Readers Letters: Constituents should have mechanism to get rid of unwanted MSPs
Conservative MSP Graham Simpson has presented a Recall and Removal of Members Bill to the Scottish Parliament (your report, 19 December). The proposed Bill would enable constituents to trigger a recall process if their elected MSP is found guilty of serious misconduct or if their conduct in office is deemed unacceptable. Just more than 10 per cent of the MSPs’ constituents would have to sign a recall petition to trigger a by-election.
This is excellent news and long overdue, since the Removal of MPs Act was passed in 2015. If the SNP-dominated Scottish Government had not been so anti-Westminster and had quickly followed the English Act, numerous MSPs could have been justifiably sacked by their constituents.
Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian


Calling Campbell
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdLabour stumble from one presentation faux pas to the next. The latest is the Waspi women pensioners situation. The whole delivery was ill-timed and clearly ill-prepared, as have been so many of their actions since July. Surely the line of questioning could have been foreseen and answers developed.
The smooth running of the last Labour government was a triumph for the presentation skills of Alastair Campbell. All rough edges had always been smoothed when he ran things. I am aware of what the Iraq War did to his reputation and that of his boss Tony Blair, but there is not a sliver of doubt that he was an absolute master of the spin doctoring trade.
I voted Labour and despite the shaky start, want them to do well. They need a top spin doctor, and they need him or her in place quickly.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh
Fuel fail
Curtailing the winter fuel payment to only those who have certain other welfare allowances was very unfair to people on invalidity allowance and whose only income is the State Pension.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe Chancellor should have been more generous by moving the barrier for gaining the allowance to a higher level. In addition, the triple lock is not financially viable in the longer term and should be replaced by an inflation fraction which covers only those items of expenditure which affect OAPs, ie rent, food, energy and clothes etc, which would protect them from sudden increases in the expenses which affect them most.
Unfortunately, the Government does not appreciate rich people and small businesspeople, so it uses a cluster bomb approach to ensure that it reaches those they do not like.
James Macintyre, Linlithgow, West Lothian
A word, please
I cannot understand why Labour MPs and government ministers have so much difficulty explaining the definition of words. First it was “a woman” and now it is “working people”. Never mind about free tickets and clothes, can someone donate them some free dictionaries?
Paul Lewis, Edinburgh
Reaping whirlwind
Anas Sarwar and the Labour Party in Scotland are deservedly reaping the bitter consequences of a duplicitous general election campaign in which they sought to blame all of Scotland’s ills on the SNP Scottish Government in Holyrood, with the catastrophic failings at Westminster barely mentioned until the election was won.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIt is, of course, very easy to stand up every week in the Scottish Parliament and criticise the NHS, as well as other public services, by cynically exploiting the exceptional poor experiences of a relatively tiny number of unfortunate patients in order to attack what is, overall, the best-performing NHS in the UK (in spite of what some subjectively selecting statistics wish others to believe). What is not easy is to provide honest solutions, or even constructive ideas, to resolving entrenched economic and social issues, as well as to rebuilding an archaic system of government that is fundamentally undemocratic (it cannot be justified that with the votes of only 20 per cent of the electorate the UK Government can have authoritarian control) and out of step with the modern world.
Like the supposed “change” offered by Sir Keir Starmer, where the wealth of the richest continues to be protected while the poorest still pay the price of decades of Westminster failings, the “change” preached by Sarwar would prove worthless with the reality of devolved government kicking in should enough people in Scotland be duped into buying what he disingenuously offers. The truth is that there is no easy fix to the UK’s economic and social demise (Liz Truss attempted that and we all know how that went – although with potentially even more catastrophic ramifications it does not seem to be stopping the same snake oil salesman who sold England and Wales Brexit from scurrilously trying) and long-term solutions accompanied by genuine democracy can only be achieved through federalism based on a written constitution or through self-determination of constituent nations.
Apart from Gordon Brown himself there appears to be little support for federalism so it would appear the Scottish, English and Welsh, along with Ireland’s residents, must rise to the challenges of governing distinct but “equal” nations in an ever-changing world, knowing that this path offers much more hope for most of the people inhabiting these islands than the remnants of the broken promises and UK Government policies of the past.
Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian
Grim tale
You rightly provide the heading “Fairy tale” for Leah Gunn Barrett’s latest extravaganza (Letters, 19 December). Her defective knowledge of the history of her comparator with Scotland, Norway, produces an ignorant caricature that matches her bizarre caricature of Scotland: we do not “pay the highest electricity prices in the world”; we are not “dying from the cold”. The 2.3 million Norwegians (in 1905) did not have their resources “stolen” by Sweden, with which country they were in a monarchical union from 1814-1905.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIt is arrogance for an American to accept British hospitality and then rubbish the British state with a pack of untruths dreamed up by nationalist grievance-mongers. To do so with a quasi-religious fervour renders it ridiculous. To accuse people who correct nationalist myths as treating “Scotland” with contempt is offensive.
Ms Barrett knows nothing about the recent history of Scotland. Our standard of living is now very much higher than it was in the 1970s, when poverty meant not having shoes, whereas now it means not having a smartphone.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh
About turn
Is it any surprise that a wholly incompetent and ineffective SNP Government in Scotland sees a bounce in their opinion poll ratings ahead of the Scottish Election in 2026? This bounce has been entirely facilitated by the decisions of a duplicitous Labour Government in the UK, beginning with the decision to scrap the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and now followed by their complete about-turn in not paying compensation to the Waspi women.
The electorate then witnesses the Prime Minister promising to help the Scottish Government reinstate some form of a winter fuel allowance by giving the Scottish Government access to UK Department of Work & Pensions systems.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdI wonder if the Prime Minister will be in receipt of a Christmas card from Anas Sarwar? It seems more likely that he will receive a Christmas card from John Swinney!
Richard Allison, Edinburgh
Why so high?
When I first bought a house back in 1971, the maximum you could borrow was 4x your own salary.
So, given I was the only breadwinner, my disposable income was £830 – which in today’s money is approximately £14,700. Using the 4x rule, that would alow me to buy a three-bedroom terraced house with a downstairs bathroom and one toilet, a value of £59,000 in today’s money. Of course, incomes have risen pro-rata since the Seventies so maybe I would be on nearer £18,000, but that still only gives those house prices at around £80,000. Given that today’s prices in the same road are around £180,000 that should give the chills to anyone owning a house. However, I don’t think it does, does it, house prices are buoyant, aren’t they, confidence is holding house prices to a steady value.
Well, looking at disposable income, I would say it most certainly is a time to squeeze the pelvic floors. Disposable incomes are no greater than in 2017 due to tax increases and inflation, so why have house prices increased? Perhaps because the average multiplier on annual income is now 9x. Perhaps because lifetime mortgages are a thing.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHowever, a more important metric would be to look at figures for that ratio of house prices to income going way back, say 150 years or so, that would show changes over the long term. It’s bad news – today’s figure shows we are at a 100-year-high and way off what would be an average for the period. Even worse, that ratio fluctuates wildly. It ought to be around 5.5x income or less, not 9x. Given our precarious position on the National Debt, interest rates and rate of inflation, I would say a correction should be on the cards – but how long has that been a topic?
Trevor Bradley, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
Excellent!
Regarding the new Centre of Teaching Excellence (Editorial, 19 December), Glasgow, your time has came!
Alan Steadman, Broughty Ferry, Dundee
Write to The Scotsman
We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid 'Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters' or similar in your subject line – be specific. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.