Scotland Matters Letters

After watching Nicola Sturgeon’s discomfited interview with Laura Kuenssberg it seems that her calamitous Gender Reform miscalculation may have sealed her fate. Unlike previous “Resign Sturgeon “scandals, this time all the facts are on the table, arguments are clear and the cross-party campaign against it has ensured that the SNP Green hubristic, incompetent genie is well and truly out of the bottle. Polls say at least two-thirds support the UK stance and, courtesy of ITV, BBC, Channels 4 and 5, Sky – even SIV and BBC Scotland, the brouhaha has reached the country’s living rooms and every day, more and more women are becoming informed and enraged. She hasn’t just lost the indy “dressing room” – some of the MPs and MSPs, party members, Alba, campaign groups like Wings over Scotland and indy diehards – voters on the terracing are leaving early for the bus home. And, encouraged by Stephen Flynn’s leadership coup, pretenders to the crown such as Robertson, Forbes and Cherry might be circling. The UK Government couldn’t have picked a better issue or fight to begin a common-sense reset of devolution, expose the SNP Greens’ vulnerability and, well, stupidity. And as we see from Keir Starmer’s unease with the legislation, he might even convince Anas Sarwar to jump to support the opposition to the bill and win back the votes of the decent, sensible people of Scotland. Allan Sutherland, Willow Row, Stonehaven.

Nicola Sturgeon has tied herself in so many knots that even Houdini would have failed to escape. She is a politician who believes that young people who commit crimes should not be punished as adults as their brains haven’t yet fully developed and therefore can’t be held responsible for their actions. She however also wants us to believe that children of 16 are mentally able to say they are not the gender they were born into. She wants to limit the advertising of alcoholic brands, including considering removing the logos from pint glasses. However the First Minister stated in a BBC interview “why can’t a 16-year-old drink alcohol in a pub?” It may have been a rhetorical question but why choose this as an example? The SNP is attempting to be attractive to younger voters and this no doubt would be a vote-winner among many of those 16 and 17-year-olds who can vote in Scottish parliamentary elections. Was this really “bad phrasing” on her part or a cynical ploy to sow a seed in the minds of young voters? Jane Lax, Aberlour.

Nicola Sturgeon’s grand plan to ‘expose’ Westminster as the transgressor in the gen-der reform debate has gone spectacularly wrong. Death threat placards and her slips of the tongue have destroyed what little argument she might have had. Miss Sturgeon now has a disaster on her hands. Public opinion is hardening against her views as more information seeps out about what her reforms would do to society. Her survival as First Minister is in question, despite her assertions she’s going ‘no-where’. This is a political earthquake for Holyrood, the SNP, Greens and Labour. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

Do Nicola Sturgeon and most SNP members have any basic understanding of the real and significant differences between independence and devolution? It is worth reflecting on the previous commentary of Lord Reed who presides over the Supreme Court and who has stated “the court has been called on yet again to adjudicate on a dispute about Holyrood’s powers. It appeared to be a matter of (SNP) policy that you draft (poor) legislation as if the constraints of the Scotland Act don’t exist, and then leave it to the courts to sort out the problems on a case-by-case basis”. Yet again it seems to be deliberate policy by Nicola Sturgeon to weaponise her manufactured grievances and then use the courts to re-educate her as to the legal reality. Where she goes her sheep dutifully follow. For devolution to work effectively it needs to be respected and acknowledged constructively by both sides. It is worth realising that neither the Conservatives nor the SNP took an active and constructive part in the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament. The time to have objected to any variations or limitations in the Scotland Act was when it was being established. Now it is the established law and needs to be respected even if that is not easy or straightforward. A bit less bleating about democratic deficits deliberately created by the SNP would calm the situation. David Philip, Knockhall Way, Newburgh.

Can we expect the SNP to announce a U-turn on its intention to seek EU membership following separation from the UK? It seems to be the only logical action given its outrage over the blocking of the Gender Recognition Reform legislation by the UK Government because of potential conflict with UK law. Why leave one union for “independence” only to join another in which we would had even less representation and influence in lawmaking? Unless of course the outrage is a pretence and it’s a case of a union with “anyone but England”. Mark Openshaw, Aberdeen.

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