Voices heard

Apologies to David K Allan (Letters, 2 September): he did indeed mention that the Tories only have one MP in Scotland. This week he has also provided us with additional statistics which illustrate how outdated and outmoded the Westminster system is.

He then goes on to say that I did not address the main point of his letter of 29 August, being the constant vilification of the other political parties by the SNP. In the first place to claim that criticism of other parties is exclusive to the SNP is just plain silly.

In the second, if Mr Allan rereads his own letter, he will find that his criticism was directed at the comments made by a particular supporter of independence and not at the actions of the SNP.

Elsewhere in the letters column (2 September), Colin Hamilton does not yet appear to have got up to speed with how the additional member system of proportional representation works.

Briefly, 73 MSPs are elected to represent individual geographical constituencies and a further 56 members are elected from eight “additional member” regions.

This system was designed to mitigate against majority rule in the parliament, but such was the support for the SNP from those who turned out to vote (902,915 people) that the SNP was awarded 69 seats.

So yes, Mr Hamilton, you are right to assume that SNP supporters would say that this was 
democracy because that is precisely what it was.

Mr Hamilton also asked if I would be happy to be part of the 55 per cent who did not get the government they voted for.

He seems unwilling to concede that while these voters did not get the government they voted for as their votes were spread across 14 other political parties, they did gain significant representation in the parliament with 60 seats. So yes, I would be happy with that.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if we got independence I’d be happier with a Scottish Tory majority in the parliament than what we have to endure now.

Douglas Turner

Derby Street

Edinburgh