\n Iain Brocklebank,<\/strong> Shawlands<\/strong><\/a>, Glasgow.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n More letters…\n<\/p>\n \n Farage will win because he speaks for the silent majority<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Nicola Sturgeon will discover she has fewer allies than she thinks<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Letters: NHS governance structure is not fit for purpose<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n The broom of the system<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Neil Mackay\u2019s latest reflection on his shifting view of the SNP<\/a> was an interesting exercise in political rehabilitation – not of the party, but of the reader\u2019s patience (\u201cPolitics is such a mess right now there is only one option for Scots like me\u201d, The Herald, October 16).\n<\/p>\n \n Mr Mackay rightly catalogues the SNP<\/a>\u2019s many failings under its recent leaderships: Nicola Sturgeon<\/a>\u2019s hollow promises of imminent independence, Humza Yousaf<\/a>\u2019s policy bungles and years of missed opportunities.\n<\/p>\n \n Yet, remarkably, we are asked to believe that John Swinney<\/a>\u2019s arrival should be enough to wipe the slate clean.\n<\/p>\n \n Mr Swinney is no new broom. His long record in government is hardly one of transformation.\n<\/p>\n \n Indeed, his political reputation has long carried the sting of that old quip about being \u201csavaged by a dead sheep\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Not through malice, but because he inspires little more than weary indifference.\n<\/p>\n \n To dress up managerial competence as virtue speaks more to our diminished expectations than to any SNP revival.\n<\/p>\n \n Then, just as Mr Mackay appears to offer a balanced critique, the mask slips.\n<\/p>\n \n His tone veers from measured reflection to a diatribe against Reform UK<\/a> and anyone daring to question the damage done by \u201cwoke\u201d politics<\/a> or government pandering ineptitude.\n<\/p>\n \n Legitimate concerns are casually dismissed as \u201cfar-right racism and thuggery\u201d. Really?\n<\/p>\n \n Such labelling may play well in the comfort of moral certainty, but it stifles reasoned debate and alienates the very voters Mr Mackay claims to understand.\n<\/p>\n \n Ian Lakin, Milltimber,<\/strong> Aberdeen<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Fresh idea: politicians please electorate<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Neil Mackay\u2019s article confirms what I\u2019ve always believed, namely that most sane people vote for the party that they feel will do them the least damage (\u201cPolitics is such a mess right now there is only one option for Scots like me\u201d, The Herald, October 16).\n<\/p>\n \n This is because we all know that the inbuilt incompetence of politicians, who have no idea of what goes on in the outside world, guarantees that whoever gets into power is going to blame everything on the previous administration and then proceed to add to the misery of everyone in the country.\n<\/p>\n \n It\u2019s happening right now at Westminster, and the appalling record of the current Scottish government is there for all to see.\n<\/p>\n \n Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if politicians of all parties got together and gave a thought to the electorate, and what is good for the British public, rather than thinking about what is good for themselves and their parties?\n<\/p>\n \n Alan McGibbon,<\/strong> Paisley<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Right is wrong for Scots<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Robert IG Scott claims the SNP is on a \u201chiding to nothing\u201d at the 2026 Holyrood<\/a> election (Letters, October 16).\n<\/p>\n \n Recent opinion polls tell a different story.\n<\/p>\n \n Only last month the Herald reported the latest opinion poll indicating the SNP with a 20% lead over Labour, translating into 63 seats.\n<\/p>\n \n This is only two short of an overall majority and close to the total of all other parties combined.\n<\/p>\n \n Scotland is currently witnessing a race to the right by both Labour and the Conservatives, each trying to catch up with Reform UK.\n<\/p>\n \n Here in Scotland the right has been rejected time after time, with no Conservative majority since the 1950s. I have no reason to believe this will change soon.\n<\/p>\n \n Scotland is a left of centre voting country. That\u2019s why the SNP has been in power for almost two decades and why Labour are no longer the party of Scotland.\n<\/p>\n \n Catriona C Clark, Banknock,<\/strong> Falkirk<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n The generation game<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Jack Robertson repeats the weary trope that we have heard since the 2014 referendum (Letters, October 15).\n<\/p>\n \n He suggests that if the SNP do not win a majority in the Holyrood<\/a> elections next May they should drop the issue of independence altogether.\n<\/p>\n \n Presumably he would urge the Conservative party to drop its support for free market capitalism, and the Greens to abandon any attempt to persuade the electorate that we have to safeguard the environment, on the basis that neither of them won the last election.\n<\/p>\n \n This is primary school logic: if you don’t win you are sent to a corner to suck your thumb.\n<\/p>\n \n In the real world, a political party is founded on a belief, which is made into policy and the party exists to persuade the electorate that it should vote for that policy.\n<\/p>\n \n If it doesn’t succeed this time, it will try again. And again.\n<\/p>\n \n And again, regardless of whether Mr. Robertson believes they should give in, go home and give up.\n<\/p>\n \n How many elections did it take before the Labour movement actually won an election? Just as well they didn’t follow Mr. Robertson’s logic.\n<\/p>\n \n It would be nice to think that we hear no more of this weary, illogical trope, but I am not going to hold my breath.\n<\/p>\n \n Mr. Robertson and his ilk will have to put up with the SNP campaigning for independence, and perhaps even another referendum.\n<\/p>\n \n Given that generations are reckoned in fourteen year time spans (Millennials 1980 to 1994, Gen Z 1995 to 2009 etc) another referendum must be due sometime soon.\n<\/p>\n \n Ken MacVicar, Lesmahagow.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Grappling with debt<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n The UK is fast approaching a \u00a33 trillion (tn) national debt.\n<\/p>\n \n It also owes at least \u00a32.1tn to holders of British government securities, of which approximately \u00a3745 billion is owed to the Bank of England (BoE) and \u00a31,355 billion to external investors.\n<\/p>\n \n These are 2022 figures, but nevertheless with the \u00a33tr national debt and \u00a32.1tn gross debt that’s \u00a35tn.\n<\/p>\n \n Also, these figures don’t include what is referred to as \u2018off the book\u2019 debt in the form of what it owes pensioners etc in the form of National Insurance payments and the like.\n<\/p>\n \n The majority of the \u00a33tn national debt is in the form of gilts and bank securities etc.\n<\/p>\n \n But it’s the secretive BoE money that is more interesting, since who underwrites this?\n<\/p>\n \n Is it, for example, underwritten by the likes of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, rich Saudis and China?\n<\/p>\n \n Doug Clark, Currie.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Buck stops with NHS<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n Cathy Baird asks if Sandie Peggie has given a thought to the resources NHS Fife<\/a> could have provided for its patients with the hundreds of thousands it is currently having to spend (Letters, October 16).\n<\/p>\n