Readers' Letters: Shaky future ahead for SNP with third of MSPs to go

Almost every day is bringing a new SNP MSP who does not want to stay in Holyrood. Now it is the turn of Mairi Gougeon.

Nicola Sturgeon at least served many years but Ms Gougeon has only been an MSP since 2016 and is now leaving at the tender age of 39. Twenty SNP MSP's are now leaving, around one third of the party’s parliamentarians.

This is quite remarkable. Is there something going on we have not been told? If John Swinney actually “wins” the 2026 election who can he pick for key roles with at least some experience? This is a disaster in the making for the SNP.

Mairi Gougeon is the latest SNP MSP to announce she's had enough (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Space to grow

Nicola Sturgeon now joins the growing list of SNP ministers and MSPs who are leaving the fray.

The right-wing press can hardly contain their glee, thinking that the game is won. They quickly forget, if they ever knew, how a fundamental change in Scotland’s constitutional status has accumulated over many decades.

I would resort to the world of space exploration for an analogy. The early days of the movement toward a free Scotland can be likened to those doughty amateurs launching DIY rockets from muddy fields to heights of thousands of feet, maybe. This endeavour matured to the von Braun-like efforts of Billy Wolfe and Gordon Wilson, when serious altitude was reached, before Alex Salmond’s Saturn V finally achieved orbit, thus decoupling Scotland from Westminster’s total grip.

Over such an extended history it is inevitable that crews retire and have to be replaced; we are at such a moment. Thus valiant champions of the cause are stepping down, while others, like the extended passengers Williams and Wilmore on the International Space Station, await an overdue exit. A new, energetic and fiery crew is needed for the trans-lunar injection phase that will see Scotland finally leave rUK’s gravitational drag and so arrive as an independent celestial sphere.

The composition of the new crew is vital. To ensure Planet Scotland is free of the toxins or viruses of the previous world, the crew need to cast-off all previous associations of potential infection. Some may come from previous worthy careers at Westminster, or from those think tanks which have done sterling work in the Scottish cause, or they may be drawn from eminent public life. Only those that are up for the task need apply, a world-changing mission awaits!

Ken Gow, Bridge of Canny, Aberdeenshire

Unfair attacks

The news of Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to step down as an MSP has been greeted by those wedded to the Union as the welcome departure of a “divisive” figure who achieved nothing of note for Scotland, while some supporters of Independence claim she could have done much more to advance the cause.

The word “divisive” assumes that no division previously existed, when in fact Scotland has been divided since 1707 between the treacherous “parcel of rogues” who sought to advance their own fortunes and the vast majority, who toiled simply to survive or were forced to emigrate. “Plus ça change” and in spite of Nicola Sturgeon’s best efforts the wealthy British establishment and those favoured in today’s skewed political construct benefit as the UK wealth gap rises to obscene levels.

It seems sadly ironic that those who have been fortunate enough to own property, have well-paid jobs, remain generally in good health without physical or mental disabilities and shun Independence, claim not to have seen improvements in their lives while huge numbers across the UK are suffering the debilitating effects of a Union that’s failing most people democratically, economically and socially. Of course, if those who financially backed Brexit (now backing Reform UK) had not supported maintaining the constitutional status quo, then after more than a decade Scotland would have closer ties with the EU and be a more prosperous country, to the benefit of most of its citizens.

Those who would seek to denigrate Nicola Sturgeon and disparage her achievements (such as advancement of the role of women in politics and other spheres of Scottish life while always seeking to progress the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society) by scurrilously referencing the Scottish Parliament’s overwhelming support, across all parties, for a GRR Bill to reduce the traumatic experiences of a tiny minority (as already introduced in neighbouring European countries) should be ashamed.

Nicola Sturgeon’s undoubted talents, though, will not deliver a worthy legacy unless they can now actually be focused on enabling the people of Scotland to determine their own future.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Unwise move

I’m no military expert but Ukraine’s invasion of a small area of Kursk always seemed unwise, both politically and militarily (your report, 14 March).

Would its forces not have been better employed in pushing the Russians back in western Kherson, further east towards the Crimean border, to avoid giving the aggressors a foothold relatively close to, and risking, the vital port of Odesa which, if lost, would leave the remainder of Ukraine almost totally land-locked and thus even more vulnerable?

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Proud effort

The marvellous achievement of turning an intended three-day “military operation” into a three-year stalemate will surely go down as one of the greatest in Ukrainian history. One can only hope that the somewhat precarious peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have a successful and lasting outcome.

One rarely mentioned factor has been the horrendous and quite unnecessary loss of Russian lives, which far outnumbers that of the Ukrainians, all to satisfy the imperial delusions of Vladimir Putin. Even the influx of North Korean soldiers, many of them reluctant conscripts, failed, at frightening cost, to turn the tide.

Volodymyr Zelensky, despite his unacceptable treatment by Donald Trump and JD Vance in the Oval office, is to be commended for his stalwart efforts in resisting the efforts of Trump and Putin to sideline him and the Ukrainian people from any peace agreement. Ukraine itself deserves its reward of being an independent and proud nation, a democracy in the face of tyranny.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Can of worms

It was sad to see the refusal of the SNP to be gracious in defeat over their Heat in Buildings Bill.

For months there have been letters in The Scotsman requesting John Swinney outline his plan to underwrite the £130 billion debt that his bill would inflict on Scottish taxpayers. It appears that it was left to a Junior Minister in the final ten seconds of her address to Parliament to announce that taxpayers are too poor to repay such a debt, hence the bill has been assigned to the dustbin of history.

However, what Anas Sarwar was too slow to recognise is that such a procedure has opened up a can of worms for the First Minister. In 2022 Nicola Sturgeon and the Deputy First Minister issued an addendum to the SNP energy paper which would result in the installation of 25GW of hydrogen-fuelled gas turbine plant. This was required as the SNP had initially forgotten that, even if they increased the 15GW wind capacity by a further 45GW, under dunkelflaute weather conditions if there is no wind the electricity output from wind farms would still be net zero!

Note that the SNP have always refused to answer Letters to the Editor asking for the amount of debt that will arise from such a project. A rough estimate would be a debt around three times that of the decarbonisation project, hence, if Scots are too poor to cover a £130bn debt, the hydrogen-fired generation scheme is dead in the water, leaving the First Minister having to ask UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to export power from England to keep the lights on in Scotland.

Kenny MacAskill was correct in his claim (Perspective, 20 August 2020) that “independence is irrelevant until we fix the climate”. Under John Swinney’s watch it now appeared we do not even have the funds to fix the climate!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Getting real

So John Swinney holds talks at Bute House with Donald Trump's son, Eric, while insisting that Trump senior shouldn't be offered a second UK state visit, as planned by Keir Starmer. What hypocrisy! I, too, have little time for the President of the United States's views but recognise it would be foolish for Starmer to be wholly unwelcoming to one of the world's most powerful people.

Surely what's happening here is that Swinney, ever one for populist posturing, wants to appear to be in tune with anti-Trump sentiment and so claims to oppose Westminster policy.

Yet the everyday practical reality is that he must mirror Starmer's nuanced approach and maintain open dialogue with Trump – and his powerful family.

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

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