Letters: Shame on those who practised 'wheesht for indy'

The Peter Murrell/Nicola Sturgeon leadership changed that and it became worse over time. Many in the party were aware of this but the mantra was "wheesht for indy". Some discretion in publicly challenging bad practice is understandable but it can also be the route to a corrupt culture. It normalises bad practice.

Secretive money management and dishonest membership figures are only a limited part of this story. The undermining of decent individuals who were insufficiently obedient was common practice. There were much worse things. When historians come to investigate the true background to the Salmond trial, they will find a disturbing story originating in a paranoid fear of his return to Holyrood which spiralled beyond the original intent.

But let's take something simpler and completely in the public domain. When the elected national treasurer, Douglas Chapman MP (one of the few who comes out of this with credit) and the Audit Committee of a governing party resigns because the chief executive of the party will not give them access to the full party accounts, why did the Scottish media treat this as a marginal issue? Why did the majority on the National Executive who are legally liable not act? Why did all but a few MPs and MSPs keep totally quiet?

The trouble with a corrupt culture is that it can appear to work successfully for years but it takes only one stress point for it to fall apart.

The drive for Scottish independence will not be derailed by this but it may have to remain in the station for a bit longer while the existing crew are changed.

Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.

Read more: Peter Murrell resigns as SNP chief executive with immediate effect

SNP HAS REACHED ITS END GAME

THE case for Scottish independence has imploded.

In 2014 we witnessed the end of the Alex Salmond era. The electorate of Scotland rejected his call for independence.

More recently the would-be champion of the SNP cause, Nicola Sturgeon, has met with a similar ending – as has the career of her husband, Peter Murrell.

It is not at all likely that any of the candidates for the position of First Minister will inspire much support, especially since they seem intent on undermining each other's political records.

The SNP has reached its end game.

In 2014 the electorate of Scotland made it perfectly clear to the SNP that its case for independence was not acceptable.

It is highly unlikely that any of the present candidates for the position of First Minister will inspire much support to change the mood of the electorate.

Surely the time is ripe now for the SNP to simply accept "the will of the people".

Robert IG Scott, Ceres, Fife.

Read more: The words cloud, land and cuckoo spring to mind in regards to indy

CAMPAIGN SET BACK BY A DECADE

BAD losers often blame the process rather than their own performance, and it looks like Ash Regan is getting her excuses in early ("Regan considers legal action in bid to halt SNP election”, The Herald, March 18). Alex Gallagher (Letters, March 18) and a number of other contributors to these pages have commented that Ms Regan is “clearly out of her depth”, and that was painfully obvious in the two leadership hustings I watched.

Ms Regan is determined to wreak as much damage on the SNP as she can, while she can. I wonder who’s pulling her strings? Is it Alex Salmond, who (like Donald Trump) is so convinced of his own magnificence that he thinks he can return from the wilderness to lead again?

I’ve already voted for Humza Yousaf, in part because I’m uncomfortable with Kate Forbes’ views on social issues and her willingness to trash her own party’s record in office to advance her personal ambition to be First Minister. However, I think she’s right to focus on the economy; “It’s the economy, stupid”, as Bill Clinton’s 1992 election campaign put it. Granted, the Scottish Government is limited in what it can do by Westminster control, but it hasn’t used its full powers to improve the lives of the people of Scotland.

The current stramash is likely to have set the independence campaign back by a decade. The SNP should use that time to be bold on the economy, tax, health and education. It’s all very well introducing worthy measures like baby boxes and the child payment, but the changes that Scotland requires if it’s to become a more prosperous and more equal society are more extensive and more radical. And they all have to start from a significantly improved economic performance.

If the SNP governs well for the next decade, it will have no difficulty persuading a solid majority of Scotland’s voters that full self-government is a practical and sensible step to take.

Doug Maughan, Dunblane.

THE VOTERS ARE TO BLAME

THE collapse of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's unhealthy control over every quango and civil servant in Scotland will not make any difference to the blind who do not want to see.

We saw how Alex Salmond was simply airbrushed out of everything SNP as a tarnished and inconvenient truth and we will see again the fickle followers flock in droves to pay homage to whoever tells them what they want to hear – tell me lies, tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies seems to be the tune they hum as they are told of yet another "growth commission", "listening campaign", "reset" or even a "voter empowerment mechanism".

Whatever new buzzwords are used we can be sure of the same old reheated, regurgitated clichés with the Tories cast as the pantomime villains.

I do not blame Nicola Sturgeon, Peter Murrell, John Swinney, Humza Yousaf, or Kate Forbes for the mess we see around us. If they find someone daft enough to believe anything and everything they tell them, then milk them for all they are worth, well done them. I blame the voters.

Scotland got what Scotland deserved and voted for.

Allan Thompson, Bearsden.

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THE PEOPLE DON'T NEED VISIONS

HUMZA Yousaf has been quoted as saying “I believe that for far too long in the SNP we’ve been stuck, for a number of years actually, talking too much about process ... they get inspired because you talk about a vision of what independence can do.”

The SNP’s problem is that the scales are now falling like autumn leaves from the eyes of the electorate. The vision of gleaming ferries plying the fair waters of the Minch is a far cry from the rusting reality. The "democratic election" asserted by Nicola Sturgeon and orchestrated by her husband is more a tarnished "jewel" of rectitude, exemplified by one candidate reportedly seeking legal advice to challenge the electoral process. The "Old Guard" of John Swinney, Angus Robertson, and Keith Brown failed to throw their hats into the ring, aware that the faithful believers in the "Vision" will seek retribution from a leadership that led them down a road to nowhere.

Mr Yousaf is wrong, process is about delivering what people need to improve their condition. Visions are for prophets and cults.

Independence for Scotland was decided in 2014. It was a reasonable proposition then; it may be so again. The world was a very different place, eight years since have transformed political and strategic realities. SNP rhetoric over those years has not changed one iota to reflect those realities; Scotland has not been able to move on, we exist in a political Groundhog Day.

When visionaries are caught telling lies, shown to be incompetent, and once the whiff of corruption at the core is smelled, even faintly on the breeze, apparent strong foundations crack. The SNP civil war and trashing of the Ancien Regime should clear the miasma over Holyrood to facilitate collaborative politics at Holyrood and more meaningful representation at Westminster.

Gavin Findlay, Boghead.