On the recent Debate Night programme, Stephen Flynn, SNP MP, accused a young audience member of being ‘a Tory activist’, with the implication that the young man was not entitled to be there and/or ask a question. It’s as if there had never been SNP activists in TV audiences. The question the young man asked was, in effect, why does the SNP always blame Westminster for any failing in Scottish health or education, which are devolved issues under the sole control of the SNP/Green regime at Holyrood? That seems to me a perfectly legitimate question, and not an overtly party-political one. Instead of answering the question, Mr Flynn attacked the questioner and then said loudly, at least three times, pointing at his lapel: “I wear my badge. I wear my badge. I wear my badge.” The young man was not wearing a badge to identify a political affiliation. On Mr Flynn’s lapel there was indeed a badge. But it was not one bearing the SNP’s logo; it was a Saltire emblem. Are we to deduce from this that Mr Flynn regards the Saltire as the identifying symbol of the SNP, and that he thinks that the SNP and Scotland are congruent? Have we reached such a state that the ruling party claims to speak for all of Scotland and that other parties have no legitimacy here? That is very much what it looks like. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh.
