Readers' letters: Stephen Flynn's cunning plan ends in farce

Baldrick himself would have been proud of the SNP's Stephen Flynn and his cunning plan on Opposition Day in the House of Commons on Wednesday. It was, as it turned out, rather predictably, an utter farce and ended with a red-faced Mr Flynn claiming the Speaker's stance to be ''intolerable '' – we must assume he meant untenable.

He planned to embarrass Labour and in much the same way as all the cunning plans of Blackadder's famous assistant did in the classic TV series, it all ended in farce and the SNP contingent leaving in a collective and childish huff. They seem totally unaware that a ceasefire involves both sides ceasing to fight.

The saddest part of all was that the SNP would try to use such an occasion and subject to make the cheapest of cheap political points against Labour, of whom they are now in visible fear and showing panic. The Gaza situation and ceasefire was a mere prop to have a go at what really mattered to them, a better chance of keeping their seats in the general election and thus advancing the only cause that matters to them - breaking up the UK. Even if that means some of their leading lights joining the Tories in a call for the Speaker to be censured.

Not that the belligerents in Gaza would care in the slightest if a dozen SNP ceasefire motions were passed. Maybe now the SNP in Westminster could put Gaza away and concentrate on improvingthings for the people of Scotland.

A reader suggests that when Stephen Flynn claimed the Speaker's stance to be 'intolerable' he meant untenable

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Speaker cornered

Your report (Scotsman, 22 February) features Stephen Flynn’s latest ramblings about Westminster and Scotland being disrespected following the challenges around the Speaker's handling of the vote on a Gaza ceasefire motion.

While the vote could have been handled better, it is also prudent to remember two fundamental things about the SNP. They don’t want Westminster to be seen as working in any way. The same could be said for Holyrood, too. Either functioning well in their current form undermines their reason for being – independence. It’s vital to keep that in mind as they engineer issues within either parliament, regardless of being in government or opposition. Creating a storm in a teacup suits their agenda. I hope voters see through their politics.

J Lewis, Edinburgh

BBC a turn-off

None of us are surprised that the lightweight underfunded BBC Scotland Nine news programme has been scrapped as it was always designed to fail when put up against peak TV viewing audiences.

Following its coverage of the 2014 referendum campaign, BBC Scotland lost a substantial number of its natural audience and now Reporting Scotland has less than half of STV’s News at Six viewers. Of course, broadcasters must hold governments to account but BBC Scotland invariably followings a London unionist agenda on its current affairs output and you don’t witness the same politicisation of every issue on BBC London or on BBC Wales.

The only way the BBC Scotland can redeem itself is to have a one-hour in-depth Scottish Six news programme and start holding opposition leaders to account. Viewers in Scotland rarely get comparisons with the performance of the Westminster government or with Labour in Wales, plus little information on the economic performance of Scotland’s independent near neighbours of a similar size.

It’s time for a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation. In Ireland the public broadcaster RTE has four free-to-air TV channels plus ten radio channels. RTE only pays £22.5 million a year to get the pick of the BBC’s best TV programmes while ignoring the dross and the licence fee is free for over-70s.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Behaviour lessons

The appalling violence and misbehaviour in Scotland’s schools finally reached BBC Scotland primetime news on Tuesday, thanks to Aberdeen teachers and their campaign.

Undoubtedly education managers and authorities could do a lot more to contain the problem, protect staff and allow well behaved pupils to continue their work undisturbed, but the root causes are more difficult to fix.

A November 2023 Scottish Government report on the problem said “participants in the interviews and focus groups focused on societal factors such as poverty and deprivation, and challenges associated with home and family life such as trauma and adverse childhood experiences and parenting, as the root causes of disruptive behaviour”,

Poverty and deprivation are factors but don’t explain why, in countries with real, desperate poverty, including Scotland in the eary 20th century, pupil behaviour is and was not an issue and education seen as vital by parents and children.

The answer lies in the second part of my quote: simple bad parenting, and social changes in the last 30 years.

The number of single parent families in the UK rose six-fold from 570,000 in 1971 to almost three million now and the number of families with both parents working full-time to fund the real terms doubling of housing cost, plus child care has also risen.

I don't know the answer, but I do know that until we honestly identify the problem and cause there will be no solution, and not only will we have generation of rootless, unemployable, depressed young people, nobody will want to join a once highly sought and valued profession: teaching.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

On life support

There is a very obvious reason why the Scottish NHS is near collapse. Scotland has had seventeen years of SNP rule, latterly with input from the Greens. Neither of these parties is suitable for government. The focus has been primarily on independence with a few fringe side issues thrown in such as gender reform and searching for an unattainable “net zero”. The health of the nation has been low down the list of priorities. Fine words are spoken, new committees are formed but little has been achieved at the “cutting edge”. We are seeing the result of seventeen years of neglect. Scots are dying before their time. Spin does not fix this.

Gerald Edwards, Glasgow

Brown’s vow

Jill Stephenson claims Gordon Brown had nothing to do with The Vow in 2014 (Letters, 20 February). That will come as news to Murray Foote the then editor of Labour-supporting newspaper The Daily Record.

He wrote about the infamous headline in 2015: “The paper was on the breakfast tables of both No.10 and No.11 Downing Street. It was a shrill wake-up call to complacent Cameron that a better offer had to be made. But it was not Cameron, Clegg or Miliband who came up with Plan B. It was the Daily Record and Gordon Brown who, up until 1997, was our politics columnist.”

Robert Menzies, Falkirk

Falkland history

Tim Cox is of course correct that the Falkland Islands settlement (not a “colony” despite the biased UN’s falsehood) is historically British.

Would the Argentinians concede that Chile might have a better claim than theirs, as the numerous Chilean islands, and subsea rock formations, which curl round via Chile’s Cape Horn, continue towards the Falklands? The sole exception is the Isla de los Estados which was, and still is, named after the Dutch parliament, the States-General!

More importantly, let us hope that before he breathes his last, the current Pope will continue his liberal pronouncements and unequivocally teach his coreligionists and fellow-Argentinians the facts of Falklands life – historically, culturally, nationally, justly, and from a Christian “do unto others…” perspective.

John Birkett, St. Andrews, Fife

Green debts

It is surprising that the article of 22 February by John McLaren made no mention of the Green Revolution debt repayments imposed on Scots households. The Renewable Sector claim that capital costs have doubled since the start of the Ukraine conflict hence it should be assumed that the £150 billion cost has spiralled to over £300bn.

That would indicate that the Finance Secretary has to fund a £50bn debt over the next six years which implies that there will be no extra cash for the NHS over this period.

Why do politicians, the media and BBC Scotland refuse to factor in the debts arising from a Green Transition? After all, replacing domestic gas costing 6p/unit and which supplies 80 per cent of our domestic energy with renewable electricity at 24p/unit should not be a difficult maths project!

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas

XL problem

The SNP are up in arms again about the issue of XL Bully dogs and the legislation brought in by Westminster to control them after a number of serious attacks. When Humza Yousaf claimed that similar legislation was not needed in Scotland, it was apparent to even the dogs in the street that Scotland would see an influx of these dogs to save them from the severe restrictions imposed south of theborder.

Mirroring Sir Keir Starmer, the First Minister flip-flopped and belatedly brought in similar restrictions to clear up a doggie mess of his own making. Why can’t the UK’s constituent nations come together on matters of common interest and agree policies which benefit all. National and regional governments gain nothing from constant squabbling.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

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