SNP needs to quell external antagonism

Michael Kelly (Perspective, 6 October) asserts that Alex Salmond and the SNP have never really understood the west of Scotland. Perhaps more realistically, no-one else in Scotland understands the west.

Mired in long forgotten tribal wars and skirmishes, unable to come to terms with life in the 21st century, hopelessly badly served by Labour throughout the years since de-industrialisation forced the rest of the country to change skills and outlooks, the west really needs to move forward.

Complaints of anti-Catholic bias in a largely secular society is manifest nonsense, and incomprehensible to most Scots. The SNP seems to be trying to subdue the ancient tribal rivalries in the west, and good luck to it.

To say the SNP is attacking the Christian doctrine of marriage is even more ridiculous. The most emphatic aspect of Jesus’ teaching, as I understand it, was to love your neighbour and treat well your fellow man.

Our society has changed profoundly in the past 50 years, let alone 2,000 years, and views on gender and sexuality have undergone extensive rethinking. All churches and religions need to re-examine their doctrines in the light of that change. The world would be a much happier and safer place if they did.

Mr Kelly and the bishop need only have watched David Cameron on Wednesday – a Conservative, yes, Conservative Prime Minister clearly and unequivocally saying “I am in favour of gay marriage” – to see that their attack on the SNP is hopeless. I write incidentally as a heterosexual atheist!

I am not a member of the SNP and hope that the government will do its best to help the poorest in our society. I cannot believe that the Church of Scotland has stated as clearly as Mr Kelly suggests that the government has “abandoned the poor”. In the present difficult times, I would guess the government wants to help the poor as much as it can.

It is time for all Scots to unite to get through this recession, and needless antagonism between Labour and SNP and east and west does not help.

Brian Bannatyne-Scott

Murrayfield Drive

Edinburgh

I was expelled from the SNP just over a year ago. Many friends and associates wondered what a prominent Catholic layman had done to deserve this after a lifetime of service to the party. Many wondered if there were sectarian undertones. In fact, the reason was one very ill-judged private e-mail, for which I had apologised.

There were no sectarian undertones, at least none that I could discern. What was present was a chronic immaturity that has always plagued the SNP. This has worsened in recent times as a younger generation scent that Alex Salmond will not be in charge forever. These new people are politically correct to their fingertips and, like most of the politically correct, are disinclined to listen to anyone.

The electoral position of the SNP is currently unassailable. The result of the referendum is not. As your front-page story (5 October) indicates, by antagonising a major Scottish institution, the Catholic Church, these new people may in fact have lost the referendum already.

Alan Clayton

Letters Way

Strachur, Argyll

I’m fascinated by your headline, “Catholics may lose faith in SNP”. My understanding is that Catholics – and Protestants – are called to faith in God as revealed and understood in Jesus Christ. Not to faith in the SNP or any other political party.

Jim MacEwan

Nethy Bridge

Inverness-shire.

The Bishop of Paisley’s warning to Alex Salmond that his “ill-advised” attempts to deal with sectarianism and his stance on gay marriage could lead to him losing the confidence of the Catholic Church, gives a clue to the decline of the centre right and the Conservative Party in Scottish politics.

In most countries, the socially conservative are a main strand in the support for parties of the centre right. This is not the case in Scotland, where for largely historical reasons the Catholic Church was seen as sympathetic to the Labour Party.

Indeed, there is no party in Scotland above the media recognition threshold that caters to traditional Christians or other socially conservative people.

Nor is it just the socially conservative who are effectively disenfranchised, as none of the major parties has libertarian or genuine free-market sympathies either.

From time to time, various Scottish Conservatives will talk Tory, just as the Home Secretary Theresa May, among others, have done in Manchester, but after a while it dawns on most people that this is merely an act for the activists, and nothing whatever will change.

As long as the Scottish Conservative Party, or its successor, remains effectively a social democratic party unwilling to advocate anything at variance with a public-sector dominated, politically correct model of society, its decline will continue regardless of who leads it.

Otto Inglis

Inveralmond Grove

Edinburgh