AN election campaign unlike any other with a prospective Conservative Prime Minister deeply distrusted by many, including a former Conservative Prime Minister and former ministers. Boris Johnson’s reluctance to engage with the media and his refusals to appear on election platforms are being widely interpreted as a display of the hubris of someone accustomed to getting his own way.
Curiously, this obstructive behaviour, while commented on by the media, never seems to attract the kind of venom and hostility that that has dogged Jeremy Corbyn throughout the campaign. Jeremy has produced costed proposals to rebuild the UK’s ramshackle infrastructure, damaged by years of uncaring Conservative austerity, and most journalists are not impressed. At the heart of this conundrum lies the fact that Jeremy has supported the Palestinian cause all his life. It does not matter how often he reiterates his support for a just, two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, or how often he apologises to the Jewish community, the mainstream press will not let him off the hook!
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By contrast Nicola Sturgeon has had a fairly flawless campaign, apart from some stumbles with Andrew Neil over the SNP’s Growth Commission report. She has performed well, impressed English audiences and shown a willingness to engage warmly with the electorate.
Two contrasting images of politicians – Boris Johnson snatching the photo of the child on the hospital floor and Nicola Sturgeon and the baby box, sent to each new Scottish parent to welcome their new bairn into Scotland!
Another star performer in election debates has been Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price – knowledgeable, passionate and always polite.
What we all want are politicians who listen to the electorate, attend to their problems and deal with them and each other with courtesy, respect and kindness. I hope the election brings us more of this.
Maggie Chetty
Glasgow
POOR Ruth Davidson resorts to offensive name-calling of another female politician, namely Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister, on the last day of electioneering (Ruth Davidson claims voters call Nicola Sturgeon ‘that effing woman’, December 11).
It must be hard for one-shtick Ruth Davidson, who has been outclassed by Nicola Sturgeon at Holyrood and who is not standing at next Holyrood election. Davidson has commented recently about the abuse she has experienced online, yet she publicly hurls offensive remarks at another female politician. Shame on you!!
READ MORE: Ruth Davidson claims voters call Nicola Sturgeon 'that effing woman'
It simply shows how nastiness has risen within the Tory BritNats – or should we term them BritNasties? – in Scotland.
I suppose it does not matter to them at all, jolly good jape and all that! But by their utterances we can see what they really think.
John Edgar
Kilmaurs
OVER the past few weeks I have received quite a few flyers from Conservative candidate Stephen Kerr. On Tuesday three came in one post. One was a glossy, three-fold leaflet, the second a white card with the advice to vote against the SNP’s indy stance, and the third a very high-quality card, about 12” x 5”, double-sided with hard advice to vote against the SNP.
None of these pieces of literature (I use the word loosely) had any policy statement, just “SNP BAAD”. On Wednesday I received a letter, all PC processed, which contained a lovely handwritten message from Ruth. Her handwriting is appalling, folks.
Later, I received a call from a charming young man from Kerr’s campaign who wanted to know how I was going to vote. I told him. I also told him why I would never vote for a grinning idiot. I think he thought he was calling a wee old middle-class lady brought up in a Tory household who would keep with her upbringing. Wrong.
He got both barrels, and I also told him that I was concerned that Kerr had put out at least three times as much bumph as anyone else, and that I was interested in his campaign funding. I got no answers. I also suggested that perhaps Kerr’s backer was his private dental care provider, but I admit, that was just plain silly.
In my 67 years on the planet, I have never had such a call. Okay, I was at work for many of those years, in school, teaching Scottish history. I rest my case. I was also concerned about how many trees died for this clown, and admitted that although I am usually a dedicated recycler, I was going to take great pleasure in consigning them to the maw of my open coal fire. I feel better now.
Wendy Wilson
Drymen
ELECTION campaigning has drawn to a close, and by the time some of you read this letter we may know the result.
But something that has concerned me this time is the sheer number of campaign leaflets coming through the door. There seems to be a correlation between the parties who are spouting the most about saving the planet and those who are sending the most leaflets. The LibDems are easily the worst, closely followed by the SNP. How many trees have been destroyed?
Geoff Moore
Alness, Highland
WITH reference to Mike Herd’s letter on Tuesday, I suggest he visits Aberdeenshire and Crathes village before he expresses a view on it. Small it may be, but “in the wilds”? Come on. Travel 40 miles to the west and then you enter the “wilds of Aberdeenshire”.
Dave Mackie
Westhill, Aberdeenshire
I HOPE tomorrow the people of Scotland will not be waking up to five years more of cruel, heartless Tory policies. What other country in the world gets prime ministers from a neighbouring one? Scotland is not in a Union but under colonial rule.
Stevie, Motherwell
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