt just kept going on about it, boring the voters with her dogmatic nonsense.

READ MORE: Stephen Flynn draws praise for 'wiping floor' with Tories and Labour at BBC debate

I campaign for independence as a non-aligned activist in Scotland. I say to the voters here, just think hard about the Unionist historical record and all their U-turns, lies and ignorance toward Scotland and its future before you vote. Gordon Brown told voters that if they stayed in the Union devo max would come, and guess what? It did not, nor will it as Unionists continue to refuse independence in Scotland while pretending they are democratic.

Lie after lie after lie is what I see as a keen political observer in Scotland. Folks, it is your option to forge a new future or stick with the Unionist failures that led directly to the worst financial mess in more than 80 years.

I will vote for a fairer future, NOT more of the same that Unionists offer. Forward to independence.

Trevor Swistchew
Edinburgh

DURING his ITV debate with Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak claimed the Treasury had informed him that Labour policies would make households £2000 worse off. This was corrected the next day when the Treasury stated the figures were not from them.

READ MORE: Treasury official distances civil service from Rishi Sunak's tax claim

On Friday night, during the BBC seven leaders debate, Penny Mordaunt repeated the claim about the figure. I seem to recall someone once said that if you tell a big enough lie and keep repeating it, the public will come to believe it is true. Does anyone remember who said this?

T J Dowds
Cumbernauld

SHOULD the SNP defy current odds and win the largest number of Scottish seats at the General Election, and as a result take Scotland a significant step forward on the road to independence, few National readers will look back on Brian Lawson’s contributions to date to these pages as having progressed our common cause (the latest on June 6 criticising Stephen Flynn’s NHS law proposal).

Whatever gripes he harbours against the SNP leadership, it seems a pity that he cannot seem to rise above them and find ways to positively contribute to the independence cause, or at least find a way to make any valid criticisms constructive overall. Perhaps Brian should give Catriona C Clark (also Letters, Jun 6) a call before expressing his next gripe.

Should the Alba Party, or the Scottish Greens, succeed in splitting the independence vote sufficiently that the SNP lose a decisive seat to a pro-Union party, then few genuine independence supporters will thank either of these parties. A decisive seat could be any seat lost that denies the SNP prominence as the largest Scottish party, majority Scottish party or third-largest party at Westminster.

Certainly we would all like to see support for independence above 50% of the vote, but realistically that will only happen if the other independence parties, and those disaffected (perhaps due to past leadership decisions), get behind the SNP at this election. Otherwise votes will go to the Labour Party, which will not be counted as favouring independence, even if a large share of Labour’s vote in Scotland is actually from those supportive of self-determination.

Those seeking to use this General Election to further their own political ambitions at the next Scottish election (2026) could find that intent backfiring on those ambitions.

Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian

JENNY Pearson (Letters, Jun 8) states that “the UK Government is an English government”. She has pointed out a truth that has long been ignored. During the debate in the English Parliament in 1707 about having Scottish members admitted to the House, Sir John Holt, the Lord Chief Justice, informed members who opposed the Union, “in every respect bar its style and limited addition to its membership, the new Parliament of Great Britain would be as its English predecessor.” Despite an extended franchise, and howls of denial from Unionists of every hue, this has proved to be the case. As a famous man once said, “facts are chiels that winna’ ding.”

T J Dowds
Cumbernauld

A WEEK or so into the General Electioneering and both “main” party leaders have already thrown enough porky pies to feed the nation. So much so that the porky pie champion of Little England has been forced into throwing his Harrod’s, tweed, ordinary chap, limited-liability-company flat cap into the ring.

Yet somehow Scotland is the basket case, according to the usual mass media throng, who need this utterly-nutterly political circus to survive. Aye richt eneuch. Sic a parcel o rogues in the nation.

Peter Thomson
via email