Letters I: Why is Ukip given such coverage relative to their membership?

Earlier in the same day the time and coverage given over by the BBC and Sky to what effectively is a large social club in England went unchallenged.

There was a free political broadcast for Ukip (1130hrs 28/11/16) covering the announcement of their new leader. Almost thirty minutes of prime air time was given over to what in reality is a very small political party which thinks they are important.

However, just over 35,000 votes were sent out, and just over 15,000 were returned. So all this public air time was given over to just over 15,000 voters. Farage made the most of this, but then I can understand the Murdoch organisation building up Ukip, because they are just Fox News without the conspiracy theories.

Hardly a huge election is it? Even the Green Party outnumber them according to a UK Parliament booklet from August 2016. [See bit.ly/polnumbers]. UKIP had 39,000 members, SNP: 120,000, LibDems: 76,000, Labour: 515,000, Green Party of England and Wales: 55,000, Conservative (est): 120,000.

So the coverage given at prime time by the BBC seems to be disproportionate to the actual membership and panders to the right, but they still gave it huge prominence.

Alan Cameron
Aberdeen

NOW that the Women’s Equality Party have far more members than Ukip (65,000 to 39,000), can we expect to see Sophie Walker being given disproportionate prominence on BBC news programmes and the main political parties bending over backwards to out-feminist each other? And if not, why not?

Andrew Solanas
Brechin

PAUL Nuttall of UKIP is only the latest in a line of innumerate English politicians who have a poor grasp of arithmetic as it applies to voting at Westminster.

On his election as leader of what is essentially an English national party he claims that he will be putting England first as he is dissatisfied with the devolution settlement which, he says, compromises the ability of the English to govern themselves.

Paul Nuttall, like David Cameron with his EVEL declaration, appears to be in ignorance of the numbers of MPs in Parliament. Of the 650 MPs, the English have 533 while the Scots, the Welsh and the Northern Irish can muster 117. It is inconceivable that the English could be out voted on any issue by the other nations/provinces. In effect, Westminster is the English Parliament. So any blustering about lack of democracy at Westminster is more likely the surfacing of prejudice from Little Englanders, like Nuttall, against anyone other than the English being consulted on the administration of England/UK.

EVEL itself was a poorly disguised attempt by Cameron to assert his Englishness in the face of a perceived declining in the status of England, a political Viagra to stiffen the resolve of the English Tories suffering a bad case of election dysfunction after the near death experience of the Scottish referendum.

James Mills
Johnstone

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IRELAND'S HAND OF FRIENDSHIP OFFERS BREATH OF FRESH AIR

THE sight of Nicola Sturgeon addressing the Irish Senate, as the first female and the first foreign leader invited to do so, made it quite clear just what an outstanding politician she is.

In a thirty minute masterclass she covered the mutual history of Scotland and Ireland, explained Scotland’s position regarding Brexit, examined Ireland’s quandary for future trade with the UK and the open border with the North.

At the end of her address the Senate leaders of all parties took turns to praise her grasp of the situation and her understanding of the Irish concerns, and at the end of her address she received a standing ovation.

Although she was given a full state welcome, met the President, the Taoiseach and the Senate, the main BBC news did not even mention the visit. BBC Scotland did have a short news report but with a grudging caveat that she was probably more popular in Ireland than in Scotland. Any London-based politician or member of royalty, given the same Irish reception, would have been all over the national news so it is no that wonder many Scots see the BBC as biased against the SNP but perhaps it is just the London bubble, where everything outside the M25 is provincial.

James Duncan
Edinburgh

I HAVE just received a phone call from someone wanting me to take out a subscription to The Times. When I told him I would only subscribe if The Times came out in favour of Scottish independence, he went on to ask me what newspapers I currently read. When I told him The National and sometimes The Sunday Herald he became very dismissive. “These are local papers,” quoth he, “don’t you read any nationals?” I thought the clue was in the name.

Malcolm Brown
Blairhall, Fife

A UNIQUE and momentous event for both Scotland and Ireland as Scotland’s FM Nicola Sturgeon, became the first overseas head of state to address the Irish Senate. An event, I am sure, which would have filled Ms Sturgeon with hope as they identified with Scotland and her journey towards self-determination. As full members of the EU, they also reached out to Scotland offering assistance in any way regarding Scotland being taken out of the EU against the democratic wishes of the Scottish people, a true hand of friendship and a strengthening of the ties that bind these two countries of ours together. This truly momentous event was a breath of fresh air for all who despair of Scotland’s future in the wake of Brexit.

Catriona C Clark
Banknock, Falkirk

THE recovery by our First Minister of the historic relationship with Ireland is enormously encouraging. Since the reformation we have taken different roads, yet at their closest points between Antrim and Kintyre our two land areas are only twelve miles apart. My wife had an aunt who lived on Mull who used to say that on a clear day she “could see Lizzie O’Donnell’s washin’ hingin oot”.That short stretch of water used to be teeming with trade until the dead hand of Britishness fell fully upon it. Please God it will not be long now till it teems again.

Alan Clayton
Strachur, Argyll

WITH all the uninformed talk about hard and soft Brexits it is easy to be distracted from our own exit from the UK and what we will face in that process. In the 2014 campaign the Scottish Government seemed to assume that Westminster would discuss future arrangements in a mature and balanced manner. This proved to be naive in the extreme. Instead, the British state, in its determination to survive, unleashed all its forces against us and all our proposals were rejected and ridiculed. I see nothing in the present English- dominated Westminster to expect a different approach next time.

We should therefore face the fact that we almost certainly will face a “hard” exit, however illogical and damaging that is for both parties. Now the Conservatives have morphed silently into Ukip, that party has no place to go except to become the English National Party. They will be in no mood to accept what they regard as an insult to their natural superiority. Will there be any scope for a mature discussion between the two nations about their future relationship? That seems to me desperately unlikely. But in preparation for a repeat of Westminster’s squalid efforts to hang on to our assets it is good to see the Scottish Government building bridges to our cousins in Ireland. For the Irish know only too well what pain the British Government is capable of inflicting and they have not forgotten their own long struggle.

Peter Craigie
Edinburgh

I READ with interest that our Prime Minister has revealed that she is confident she is doing the right thing in relation to Brexit due to her faith in God. She is after all the daughter of an Anglican vicar, so perhaps this is no surprise.

However, I have no doubt there are plenty of Remainer Christians elsewhere, perhaps even in the Government, who believe they are doing the right thing in opposing Brexit due to that very same faith in God.

Does God take sides? What if God actually wants us to remain in the EU, to build bridges rather than barriers (which would seem to be a worthy religious ideal)? Has He revealed this to Mrs May and is she overruling Him?

Alistair McBay
Edinburgh

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GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE A BITE OUT OF VILLAGE PLAN

A FEW weeks ago the SNP’s China finance initiative, partly intended to build low-cost houses, ran aground.

Last week Philip Hammond pinpointed the lack of good, cheap housing as one of the major causes of low productivity in the UK.

Housing costs, which have trebled in real terms since the 1960s, are also one of the main reasons the “JAMs” (people Just About Managing) are finding it so hard to progress.

A few weeks ago Leonardo Di Caprio visited the Social Bite project in Edinburgh. [They intended to build a village] with small houses that can be built for £35,00.

They will initially be for homeless people but they are scaleable for families too.

It is a fantastic example of what can be done, with houses designed in Linlithgow and backed by a major builder.

The Scottish Government, which is falling way behind its own housebuilding targets, is conspicuous by its absence from what must be a tremendous vote-winning initiative which would benefit enormously from their support and funding.

Allan Sutherland Stonehaven