Truly we live in interesting times! For example, who would have thought even six months ago that the Conservatives would gain an additional 12 MPs in Scotland, and thereby give a rightwing government a chance to hang on by making “an arrangement” with the DUP – Scottish Conservatives are not especially known for being on the right wing of their party. But readers from south of the border may be interested to learn that Ruth Davidson’s campaign was based on only one thing: no second independence referendum. The campaign made no mention of Brexit, nor anything connected with the party manifesto published by Theresa May’s national party. All the literature that I saw in Edinburgh simply asked for a vote for Ruth Davidson’s candidate (named), in whatever constituency was being canvassed, to make sure there was no indyref2. It was a very successful campaign, but surely one that can only be tried once. It is difficult to imagine the Tories in Scotland making more gains by refusing to debate what they stand for. The previous election when the SNP achieved 56 seats was a freak result that could have no realistic chance of being repeated – previously they had only six seats. In fact, that election showed how crazily out of date our first-past-the-post system is. With 35 seats out of 59 after “their worst UK electoral performance in 40 years” as has been quoted, the SNP remains by far the largest party in Scotland. In the meantime, however, surely an award for Ms Davidson when the next batch of “honours” are being distributed!
David Reid
Edinburgh
• Matthew d’Ancona (Opinion, 12 June) is another cheerleader for Ruth Davidson as Tory leader (and thus prime minister). After more than five years as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, she’s failed to advance anything like a distinctive political philosophy, despite her support for some socially liberal causes. We know some of what she’s against – a second independence referendum in particular – but she’s given very little idea of where she stands on the big economic and political issues. Can the Conservatives really not come up with anyone better? As for Ms Davidson saving the Conservatives “from catastrophe” (all on her own, apparently), let’s not forget that they won a majority of 61 seats in England, but a minority of 33 seats in Scotland.
Andrew Anderson
Edinburgh
• Val McDermid’s otherwise excellent (and surely ultimately irresistible) call for a fairer electoral system (Reformation 2017, Review, 10 June) was hardly strengthened by her lament that the SNP had no power in Westminster in spite of having won 95% of the seats in Scotland in 2015. Forgive me, Val, but I had rather more sympathy for the 50% of Scottish voters who voted for parties other than the SNP and yet ended up with the grand total of 5% of the seats between them. It is often noted that for a government to introduce proportional representation is akin to turkeys voting for Christmas, but when the Scottish parliament was (re-)established, the governing Labour party brought in the additional member system in the knowledge that it could open the way to its losing its monolithic status in Scotland. Justice demands the same of the UK government.
Paul Alldred
Leverburgh, Isle of Harris
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