Letter: Out of touch

Your headline (9 June) read: "Alex Salmond snubbed over new Holyrood powers." This, however, is not true.

Alex Salmond and the SNP were returned to power with a historic mandate to act on behalf of the Scottish people.

The party overcame an electoral system that was created to prevent them from ever gaining a majority (which, for some unknown reason, most commentators do not see as being an affront to democracy) and in doing so, now have a far stronger mandate than any other political parties in Scotland, whether in terms of Holyrood or Westminster.

Scots have unambiguously voted for greater powers for the parliament in Edinburgh by voting for the SNP in such numbers, and it is Scotland that has been snubbed by Westminster, not just Alex Salmond and the SNP.

The more unionist politicians ignore the people of Scotland's clear desire for more autonomy and more power invested in Edinburgh, the more they demonstrate quite succinctly how utterly out of touch they are with most Scottish opinion.

David Balfour

Craobhraid na Coiltich

Inverness