I UNDERSTAND that having promised to speak at the All Under One Banner march and rally at 11am on Saturday May 6 in Glasgow, SNP leadership hopeful Humza Yousaf has now also promised to attend the coronation of King Charles III in London, some 400-odd miles away, probably also being held from 11am onwards on the same day.
This will be a major achievement should he be able to pull it off. It might even make me forget temporally about the 625,000 currently languishing on his hospital waiting lists. It does, however, illustrate a fact that SNP leaders, both past and present, should be more aware of the fact that you cannot please all the people all the time.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf to try attend both coronation and Yes rally on May 6
As the soon-to-be-previous First Minister discovered to her cost, trying desperately to please a tiny minority of the electorate can alienate a large number of previously loyal supporters.
I only hope that Humza is aware that the Tardis in the current Doctor Who museum exhibition is not the real one.
Dr Iain Evans
Edinburgh
FROM the transcript of Monday’s LBC interview, I quote Humza Yousaf: “You’ve got to take people on the journey with us, for sure, but you can’t just not back the right of minorities because the majority of the public might not back it. That’s not leadership, that’s a cop-out”.
I’m sorry Humza but that muddled, oxymoronic, statement is enough for me to decide not to vote for you.
Taking you literally, you think that backing the rights of minorities even “when the majority of the public might not back it” is leadership. That is definitely not leadership. That is more akin to dictatorship.
READ MORE: Yousaf: I’ll advance women’s rights if made First Minister
Get the people “on the journey” first. Then, perhaps, you have a chance of the public following you as a leader. If not, you are on the road to electoral ruin.
Sadly, this confirms my worst fears. As a staunch supporter of the Bute House Agreement (BHA), you would lead the SNP further into the mire.
The power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens dates from August 31 2021. Nicola would have seen that partnership as a means of heaping pressure on Westminster to grant a referendum. When that was not forthcoming, members would at least have paused for thought. When the price of the agreement was seen to be Green Party policies that had little public support or proper consultation, membership shrunk.
It probably won’t be admitted until after the new leader is elected, but surely to goodness Nicola must see the BHA and the GRR Bill as the biggest mistakes of her career.
I too support the rights of all minorities to equal treatment, but those leaders in the SNP who share the approach of Humza, should remind themselves that, as well as respecting the rights of minorities, there is an overarching need to respect DEMOCRACY.
Alan Adair
Blairgowrie
WELL said, Shona Craven, your Tuesday column gave an excellent summation of the participation of many who post-2014 joined the SNP and the Yes movement to progress their own issues using the case for independence to do the heavy lifting (Petulant strops won’t win back former SNP members, Mar 21).
In life we don’t always get what we want, sometimes life teaches us we have to compromise to allow for democracy. Scotland has not voted in a Tory government since 1955 but that is what we received and lived with while still trying to secure our independence, so the struggle goes on. Just maybe somewhere in there is a lesson for those wishing to progress their own agenda via the SNP and Yes: your issues are important but not more so than others, and there should be room for all to have their view and say as long as it is considered and respectful.
Christine Smith
Troon
I AM a strong supporter of Kate Forbes to become leader of the SNP and First Minister. She is by far the most skilled of the three aspirants to set out a vision of where we need to go to get our independence. She also quite rightly identifies the centralisation of policy-making and decision-making as one of the issues that the SNP needs to address.
Having said that, I was somewhat bemused to see her sign up to the notion that we need to scrap ideas for marine conservation areas. There is a host of scientific literature which shows the need for a change in direction in how we manage our marine natural resources and the promotion of no-take zones. So unlike the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation – who, after all, are biased towards sophisticated catching technology in a situation akin to “the tragedy of the commons” where there is no overall control of exploitation – it is clear that we need to fallow areas of rich diversity to allow for natural processes to deliver replenishment.
However, I agree that this can most effectively be done by taking the local fishermen with you in the design of such control measures.
Bill McDermott
Drumnadrochit
ALEX Salmond gave vent to his ego commenting on SNP membership and saying how it had increased during his time, in what seemed to me to be a very divisive interview that could only damage our aim of unity within the independence movement.
It did make me think how many may have left as a consequence of his Russian TV show or his court case.
Bobby Brennan
Glasgow
SO Boris Johnson intends to submit a written dossier of evidence which he believes will clear his name in relation to the partygate scandal. I seem to remember some years back there was a fellow by the name of Blair who was a dab hand at compiling dossiers. Perhaps Boris should enlist his help!
Alan Woodcock
Dundee
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