Readers' Letters: It's rich for Swinney to accuse others of 'playing politics'

The SNP operates as a minority government so John Swinney needs the support of MSPs from another political party to get his spending plans through Holyrood (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

On the front page of yesterday’s Scotsman, John Swinney says “voters would struggle to understand why...” [his budget was] blocked “to prove some nebulous – and ultimately highly damaging – political point”. This, according to him, would risk “feeding the forces of anti-politics and populism”.

Swinney himself is playing politics here, par excellence. A budget is by definition about making choices about taxes and spending, and there is nothing more political: this is what politics is all about.

The First Minister is effectively pretending his spending plans are somehow above or beyond politics, and other parties are in the nebulous, and highly political mire if they oppose his plans with their own.

On top of that, if other parties stand by their own spending plans, instead of his, they are lining up with the far right, encouraging “anti-politics and populism”.

This is deeply ironic. Swinney's political rhetoric is anti-politics as it tries to delegitimise opposition and his budget, as is so much of nationalist politics, is unashamedly populist.

Linda Holt, Pittenweem, Fife

Oh, the irony

I see that our First Minister, John Swinney, didn’t get any self-awareness in his Christmas stocking(“Swinney warns voting against SNP budget will ‘feed populism’,” 6 January).

If there is one political party in Scotland that thrives on populism it is the SNP. The party that throws money at every problem it sees, believing that will solve it. The party that jumps on any bandwagon passing by if it gets them a few more supporters. The party that got into bed with the Greens to stay in power, reneging on promises for the A9/A96. The SNP stand for populism more than any other party in Scotland. The irony of Swinney’s warning are not lost on us.

Jane Lax, Aberlour, Moray

Real threat

It’s a while since I read an article as wrong as Henry McLeish’s yesterday (“Enough complacency, progressives must find answers to voters’ anger”). He says: “The challenges to democracy from populism are real”. Heaven forbid the population having opinions not shared by the so-called progressive elite. It’s interesting that on checking the definition, a Progressive is someone who is reform-minded, a reformist. Does that include someone being a member of Reform? Populists, left or right, believe in democracy. The liberal elite are the threat to democracy. The Establishment’s reaction to the Brexit vote proves it.

Jack Thomson, Carluke, South Lanarkshire

Power play

Nobody should be surprised Elon Musk has turned on Nigel Farage. Both of them are libertarians, sharing the main aim of freeing the rich and powerful from any constraints on their ability to amass greater wealth and power. What Farage may have forgotten is that this increased wealth and power comes at the expense of anyone who has less. Musk possesses vastly more of both than Farage, making the latter nothing more than fodder to his former friend. Let's have no doubt that is what most of us are to libertarians wherever they reside.

We must learn to recognise and resist the libertarians. We absolutely must not buy into their populist myth that we need to defend ourselves against the poorest and weakest people at home or abroad when, in fact, it is the most wealthy and powerful who will take most from us if we let them. Everyone should consider Musk's attack on Farage a warning against the libertarians; they are not nice people and they do not care who they profit from.

Ni Holmes, St Andrews, Fife

Peer review

Proposals to remove the remaining 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords, while welcome, are long overdue. And the fight is not yet finished – we need a fully elected, smaller second chamber. The Labour Government, with its majority, is clearly ideally placed to do this, and turn talk of radical reform into action.

We’re basically alone in Europe for having a fully unelected revising chamber. And no other country in the democratic world has a second chamber bigger than ours. With over 800 members, the House of Lords is the second largest chamber in the world. Only Communist China has a bigger body, and they merely meet to rubber stamp government policies. France manages on 348 members and Spain with 265. India, with over a billion people, and Japan have just 245 members each.

Indeed, with fresh appointments after each change of government, the House of Lords will only get larger. A fully elected second chamber would have a fixed membership, with the public deciding who has the right to stay.

The House of Lords is dominated by London and the Southeast, with 44 per cent of peers living in these regions – leaving many areas of the UK woefully underrepresented. Abolishing the outdated and unrepresentative House of Lords offers a chance to rebalance politics away from Westminster – and create a representative House. Indeed, an Assembly of the Nations and Regions was proposed by a Commission chaired by former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, who described the House of Lords as “indefensible”.

Labour, which has given numerous pledges in the past to radically reform the House of Lords, is ideally placed to actively progress what has been glacial reform to date.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Farming lesson

Binge watching TV over the festive break I was drawn to Clarkson’s Farm. Jeremy Clarkson may act the buffoon, but I was absolutely struck by the underlying message that farming is a tough and, for many, unprofitable business. As Clarkson and his sidekick, Kaleb, totted up the year’s finances he concluded, “we've been through a lot to earn nothing at all!”. Keir Starmer should watch this programme and try to defend the ludicrous position his government is taking on Inheritance Tax when insisting that “most farmers will be unaffected”.

What about the ones who are affected? Do they deserve to be cast aside, even if they represent the nth generation to farm their land? Successful businesses – including farms – should pay taxes, of course, but imposing taxes on such essential, struggling businesses is damaging. Labour talk about “food security” but seem to be willing to irreparably damage it – along with educational standards and pensioners. And we were led to believe they had the answers to everything.

Ken Currie, Edinburgh

Poll positions

I would like to address two repeated narratives of several recent Nationalist correspondents. These being that a recent poll shows that Scottish voters favour independence and that we were dragged out of the EU against our will. It is true that the poll conducted by Find Out Now on 24 December showed the Yes camp to be ahead. However, Find Out Now has conducted eight polls in the last two years and all have shown the Yes camp to be ahead.

In that period, 89 polls have been conducted and 16, including Find Out Now’s eight, have shown the Yes camp ahead. The other 73 have shown the opposite. If you take each half year since 2011 and the average of all polls in each period, you find that the Nationalists have been ahead in three, the No camp in 24 and one was tied. The last half year when the Nationalists were ahead was the first six months of 2021.

The other point is about the EU and independence. We voted, in 2016, to remain in the EU, myself included, with 1,661,191 voting Remain. In 2014, 2,001,926 voted to remain in the UK. The first is a mandate to remain but the second is not. This is hardly a logical deduction and in both cases, selecting data from the totality of information allows fake news to be reported.

Paul Beswick, Edinburgh

Bad news

The insidious creep of American news items and US opinion on the BBC continues unabated. This goes back to April 2003 when the BBC merged its domestic and world news coverage, made 70 journalists redundant, and transferred much of the budget saved to BBC America.

Call me old fashioned or a dinosaur, but I still want British news to dominate British TV channels. Presumably, the huge audience the BBC has lost in two years would agree. On Sunday, the 5.30pm News was not only dominated by no fewer than three US news items, there was considerable coverage of US weather in five States, as I naively waited for extensive coverage of the weather and travel disruption in the UK. This is indefensible.

John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing, Fife

Bang-on?

At last, an encouraging news story – the discovery that a volcanic eruption on an uninhabited island caused global warming of 1 degree Celsius in 1831 (your report, 31 December). This means we can forget all the nonsense about the need to reduce the UK’s contribution of 1.3 per cent to global warming to zero at great expense and upheaval. All that is necessary is to find a way to stimulate volcanic activity on appropriate islands. And the planet shall be saved.

S Beck, Edinburgh

The dream

If Donald Trump does indeed come to visit the land of his ancestors, it will be worth it just for the sight of John Swinney’s painted-on smile when he has to meet him, and Patrick Harvie throwing a very public hissy fit over the matter.

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

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