Scotland Bill

The answer is to extend the term of the Scottish Parliament from four to five years (your report, 2 September). We, the people, are to be given fewer opportunities to elect our MSPs.

The original Scotland Act laid down a four-year term. This was after extensive consultation by the Constitutional Convention and approved by the 1997 referendum. The convention hadn’t foreseen the potential clash of UK and Scottish elections in 2015, so at the request of the Scottish Government, the UK Parliament passed legislation for a once-off extension of the Scottish Parliament term by one year.

This was never meant to be permanent and when power was devolved to Holyrood to set its own election rules, the assumption was that they would put the election cycle back onto a four-year term.

This could easily be achieved by one three-year term to get back onto the four-year cycle begun in 1999.

Holyrood is almost unique amongst democratically elected chambers in having the power to extend the length of a parliamentary term. The House of Commons doesn’t have the power to extend the length of a parliament. Approval of the House of Lords is required.

What are Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP afraid of? Why are they cutting the number of times that we, the people, can vote them in or out of office? Stick to the four-year term endorsed by the 1997 referendum.

Alan Reid

Fairhaven

Dunoon

Again and again we hear Nicola Sturgeon proposing to create a fairer society. This, like most of the ideas she promotes, is pure pie in the sky.

Fairness is a state of mind and cannot be created by the force of law. That would be repression, although this appears to be the direction in which our poor country is heading under the SNP.

Centralisation and government control of everything is the theme of the day.

Fairness comes from within the individual and must come from the population as a whole.

It cannot be forced on society, but people must be taught the benefits of looking out for firstly oneself and then others and being aware of the effect one’s own life ideals have on others.

Lack of fairness can at times be covered by legislation but people should care enough to realise the consequences of their actions. We have a long way to go to achieve this.

Of course our society is unfair but that is because areas of our modern society operate in a vacuum.

Many “big business people” do not consider that they are a part of the same society as those less well-off.

Many of our politicians seem totally isolated from reality – for example the SNP and their education policy.

Like Labour before them, they have all the answers now but have wasted seven years creating the problems they say they can now solve.

Trying to force fairness is simply divisive; we need to show those who can affect change the error of their ways so they take a greater interest in the country we all live in – the UK not just Scotland.

We have lost our caring society but there is not a political solution.

Ian Ross

Eden Lane

Edinburgh