Let’s be practical

Colin Hamilton (Letters, 30 April) hits upon an increasingly modern topic in UK politics, ie by merely wishing something good, or by stating a value, somehow this is enough to vote for.

Politics is about ideals, yes, but also about practicalities, ie how will this be put into practice, and what will the end result be?

For example, what if keeping the NHS out of private hands leads to worse performance? Surely this would be a bad thing.

The practical end seems to be of decreasing relavence; another example is that the SNP is “for Scotland”, which seems to get a lot of support, yet, for example, their policy of fiscal autonomy would be an economic disaster for Scotland.

William Ballantine

Dean Road

Bo’ness, West Lothian