Who is going to save Scotland? It certainly won’t be Swinney

RUTH Marr (Letters, May 3) is delusional if she thinks that John Swinney will save the SNP.

Ms Marr was effusive in backing Michael Matheson as an honest politician yet he tried to defraud Scotland of £11,000 before blaming it upon his own family. He was found to have broken the ministerial code and we still await news of the sanctions to be applied.

She called Humza Yousaf a competent First Minister yet he had to resign after he admitted his own catastrophic failure.

She hails Kate Forbes’ decision to stand aside. Really? It appears that Ms Forbes was taken behind closed doors and the old guard’s intentions made very clear to her.

Now she lauds John Swinney as the new leader of the SNP who will miraculously cure all the SNP’S ills and woes. She seems to have forgotten the failure in court of his Named Persons Bill and the absolute slating it received from the judiciary who likened it to the act of a dictatorship. As Education Secretary he took us out of PISA and other standards because they confirmed his disastrous tenure. Just to cap it all, he is the next continuity candidate of the discredited Sturgeon era although in his defence it shall be hard to find out his record in that era due to the number of records that were deleted or never recorded in the first place.

As a professional seaman, there is one thing that makes me react spontaneously to help someone in peril no matter the situation: that is hearing Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! That is what went through my mind when I listened to John Swinney as he announced his intention to run for the post of First Minister on May Day. There was added irony in The Herald reporting seven ferries out of action (“Calmac chaos escalates further”, The Herald, May 1) that actually became nine when the Isle of Cumbrae sitting in for Loch Shira on the Cumbrae service broke down and was withdrawn and the Loch Dunvegan on the Colintraive service having to implement a reverse-on drive-off service due to problems with her forward ramp and no backup vessel being available. Mr

Swinney tells us that transport will be a priority in his First Minister role, when will he give us a fully financed plan to replace our ageing ferry fleet and end the unworkable CMAL/CALMAC arrangement?

So just who is going to save Scotland? It won’t be Mr

Swinney. Just like Calmac, the SNP has run out of lifeboats to launch and deck chairs to rearrange.

Peter Wright, West Kilbride.

SURELY everyone knows why Kate Forbes decided not to stand for the position of leader of the

SNP. Once again she has proved how astute she is by holding back at this time.

Mild-mannered John Swinney will lead the party to a humiliating defeat at the next election and will be forced to resign. Ms Forbes will then step into the breach to take control of the SNP for the next five years.

Alan Mcgibbon, Paisley.