Deficit accounting

Just over 22 per cent of the Scottish electorate voted for the SNP in 2011. By comparison only just under 39 per cent of the UK electorate voted for the present coalition parties in 2010 and only just under 22 per cent of the UK electorate voted for Labour in 2005. With just under 30,000 votes in the right places, the Conservatives would have gained a majority in 2010 with just under 24 per cent of the UK electorate voting for them.

However, elections are decided by those who choose to take part. In contrast to some places, notably Australia and Belgium, voting is not compulsory in the UK. In 2011 the SNP got over 45 per cent of the Scottish vote.

By contrast in UK elections the party that won got the following percentages of the vote: 1979, 44 per cent; 1983, 42 per cent; 1987, 42 per cent; 1992, 42 per cent; 1997, 43 per cent; 2001, 41 per cent; and 2005, just 35 per cent.

Fifty-nine per cent of voters supported the coalition parties in 2010 but the Conservatives with the extra votes mentioned above could have achieved a majority with just 37 per cent of the vote.

The present SNP government in Scotland has, without doubt, more legitimacy than any UK government since 1979 with the exception of the present coalition.

Given a continuation of the ongoing historical decline of the Conservative party in Scotland since 1955, a Conservative majority in a 2015 UK election would leave Scotland governed, as now and often in the past, by a party the vast majority did not vote for. That’s a democratic deficit.

I would seriously question the “proof” that Alison Fullarton provides in her last paragraph. It is very convenient for her argument that history cannot be rerun. But I would suggest that there is something seriously wrong with the Union when we have entirely democratically reached the stage where we have the opportunity to vote in a referendum for the continuation of the Union or otherwise.

Andrew Parrott

Stuart Avenue

Perth 

ALISON Fullarton says that two thirds of Scots – I think she means citizens in Scotland – did not vote for the SNP (Letters, 22 April).

I don’t know how many times it has to be repeated before it percolates through to supporters of the Union, but the democratic facts are irrefutable.

Of the people who were motivated enough to get off their backsides and vote in the 2011 Scottish election, 902,915 voted for the SNP. That equates to 45.4 per cent of the turnout. Labour garnered 31.7 per cent of the turnout; the Conservatives 13.9 per cent and the Liberal Democrats got 7.9 per cent. On that basis, any talk of there being a democratic deficit in Scotland is a nonsense. And as has been said before if supporters of the Unionist parties wish to have a bigger share of the vote, why don’t they just pop along to the ballot box on election day and vote.

Turning to our alleged hatred of the Tory Party, what I experience from supporters of independence is their revulsion at policies initiated by Westminster coalition members which are having a devastating effect on the most vulnerable sections of our society throughout the UK.

The difference is that here in Scotland we have the opportunity to do something about it.

Many supporters of independence also believe that following a Yes vote there will be an opportunity for the other political parties to be rejuvenated by it.

I for one would like to see that and when one considers Tories such as Malcolm Rifkind, Ian Lang, the late David McLetchie, Annabel Goldie, Murdo Fraser and Ruth Davidson, is it too fanciful to suggest our Tories are a different breed from the likes of David Cameron and George Osborne?

Douglas Turner

Derby Street

Edinburgh