Readers' letters: Don't be fooled by Swinney's 'politics of fear' summit

For a man whose party is haemorrhaging members, John Swinney has had a brilliant idea. Lets pretend that Reform stands for “the politics of fear”, he suggests and asks the unionist parties to join him in his paranoia at a “summit”. Mr Swinney suggests that Reform is “far right” (Scotsman, 27 February).

It is disappointing that some of the usually rather more level-headed in the Labour Party fallen for this desperate ploy. Surely, after all the events of the last year or two they, and the Lib Dems for that matter, must be aware that it is the SNP which is the party of the extreme left?

It is the SNP which wants to break up the UK and which ignores the clear decision by the people of Scotland to remain part of the UK?

John Swinney speaks to the press conference at which he accused Nigel Farage of being an 'accomplice of Russia' (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)

It is the SNP which courted the Greens. Both parties are separatists and at the very extreme end of climate alarmism, which is “the politics of fear” in anyone’s book.

Indeed, Ed Milliband is also a climate extremist. It is the SNP and the Greens who want net zero, but who also refuse to accept nuclear power.

Anyone who has seen a baying mob of nationalists outside Tory party conferences, or in the streets before the referendum must know that these people are from a very dark place indeed and no self-respecting unionist should be seen anywhere near Mr Swinney’s “summit”.

Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh

Talking shop

No sooner has the Scotsman Comment (26 February) highlighted “Gaelic professor just inadvertently summed up everything that’s wrong with SNP government” than John Swinney provides another example of what the good professor was describing: the talking-shop tendency.

In a press conference, the First Minister announced a new summit to tackle the rise of the “far right”. What would this do? Why, of course, “provide leadership and stress the importance of [our] shared values”.

To this end, Mr Swinney will hold a "gathering” at the end of April with the usual suspects: representatives from “civic society”, churches, trades unions, charities and the political parties. They will, from their stance on the alleged moral high ground, “draw a line in the sand, to set out who we are and what we believe in”.

I don’t doubt that some people will think this an admirable endeavour. A group of self-satisfied worthies will sit around saying how much they like motherhood and apple pie (or perhaps, rather, “birthgiverhood”, and apple pie, in this “gendered” polity).

But what will it actually achieve? The square root of diddly squat, I predict. Meanwhile, governance in Scotland will continue to avoid the pressing issues that the SNP has long since consigned to the “too difficult” box.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Populist policies

I am with Alistair Carmichael (Scotsman, 28 February) in standing up to the far right, but there would be no need for this if the concerns of ordinary people had been met, such as mass migration, wokery and the cost of net zero.

If the routine parties will not deliver the wishes of voters, then some will vote for a party that will.

William Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian

Big swing

John Swinney says he is “repulsed” by Nigel Farage and the far right and that the Reform UK’s argument against immigrants is “fundamentally racist”,

Very soon Donald Trump is due to fly over for tea with the king (Scotsman, 28 February). It is quite likely that while he is here he will want to have a look at his golf courses in Scotland.

Is our First Minister planning any kind of action to prevent Trump landing his big areoplane in Scotland, or is he busy practising his golf swing?

Bruce Proctor, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Peace paper?

When Keir Starmer, on his recent visit to the White House, wafted a piece of paper under Donald Trump's nose, why did a picture of Neville Chamberlain immediately spring to my mind?

John Wann, Edinburgh

Grin and bear it

Henry McLeish’s timely and perceptive article (Scotsman, 27 February) introduces us to the Economist magazine’s word of 2024 – kakistocracy, the malign government of the worst, with reference to the Trump presidency, aided and abetted by Elon Musk.

Quite frankly, it's hard to find a redeeming feature in either of them. Cutting 90 per ent of USAid is causing untold harm to the poorest and most vulnerable adults and children worldwide, in a situation that can only get worse.

A preview of what the projected Middle East Riviera would look like, while censoring the necessary ethnic cleansing of Gaza’s natives, features a larger-than-life statue of Trump himself as its central feature. His deluded ego knows no bounds

To crown it all – pun intended – Trump has been offered an “unprecedented” and surely unwarranted, second state visit, by King Charles, whose innermost thoughts can only be imagined. The best we all can do is grin and bear it.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Hugo remembered

I was delighted to read in of the plan to commemorate Hugo the cat with a sculpture (Scotsman, 28 February) and fully support the idea as I bemoaned in my book, Beastly Edinburgh, the lack of a cat sculpture in the city.

As my book relates, the city has many public sculptures of dogs, deer, birds, lions and horses, while other animals represented include elephants, giraffes squirrels, and even a dung beetle.

Given the many cats that have brought pleasure to residents over the centuries – and helped keep mice at bay – one celebrating a cat is long overdue.

Barclay Price, Edinburgh

Rubber stamps

John McLellan hits the nail on the head in his article “SNP is overruling locals to approve wind farm plans” (27 February).

It would indeed save time and taxpayers’ money if every renewable energy project went straight to SNP minsters for a rubber stamp and that is no doubt what they are aiming for.

After all, it is written into the Scottish Government’s own “Guidance on taking part in planning appeals and other cases” that “the number of representations against a proposal is not a determining factor”. Why have pesky members of the public acting as barriers to deployment?

If ignoring recommendations by the Scottish Government’s own Reporters is to become the norm instead of the exception, are we to assume that there will be no requirement for the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division in the future, that public inquiries will be a thing of the past and that democracy will cease to exist in any shape or form?

Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin, East Renfrewshire

Opting out

Here we go again – another SNP MSP with far too much time on their hands. This time its “SNP former minister wants children to be able to opt out of school religious events” (Scotsman, 28 February).

While attending Glenvarloch primary in Edinburgh, it did me no harm whatsoever to attend weekly services in the school hall, indeed it was a respite from the other mundane tasks carried out – arithmetic, English, science and learning the violin.

Perhaps if they are allowed to opt out they can then be informed there will be no religious holidays for them – I think that might train the mind somewhat. The shambles in schools can be partly connected to this opt out nonsense. Jonny doesn’t like sport, so he opts out – he arrives at high school 14 stone in weight. Jenny opts out of being quiet at home as she has a right to “an opinion”. She is a mass disrupter in class causing chaos.

Perhaps Emma Roddick could opt out of the parliament and save the nation a wasted salary for grandstanding rubbish, and donate her gross pension to her local church for upkeep.

Unless, of course, she opts in and does something tangible about the state of Scottish education or the NHS!

David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Sea sense

A painting of Admiral Lord Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar has been permanently removed from the Houses of Parliament.

No good work of maritime art should be removed from any government building as it serves to remind sea-blind parliamentarians and officials that ours is an island trading nation. Air travel is used mostly by people but 95 per cent of UK trade is in merchant ships. The sea is our life blood.

Fishery protection and food security, protection of offshore industry and trade on the seven seas, protection of Britain’s interests worldwide, including defence of the 14 UK Overseas Territories, are all essential duties that fall mostly on the Royal Navy – and such protection is required 24/7/365 in both peacetime and war. UK defence should always afford first and foremost a Maritime Defence Strategy, essential land and land-based air defence in its wake. A properly resourced Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary is a no-brainer. More British-flagged merchant ships and seafarers should also be a Whitehall imperative.

HM Government, and those charged with delivering the current Strategic Defence Review, surely must sea sense.

Lester May, Lieutenant Commander, Royal Navy – retired, London

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