History repeating

Those with long memories may be disturbed at Channel 4’s forthcoming Ukip: The First 100 days so-called “docudrama”, which predicts a breakdown of law and order should the Farageists win power.

Back in the 1970s, when the SNP threatened to take the majority of Scottish seats, the BBC happened to show a TV series called Scotch On The Rocks – written by future Tory cabinet minister Douglas Hurd – in which a cadre within the SNP planned to establish a socialist dictatorship by force once independence was secured (ironically, at the time the pre-Salmond SNP were actually derided as “Tartan Tories”!)

It certainly succeeded in frightening enough of the gullible then into the absurd belief this was what would happen if the SNP took power – and such remains the power of the “idiot’s lantern”, it seems Channel 4 is hoping for the same effect on Ukip: a testament to how desperate the establishment have become to stop Farage’s motley crew.

MARK BOYLE

Linn Park Gardens

Johnstone, Renfrewshire