WHILE recently awaiting a change of tyres and an MOT certificate for my car I sought refuge from the cold in a local public house. A large hand-written note on the front door proclaimed “No Funeral Parties”. Clearly they had experienced some previous difficulties with this type of gathering.
Funerals, or a memorial service in the case of Saturday, have a tendency to raise levels of emotion, and not always in a good way. Sometimes genuine emotion spills over into anger, as it did with the woman who shouted at John Swinney as he arrived at St Giles’. It has to be said, however, that there was certainly more than one person who thought his presence warranted booing.
READ MORE: Jeering of John Swinney at memorial service was deeply disrespectful
The last thing anyone expected was to be spending St Andrew’s Day attending, or viewing online, a memorial service for Alex Salmond. I am not the greatest fan of the current First Minister, even less of his two predecessors, but I felt some empathy, even sympathy, for John Swinney’s situation.
Clearly, to say the very least, the SNP in general and Alex Salmond in particular have not had their troubles to seek in the past few years. John Swinney attended St Giles’ as First Minister of Scotland and sadly no longer as a friend of Alex Salmond.
Only a short time ago Mr Swinney declared that he would never campaign with Mr Salmond, in effect ignoring the outcome of a trial and the verdict of a jury in the High Court ironically just a stone’s throw from St Giles'. Mr Swinney has been less than forthcoming in providing information requested by Mr Salmond’s legal team. My only smile among the tears of Saturday’s events was as a result of seeing an online comment that Mr Swinney should have been provided with a redacted copy of the order of service.
READ MORE: George Kerevan: Alex Salmond would have wiped the floor with Nigel Farage – so we need a strategy
However, at the end of day Alex has gone from our lives – hopefully to a better place, somewhere pensioners live in comfort and children are not hungry.
We need to put the past behind us. In less than 18 months time the Scottish Parliament election will be upon us. If we are to maintain Alex’s legacy in any shape or form there has to be a coming together of hearts and minds – especially minds. The forces of Reform UK are knocking at the door of the Scottish Parliament demanding seats. If we are not both careful and clever they will be sitting in those seats until 2031, probably helping to deny any moves towards Scottish independence in a loose coalition with the Labour Party.
At the last Scottish Parliament elections more than a million SNP list votes won only two extra seats. Given the rise in Labour’s support and the apparent decline in the SNP’s support since then, while a large percentage of the electorate are still in favour of independence, perhaps now would be good time for the newly appointed SNP campaign director Angus Robertson to at least think the unthinkable and explore possible alliances with other like-minded parties.
Sandra West
Dundee
FRIDAY morning brought with it two more council by-election results. The score was unsurprisingly 2-0 to the Unionists. The previous Friday it was 4-0. The Friday before it was 4-0. The Friday before that it was 5-0. I fear a bit of a trend is setting in. Of the very many recent by-elections, the Unionists have won all but two of them.
The turnout is only around 20% in these by-elections but it would be foolish to ignore these results. I was taken aback by recent comments online from SNP members that the cold weather was to blame, not for the low turnout, but for the actual result. Apparently SNP voters feel the cold more than Unionists!
READ MORE: Call for apology after Labour legal blunder leads to by-election mess
Interestingly around 25% of voters now appear to have a postal vote, so in the recent spate of council by-elections not even all those with a postal vote could be bothered to post it back.
As the next Scottish Parliament elections draw ever closer I suspect that even the promise of a Winter Fuel Payment of £100 – some might say bribe just before the election – will have a marginal impact of the overall result. It would come as no surprise if Labour were to promise at least £300 to all pensioners.
There seems to be little prospect of substantial reductions in hospital waiting times and waiting lists by May 2026 and it looks like Grangemouth’s oil refinery will be well on the way to complete closure by then. The A9 and the A96 will be no further forward. Fuel bills will probably rise again and swallow up the Scottish Government’s £100 payment. Food banks and toy banks will continue be one of our few growth industries. The Scottish Government may by then be facing a £200 million bill for its failed recycling scheme.
READ MORE: Scottish lawyer joins Alba to 'ensure Alex Salmond's legacy continues'
Anyone wishing a cushy job hiding on the back benches of the Scottish Parliament for five years – complete with generous salary, expenses and staff to keep your constituents at arm’s length – need only apply to be a Reform UK candidate. They now have a real chance of winning list seats in the next Scottish Parliament with little effort and a minimal campaign.
A week may indeed be a long time in politics but May 2026 is not so very far away, and it remains to be seen if the SNP can or will remain in government.
Brian Lawson
Paisley
AS it is in the gift, the collective common sense, of Nato to give Ukraine, President Zelensky and the world a real Christmas present that is full membership of Nato for Ukraine on Christmas Day, it follows that Vladimir Putin, being a fully committed Christian, would of course have to obey the higher reality that now dictates his conscience … accepting at overlong last that the actual meaning and responsibility of the double-headed eagle that he stands underneath is, as it has always meant, “live and let live”, ie PEACE, for such would be the best Christmas Present EVER for everyone.
Charles Mugleston
Felixstowe, Suffolk
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