Readers' Letters: Expect infighting among SNP over Stephen Flynn's Holyrood gambit
SNP MP Stephen Flynn has announced his candidacy for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine as an MSP at the 2026 Holyrood election. The fact that there is already an SNP MSP for that seat, Audrey Nicholl, has not deterred him. Nor has the fact that he sits as one of nine SNP MPs. Offering to forgo one salary while he double dips as an MSP (if elected) and an MP does not lessen the hypocrisy of one who lambasted Douglas Ross for doing the same.
Beyond that, for the 2021 election the SNP adopted a rule that no sitting MP would be eligible to stand for selection as an MSP without first resigning his/her MP’s seat. This was undoubtedly a move to prevent Joanna Cherry from challenging Angus Robertson in the Edinburgh Central MSP constituency then. Will that rule stand in 2026? Stephen Flynn thinks not. It was, he says, “election-specific” – good for 2021 but not now. Joanna Cherry, who will not contest an MSP seat in 2026, says that it was, rather, “person-specific” – that person being her – and that it has served its purpose, excluding her from Holyrood.
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Hide AdAn additional factor is that there are over 35 SNP former SNP MPs, casualties of the catastrophic defeat suffered by the SNP in July 2024. Those of them looking for a new comfortable berth at Holyrood in 2026 will not look kindly on someone like Flynn who already has his place on the gravy train.


We can look forward to some lively SNP infighting over constituency seat selection for Holyrood 2026.
Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh
Two voices
I believe that Stephen Flynn seeks Scottish independence and has ideas of how to get it, that entail his being an MSP as well as having a voice in Westminster. Trying to block him from getting a seat at Holyrood suggests Scottish MSPs are getting too comfortable in their seats and have lost the desire for independence that was the main reason they were voted for in the first place.
Ordinary Scots, the rest of us, are getting fed up with being continually treated as colonial underlings by Westminster. Keir Starmer tells us we must eat less meat, cannot have benefits for those with more than two children, behave like good slaves and send our tax money to London where it can be used to make life better for those south of the Border.
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Hide AdPerhaps before we accept this continuing miserable servitude, we should give Flynn a chance to explain to Holyrood his plans that will allow us to manage our own finances for the benefit of Scotland.
Elizabeth Scott, Edinburgh
Highly capable
Perhaps my memory is fading faster than I had appreciated, but I do not recall Stephen Flynn missing a vote in parliament because he was officiating at a professional football match. The faux outrage of not only the Tories but those who persistently criticise the Scottish Parliament for a perceived dearth of talent is not surprising because those who dogmatically wish to sustain a failing Union know that with even greater numbers of highly capable SNP MSPs at Holyrood the dawn of a once-again independent Scotland draws nearer, especially if the newly elected Scottish Government has a mandate to call a constitutional referendum.
Brexit Britain is broken but neither the federal “reform” proposed by Gordon Brown nor the anti-immigrant “Reform” of Nigel Farage is the solution. The way forward is for those who call Scotland “home” to determine their common future in an independent country.
Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian
Hit list
Derek Farmer (Letters, 12 November) is incorrect to label the Holyrood regional list system as “little to do with democracy”. It works as a check to ensure that party representation reflects vote share. Regional MSPs are not “unelected”. They are chosen by the electorate through the list vote to represent a region. This avoids the situation prevailing in Westminster whereby the Labour party has a healthy majority with the vote of around 20 per cent of the electorate.
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Hide AdWhere I would agree is that list MSPs, with no constituency, have less accountability and a smaller workload. I would also agree that 129 full MSPs is too many. List MSPs should be junior to constituency MSPs and paid less. They should be limited to one term and have had a successful career outside politics. Holyrood badly needs elected representatives from the real world.
Neil Anderson, Edinburgh
Posh problems
When Edinburgh University staff and students are abusing Scots for their accents and class background, as reported by the BBC, it has to be time for defenestration.
If the Census asks if we are Scots, does this make us a race? If so, this is serious. The SNP should act as it's an area of policy for them, but Scotland’s posh universities are where they train their candidates.
Simple solution – since their students are mainly from private schools, we could add VAT to their fees.
George Craig, Glasgow
COP out
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Hide AdThe Sustainable Scotland article “Alarm as fossil fuel emissions reach new high in 2024” was both ironic and amusing (13 November). Sustainable? Scotland has fallen far short of its regular boast of “world leading” climate targets. The article points out that large increases in world fossil fuel emissions came from aviation. How hypocritical since aircraft have taken delegates in and out of the COP jamborees for 29 years.
Not mentioned was the 2,400 coal-fired plants, of which 1,161 are in China, providing over 40 per cent of the world's electricity. There are also 3,954 gas-fired electricity plants in the world. After 28 years of COPs, little has been achieved despite a million attendees and the horrific cost to taxpayers.
The article, however, does highlight why the developing world keeps turning up at these COPs. Money, money, money. The main focus of the negotiations in Baku will be on agreeing new finance commitments for the cash that developing countries need to green their economies and cope with the already inevitable impacts of climate change. The developing world wants at least £1 trillion every year from the developed world they claim is responsible for a changing climate. Trump will never pay. China and India want the largest slices of this climate cake despite refusing to pass legally binding Climate Change Acts.
Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian
Silent solution
There is an answer to the yearly impasse whereby a sizeable section of Celtic fans refuses to remain quiet and respect the traditional minute's silence on Remembrance Sunday weekend matches. It is perplexing but certain that many of those demonstrating loudly have relations, known or unknown, who died in service when fighting Nazi and other tyrants in past world wars and conflicts.
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Hide AdCould there not be solution whereby the club – who must, surely, be deeply embarrassed by this annual display of bad manners – demand that those fans wishing to show their displeasure do so by turning their backs to the playing field and remain dignified and silent, thus allowing others in the stadium to show their respect as they wish to do.
The disrupters are undoubtedly hurting the image of themselves, their world-famous club and their country.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh
On the fiddle
Your article in yesterday’s Scotsman describes a fiddle used to teach Robert Burns dancing as one of Scotland’s most important musical instruments. I would give pride of place to the fiddle owned by James Macpherson, the freebooter hanged in Banff in 1700. He was the Robin Hood of his day, robbing the rich to help the poor, thereby incurring the wrath of the upper classes. Following his capture, trial and sentencing to death, the authorities, hearing that a reprieve was on its way, advanced the town clock of Banff by a quarter of an hour, to ensure that the execution was successfully carried out.
When on the scaffold, Macpherson played his fiddle for the last time and offered it to the watching crowd. Nobody had the courage to take it, whereon he broke it over his knee and threw the pieces into the crowd. They were picked up and taken to Cluny Macpherson, his Chief. Shortly after the messenger arrived bearing the reprieve... too late. Robert Burns on his Highland Tour in 1780, visited Banff and hearing the story, wrote the poem “Macpherson's Farewell”
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Hide AdThe broken fiddle, together with the workings of the Banff town clock, are now displayed in the Clan Macpherson Museum in Newtonmore.
Sandy Macpherson, Edinburgh
Wasted money
One of the things which has always astonished me is how governments of any shade squander our taxes. Nothing is ever cheap. Everything costs millions. Quangos, like many other governmental agencies, cost millions. SPADS cost Scots millions (£2m at the last count) and they don't do anything recognisably beneficial to us, they just cost us money.
When we look at the Budget, we can see the laws of unforeseen outcomes trickling out from every hole in the plan to tax and spend.
In any normal enterprise, those who run it are expected to achieve efficiencies, but not Rachel Reeves. No. She just wants to throw yet more money at a health service which is one of the most expensive entities in the entire world. Its budget is over £180 billion. Surely even a 1 per cent efficiency could have been achieved? That would have saved almost £2 billion. Not small change.
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Hide AdBut, no. Ms Reeves want to throw – sorry, invest – another £20bn at it. What does she think it is? A ferry?
Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh
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