Letter: Best intentions

It's unfortunate that Hugh McLachlan's essay on promises (Comment, 27 November) will not reach the mass of the voting public. I don't know whether politicians' manifesto intentions actually refer specifically to "promises", but as such they are seen by those who respond to them.

Fair and good; however, they must be seen as what Prof McLachlan defines as "conditional" promises. Two factors principally affect the ability to honour such pledges: discovery of insufficient funds in the Treasury and lack of a parliamentary majority to convert commitments into action.

Right now there seems to be a predictable swing back to Labour in voting intentions in the run-up to the coming Scottish elections, the inference being that the SNP government has failed to live up to its "promises". This is a typical knee-jerk reaction common in such circumstances.

However, it would make at least equal sense actually to increase support for the SNP so that they can carry out properly what must have been their stated intentions which attracted enough voters to oust the last Labour government, which itself had a majority only through Lib Dem support.

Robert Dow

Ormiston Road

Tranent, East Lothian