WHAT has become apparent in recent weeks, and what most Scots have known for years, is that the English can’t bear the thought of a government where for the first time since 1707 the Scots could hold sway over the governance of the UK.

We are not talking of the impotent branch offices but instead a truly Scottish party 100 per cent focused on Scotland, the SNP.

So this fear of SNP MPs marauding over the Border is being agitated by the UK press, commentators and Tory MPs.

A clear example of this is the recent article from Max Hastings, historian and former editor of The Daily Telegraph, in which he says: “We thus face the bleak prospect of five million Scots determining the fate of almost 60 million people in the rest of the UK.”

Interesting that Hastings doesn’t refer to the SNP, but to the entire Scottish population, so no matter which political colour you are, you are not welcome if you’re Scots and hold the balance of power.

Roy Bertram
Kemnay


IT seems that it is the opinion of the Tory Party that if Scottish MPs vote down a minority government they will be thwarting the democratic will of the British people (Salmond: We’ll keep Cameron out of No.10, The National, March25). My understanding of the parliamentary system is that every MP is entitled to vote either as his party wishes, or as his conscience dictates. It appears that the Tory party does not believe that Scottish MPs have such a right.

R Mill Irving
Gifford


BETTER Together, back together, like they had never been apart!

Tory, Labour and Lib Dems, bereft of any real policies, have now adopted a common campaign policy, to denigrate Alex Salmond and the SNP.

This election campaign is now likely to hit a new level of all-time lows and personal attacks.

John Jamieson
South Queensferry


AM I alone in thinking Salmond should get back to the main job, which is the election next month? Of course he is right to concentrate to some extent on the underhand and unconstitutional partiality of the Treasury during the Referendum champaign, but he seems to be generally ignoring the simple facts that Nicola Sturgeon now leads the party and Angus Robertson continues to be a very effective leader of the Westminster MPs.

David Crines
Hamilton

I WAS intrigued by Kezia Dugdale's claims in Holyrood and elsewhere that Nicola Sturgeon "banked on the gamble of future oil revenues".

As someone who followed the economic forecasts keenly during the referendum campaign, I have no recollection of the Yes Campaign or the SNP basing the future economic programme on oil.

I do remember references to the food and drinks industry, to tourism and to the contribution made by renewables, small businesses and bio-medical sciences. One discussion around future prosperity held the promise to get rid of Trident and use the proceeds to initially fund more women's jobs and free child care, an excellent use of economic resources.

There were references to the need for a Scottish oil fund. I also remember the discussion about a requirement for cutting taxes in the oil industry to allow the development of new fields which George Osborne has done belatedly in the recent budget, taking the tax back to what he raised it from in 2011.

Like some Scottish voters, I am tired of the misrepresentation of what is said by Ms Surgeon and Mr Salmond and I feel my intelligence is being insulted when I am forced to listen. It is not only the London media who do this but sadly the Labour Party along with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

The Yes Campaign succeeded in educating many of the Scottish electorate and others about the amount of money wasted on vanity projects in London and the south-east and this has resulted in more of a clamour in the north of England and the midlands for better infrastructure and local control of finances.

Like many Scottish voters I voted for the Labour Party in past elections but this won’t be happening again until the Labour Party find their lost principles and produce some progressive ideas to banish poverty and make Scotland flourish.

Maggie Chetty
Glasgow

JOHN Swinney has fairly described the National Grid charging system as “fundamentally flawed” and “not fit for purpose” (The National, March 25) and Neil Clitheroe of Scottish Power has deemed it a “major barrier” to future investment in Scotland.

In all the coverage it is implied that the National Grid is a UK Government agency. This is not the case.

Until Thatcher privatised it in 1990, the National Grid was indeed publicly owned. Since then it has been owned and managed by private energy companies, National Grid plc in England and Wales and SSE and Scottish Power in Scotland.

National Grid plc remains the “system operator” for the UK as a whole and has the major say in setting the charging mechanism through its subsidiary National Grid Electricity Transmission plc. Ofgem the UK regulator can in theory modify its proposals. However direct intervention is notable by its absence.

In 2013/14 National Grid plc made £3,735 million operating profit and generated £4,419m cash from its operations – an 11.4 per cent return on equity.

It is clear from this that although Neil Clitheroe and other industry spokespersons may agree the connection mechanism is unfair and a barrier to green investment, their companies and shareholders materially benefit from the present regime.

Gordon Morgan
Glasgow

LIKE many others, I was astonished by Anna Soubry's performance on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, following his interview with Alex Salmond. However, I was even more perturbed by the BBC's Daily Politics programme the next day, which included a 12-minute piece on the SNP's potential dealings with a minority Labour government.

As she introduced the piece, the presenter Jo Coburn said: "Now, could the SNP hold a future Labour government to ransom in any post-election deal? That's the spectre that was raised yesterday when the former SNP leader Alex Salmond suggested that the party would only support a minority Labour government on a vote-by-vote basis...". I was surprised by her use of the word "spectre", which in my dictionary means "a haunting presentiment of ruin, war, madness etc" and is certainly something to fear.

There then followed a 10-minute interview with Stewart Hosie, who very eloquently dealt with Jo Coburn's questions. What bothered me this time, However, was that three minutes into his interview a banner appeared at the bottom of the screen with the words "SNP Threat". Evidently this was the title of the piece and the banner remained in view almost until the very end.

Am I being over-sensitive, or has the BBC demonstrated yet again its inherent bias against the idea of democracy in Scotland, portraying it as an untrustworthy nation to be feared? We've all seen examples of subtle BBC bias but I reckon it is becoming more sinister.

John Adair
Ochiltree

SCOTS might be forgiven that the English are somehow terrified of the current success of the SNP in the polls given what our papers say. The sometimes bizarre, often vitriolic abuse dished out by the London media comes as a shock even to the stout-hearted in northern England though. It's fair to say that we in Yorkshire don't buy into this narrative of "SNP threat". In fact the opposite is true as we take much inspiration from north of the Border. So much so that a party has been set up to campaign for significant powers to be devolved away from Westminster and Whitehall to Yorkshire.

Stewart Arnold
Deputy leader, Yorkshire First

ONCE again it was interesting to read about benefit sanctions imposed by this heartless Coalition on the most vulnerable in society (Citizens Advice calls for sanctions to stop, The National, March 25). But let us look at the overall picture.

Last year the Sunday Mail columnist John Niven reported that since 2010 more than 10,000 people had died as a result of "welfare reform" legislation. Many genuine disabled people died "naturally", according to the DWP, after being stripped of their benefits, yet strangely enough a large percentage died from the illnesses that they were awarded the benefits for in the first place and many more as a result of suicide. Today there are 60 ongoing enquiries into those deaths!

And for disabled Labour MP Dame Anne Begg, who chairs the Select Committee on Welfare Reform – to voice her concern is a joke when it reveals on most SNP websites that she is one of the numerous Labour MPs who have voted in favour of a further £12 billion cuts from the Welfare budget which will affect the very people she claims to show concern for.

This spineless, greed-driven, Tory-led government is ensuring that the vulnerable pay for the crimes of the bankers and as far as i am concerned those responsible for implementing such medieval inhumane policies on disabled people should be held to account in the Court of Human Rights in The Hague.

Louise McArdle
Wishaw

THE position of Orkney and Shetland is intriguing and there is a wee detail that missing from all reports. In the May 2011 Scottish Election, the regional list vote for Orkney and Shetland (the Westminster Constituency) was won by the SNP with 5594 votes against 5037 for the Liberals. The full results were: Others 2401, Labour 1704, Tory 1470 and Green 1200.

I am unsure if the Liberals are any more popular in 2015 than they were four years ago.

Jim Lynch
Edinburgh

IF the Scots love their children and grandchildren, why would they vote for Scottish Unionist parties when they want to retain the nuclear base in Scotland? If an international terrorist exploded a nuclear device at the Faslane base, supplied by a rogue country, Scotland would become a nuclear wasteland for a thousand years.

Matt McKenna
Erskine

WHAT is it about the Scottish media and Rangers? Journalists can’t help turning any event into a discussion on Rangers and newspapers are only too happy to regurgitate the results. Your piece on the upcoming Scotland game was 75 per cent about Rangers and 25 per cent about Scotland. Given what Stephen Naismith actually said in response to no doubt leading questions , why didn’t you splash with “Naismith Doesn’t Rule Out Signing for Celtic" instead?

Jim Cosgrove
East Kilbride