SNP ‘tokenism’

Alex Salmond managed to speak for half-an-hour to the SNP conference on Saturday without once mentioning the issues that concern responsible Scots in general and women in particular.

In what will strike many as pure tokenism, he promoted two more women to his Cabinet to make up the 40 per cent ratio he now demands from company boards.

Salmond has had seven years to do something about childcare and the only reason it is now on the agenda is that he thinks there are votes in it. The speech was disappointingly full of grievance and half-baked assertions, which leave voters no wiser of what awaits them after this perilous leap in the dark.

Dr John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews, Fife