FOLLOWING the result of the independence referendum David Cameron stated, “Just as the people of Scotland will have more power over their affairs, so it follows that the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland must have a bigger say over theirs.”

Firstly, with regard to the English part of his statement there was absolutely zero requirement for the poor downtrodden English to need a bigger say in a parliament where the English MPs have always outnumbered the rest put together – currently 533 against 117. Irrespective of which political party the 533 constitute, at the end of the day they all represent English constituencies, so the English viewpoint will always prevail.

As for the non-English remaining parts of our beloved UK (I know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but I just can’t help myself), since the referendum they have been treated with utter contempt by the UK (English) government. So Mr Cameron you were speaking total mince, although I’m aware you won’t know what that means.

READ MORE: Long Read: The inside story of the week that rocked the SNP

And who is this right-wing, Trump-and-Russian-oligarch-loving English government’s man in Scotland? None other than that famous man of the people (there goes my sarcasm again), Alister Jack, the son of a former Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries. According to Wikipedia he was educated at Crawfordton House, a private prep school in Dumfriesshire, and Glenalmond College, at the time an all-boys independent boarding school.

It should come as no surprise therefore that no-one does that dripping contempt of Scottish peasantry, perfected by public schoolboys, better than oor Alister.

So I have a plea to anyone reading this that has Labour- or LibDem-voting friends or family. Ask them, “Is this really the type of Scotland you want to live in? Why not this time go for the SNP, or Greens on the list vote?” I can already hear Labour voters saying a UK Tory government won’t last forever, look what happened in the USA getting shot of Trump. My answer to that one would be that the English Brexit-style nationalism can’t now, like the genie, be put back in the bottle.

As an example of this: just over three months until the Scottish Parliament election, Starmer, sidelining the “branch office”, took control of a recent Labour party political broadcast shown in Scotland. Proudly standing with an obnoxious red, white and blue rag beside him, he has clearly decided to pander to ex-Labour voters in England’s “red wall”, since converted to support a Farage-style Tory party. Surely this was more than a tad humiliating for those in the branch office that had finally managed to oust Richard Leonard?

To those Scottish Labour supporters enthralled by such an approach, well “hell mend ye”, but something tells me a fair amount of them will feel decidedly queasy by this change. As for the LibDems, to sway them just make these friends/family feel guilty about their complicit role in making the poor pay for “Fred the Shred” and those of his ilk bringing the country to its knees!

Ivor Telfer
Fife

IT’S simple and it’s this. Those of us that have a voice have a duty to use it to vote in May, not in our own self-interest but for the voiceless. It will be the only chance for those children waking up hungry, anxious and stressed because of the society that keeps them poor through no fault of their own.

If we do not do this – vote for their better lives, using the creaking, flawed, imperfect democracy that we still have – we will be complicit in perpetuating this cruel state of normalised poverty. The only route for change is by voting SNP.

Fiona Matheson
Stromness, Orkney