Readers' Letters: Challenge to Yousaf shows sorry state of SNP

As if Humza Yousaf didn’t have enough to contend with, we now hear that a Fife SNP branch official, Chris Hanlon, is to act as a stalking horse challenger to his leadership. Mr Hanlon’s USP is that he wants the leadership to promote party policies and not their own pet projects. I think that we can read, for this, secession from the UK and all that follows from that, rather than a deposit return scheme or gender recognition reform.

Mr Hanlon wants the SNP conference to decide on policy and the leadership to implement its decisions. That would be novel: it certainly didn’t happen during Nicola Sturgeon’s time as leader. It would also be a major headache for the SNP leadership, who know very well that there is no majority for leaving the UK, and certainly nothing approaching the overwhelming majority that would be needed for a harmonious new country ready to make the project work. That is why Mr Yousaf, like Ms Sturgeon before him, is kicking the can down the road. Mr Hanlon’s challenge indicates unrest in the rank and file.

How does Mr Hanlon think a new Scotland would work when its leading party cannot even manage its own affairs, especially its finances? The latest news is that the only person in the SNP who knew about the parties’ Policy Development Grant (PDG) from which the SNP received its share was Peter Murrell. Those he left behind when he resigned had no idea about how to apply for it – a useful sum of almost £150,000 per year – with the next deadline looming.

My questions are: am I the only person not to have heard of the PDG? Why do taxpayers pay parties to devise policies that are mostly not in their interests? Does anyone seriously think that a party in the disarray to which the SNP has consigned itself deserves to be in government anywhere, let alone in a sovereign independent government?

Humza Yousaf faces a challenge to his role as SNP party leader from Fife branch official Chris Hanlon (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Does anyone, however, imagine the SNP would ever give up power willingly?

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Fiddling Yousaf

I see that the SNP is putting together a policy document which will enable non-Scots to become a Scottish citizen if the country gains independence.Right now Scotland cries out for responsible, competent and accountable governance. Over the past eight years the SNP has failed dismally on all counts.

Humza Yousaf and his colleagues prefers to dabble in hypothetical “what-ifs” rather than focusing on sorting out the nation’s countless problems.Independence is an unachievable myth perpetuated by Salmond, Sturgeon and now Yousaf, none of whom have ever shared with us exactly how Scotland would survive outside the Union.

Jamie Hepburn, MSP and Minister for Independence, chunters on about Scotland rejoining the EU, knowing full well this is an impossibility. Quite apart from being unable to meet joining criteria, the EU needs another net taker like it needs a hole in the head. Under the Nationalists, national debt and deficit has increased exponentially year on year; expenditure exceeding income by £23 billion in 2022.

You’d think Yousaf would have wanted to get a grip on running Scotland. Instead he fiddles while Scotland burns.

Doug Morrison, Cranbrook, Kent

Bank checks

It is disturbing that one bank is turning away customers because of that customer's political views, which leads you to wonder what else they are up to. The country still suffers from their financial mess of 15 years ago, when the taxpayer had to ride to the rescue.

Many of us suffer from local branch closures. It appears that some London banks are less than fastidious in checking some overseas cash (which is never turned away). All in all, not a pretty picture!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

Broken Britain

Jackie Baillie’s hubris (Perspective, 25 July) reminds me of Neil Kinnock’s triumphant pre-election rally in 1992. It is impossible to keep up with the number of policy U-turns Keir Starmer has undertaken, including reneging on investing billions in Scotland’s vast renewable energy potential while keeping abhorrent Tory policies like the two-child benefit cap. Muted Scottish resistance from the branch office won’t change any Labour policy designed to placate England’s right-wing press.

Ms Baillie knows Westminster is solely responsible for the cost-of-living crises and inflation that has ruined the Scottish Government’s budget. London controls all the major economic decisions affecting Scotland – including energy policy. This won’t change under Labour as they refuse to countenance returning to the EU single market or freedom of movement which has caused the UK’s economic decline and devastated our agricultural, fishing and hospitality industries.

Labour’s Lord Foulkes encouraging a Tory ban on Scottish civil servants from working on one of the key policies on which the Scottish Government was elected shows Labour doesn't really like devolving power, and they have refused to stand up for Scotland’s parliament against the numerous Westminster power grabs since Brexit.

One can only assume that those opposed to Scotland’s self-government do not want to hear the facts on independence or make economic comparisons with our nearest independent neighbours, who all enjoy a higher standard of living than broken Britain.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Boiler fiasco

If the SNP are banning new gas boilers, where will councils and householders buy heat pumps from (your report, 24 July)? Will they be made in Scotland? I presume it will be the same fiasco as the fire alarms which had to be brought in from China and shipped over. In other words, so the Greens can pat themselves on the back on helping fight the climate emergency China will make the heat pumps in their factories, employing their people and shipping or flying them over to Scotland. And with the number needed how does the energy used and CO2 emissions created help the climate emergency?

Typical policy... not thought through and the Scots will again suffer for the madness of the SNP and Greens.

Elizabeth Hands, Armadale, West Lothian

SNP follies

Green minister Patrick Harvie proposes council tax penalties for gas boiler households. Along with his co-leader, the famous ferries and Operation Branchform, Mr Harvie is a gift that keeps on giving. According to this gentleman, Scotland reaching net zero by 2045 will only cost us about £33 billion, so no worries there then.

It’s significant that this statement was made following an unexpected Conservative by-election win down south, thanks to the unpopularity of a local “green” initiative. Of course, Harvie and co believe that Scots are morally superior and more environmentally aware than these selfish Tory-voting Londoners.

What this actually reveals is the grim determination of the Continuity SNP’s coalition partners to shoot themselves and their allies in the foot, repeatedly. Let’s hope this blessed political marriage of inconvenience carries on until 2045 and for decades beyond.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

High cost

The letter from Paul Marsden on the subject of boilers (25 July) did not highlight the fact that such a project endorsed by the SNP comes at a cost of £33 billion (your report, 25 April 2022) and is merely Phase 1 of a £150bn Green Revolution (your report, 13 July 2020).

This means Humza Yousaf will be demanding a further £117bn from householders and landlords prior to the 2026 election, which is not the news voters will wish to see in the SNP manifesto!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway

Be less frog

In 1869, Friedrich Goltz, a physiologist, showed that a frog with its brain removed will die by staying in slowly heating water while an intact frog jumps out when the water reaches 25C. In 1872 it was proved that even an intact frog will stay in the water if the water is heated slowly enough, a death sentence.

The UK is in the grip of a slowly heating bath. Respiratory diseases are now the third largest killer in the country, and yet our Westminster politicians oppose low emission zones. With renewables our only hope of clean energy, Labour and the Tories still seek to make money out of oil and gas. They are reluctant to introduce measures that reward recycling, tackle obesity and help the climate emergency through better insulated houses, and sustainable food policies. Why? Because, like the frog, voters are comfortable just the way they are. With summer holidays ruined by wildfires, and heatstroke causing preventable deaths, it might soon dawn on us that climate change activists have a point. It’s time to “be less frog”.

Frances Scott, Edinburgh