Why can't SNP MSPs just own up and apologise when they've done wrong?

Brian Watt, Edinburgh.

No wonder SNP is in a mess

TO call his actions arrogant would be an understatement. But Stephen Flynn's assumption that Audrey Nicoll's seat in Aberdeen is now his by some nationalist divine right and he need only tell her to move aside (“Flynn admits ‘I’m seriously ambitious for Scotland’ amid row over seat at Holyrood”, The Herald, November 18) reveals the SNP once more in all its faded glory. If reports emanating from Aberdeen are correct, she is being pushed aside as the king across the Border decides to return and sit at Holyrood as well as Westminster.

This is the party which incidentally is having to make half its HQ staff redundant and has just suffered a hiding in the General Election. The days of SNP leaders exercising this kind of whimsical power play are surely gone for ever.

Ironically, this is the kind of behaviour that helped get the party into the mess wherein it is now enmeshed.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

Read more letters

• The SNP must boycott news programmes on BBC Scotland
• Scotland urgently needs a professional body to oversee care

From Macbeth to King Lear

NEIL Mackay drew upon William Shakespeare, and in particular Macbeth, in his analysis of the career to date and future aspirations of Stephen Flynn, SNP leader at Westminster ("Swinney must beware the ruthless ambition of his Westminster chief", The Herald, November 16). The behaviour of Mr Flynn in the world of politics also brings to mind the actions of another character in the world of Shakespeare in the form of King Lear. That regal figure is described as having a tragic flaw which contributes to his demise; that flaw consisted of being arrogant and having excessive pride.

I believe that Mr Flynn has demonstrated that flaw with his attitude toward double-jobbing at Westminster and Holyrood and with his demeanour at the Remembrance Sunday Service at the Cenotaph, which struck many as being disrespectful and insensitive.

I will look on with interest, as will no doubt John Swinney, to see whether or not Mr Flynn’s plans to enter the world of politics at Holyrood are fulfilled.

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

A blow to democracy

I NOTE Stan Grodynski's misguided party political broadcast regarding the alleged control of BBC Scotland by "London" (Letters, November 18) The news programme The Nine, 100% Scottish-made, was taken off air due to low viewing figures and the The Seven had viewing figures as low as 200.

Mr Grodynski claims that BBC Scotland is a threat to democracy and then proposes that the SNP Government should take over control. Really? If the record of getting answers to FoI requests is anything to go by along with the judicious use of black line redaction, then I would be very concerned that the channel would be a stranger to the truth and a chariot for misinformation.

His real intentions are naively exposed when he tells us that "perhaps the time has arrived for the SNP to ... insist that all SNP parliamentarians boycott BBC news and current affairs programmes, including Reporting Scotland, until broadcasting is devolved to the Scottish Parliament".

Really? And deny the majority of the Scottish electorate access to information on the actions of the Scottish Parliament?

Apart from the fact that we have recently had a de facto referendum totally rejecting the SNP and its independence manifesto, just where would that leave democracy in Scotland?

Peter Wright, West Kilbride.

No mandate for pensions move

 IT seems to me that Chancellor Reeves' pension plan amounts in effect to nationalising those individual local authority pension funds she intends to merge ("Reeves: Council pension funds to be pooled to ‘unlock billions’", The Herald, November 15). Their investment strategy is to be taken under government control and directed into different areas which in her wisdom she believes (hopes?) will stimulate growth.

As this investment redirection will affect the captive memberships of those individual funds, should she not have to seek their prior approval before embarking on this venture? It cannot be entirely free from risk as we are warned repeatedly by funds seeking our investment that “shares can go down as well as up".

If, as I expect, her pension plan was not a commitment in the recent Labour election manifesto, she cannot claim a mandate for it. Without any consultation with those interested and affected by it her authority for implementing it rests therefore simply on the Labour majority in Westminster. On the same “authority", what’s to stop her choosing to nationalise other pension funds, including the recently announced £31 billion lying with pension providers in unclaimed personal pension pots?

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

Labour faces a long, slow slog

JUST a little over four months into government, Labour has been doing the hard yards in its determination to stabilise the economy, to promote growth and to improve public services.

It is doing its best to weather the hits of hostile headlines hammering its poll ratings over the withdrawal of winter fuel payments, the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions, the inheritance tax attack on farmers and the retention of the two-child benefit cap.

Some of those will sting number 10 for a long time.

If there had only been one hole in the leaking dam left behind after 14 years of Tory mismanagement, then one little Dutch boy's single finger could well have plugged that gap. What was inherited would have needed a regiment, all employing every one of their 10 fingers to stop the economic leaks in the UK dam.

We have to wake up to the fact that this government faces a long, slow slog to realise its goal of reforming our crippled economic system.

Just what are we all willing to pay for this transformation? How much short-term pain are we willing to bear without the benefit of illusory quick fixes to put the UK back on a seriously secure economic footing?

Does the electorate have the grit and stamina for this economic trial of strength?

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.

Farmers must be protected

I WAS heartened to see Kevin McKenna address the position that the Labour Party has put our farmers in ("‘We farmers work the land for Scotland. If you hurt us then you hurt the country’", The Herald, November 16). On one hand it is allowing in 29,000 extra people to feed in the last six months and on the other it has no interest in or intention to boost our farmers to enable the country to be more self-sufficient.

Short memories; we are an island and we should never put ourselves in the position where we rely on imports for our food.

Our husbandry standards are the best in the world, as is our produce. Farmers reinvest almost all of their profits into their businesses in order to be more efficient.

The Government must reconsider potentially destroying thousands of family farm businesses and the generations of knowledge that would also be lost.

Sheila Kerr, Middleton Farm, Newton Mearns.

Rachel Reeves (Image: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire)

Failure of the care regulators

CHRISTINE Smith (Letters, November 16) laments the shelving of the controversial National Care Service and suggests it is for political gain that it has been scrapped. I’m sure that has been a motive for some; in any case I fear it would be yet another smokescreen to the underlying issue: cuts and lack of investment.

The care crisis chaos in Scotland is complex and multifaceted, but would a new government department overseeing care make any difference? Aren’t the Care Inspectorate Scotland and the Scottish Social Services Council, both of which are reliant on Scottish Government funding, supposed to be already doing this? We also have the Government-funded Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, both of which have a role in challenging service failures that adversely affect the welfare of vulnerable people. Ms Smith refers to the current care system being worse than awful and it is hard to disagree, but with this happening under the noses of so many regulators, would a National Care Service do any better?

Duncan F MacGillivray, Dunoon.