Safe pair of hands

It is interesting to look at Paul Wilson’s recent article (Scotsman, 9 May) alongside Richard Allison’s letter of May 11.

Paul is right to say that the “founding parents” of the Scottish Parliament would look askance at their creation today. But they were the giants of Scottish politics, who in Winnie Ewing’s case had built a redoubtable party. Tragically, Nicola Sturgeon became its leader and changed it from being a political party into a cult. She led of one of the most mendacious, incompetent governments in recent history. Playing the part of the puppet dangling from the end of the Green string, she trashed Scotland, particularly in the rural areas.

John Swinney inherits this mess and is setting about reforming his party from the divisive rabble, it currently is, into the recognisable party it was under the great Winnie Ewing. Bringing Kate Forbes back is part of that plan and he will hopefully not stop there. Kate may hold views of conscience, with which many, including me, may disagree, but allowing members to have a conscience rather than voting like robots is something I suspect John will bring back to his party.

I worked with him when I was Chairman of Scottish Financial Enterprise and always found him an intellectually capable and collegiate politician. If he brings those qualities back into the SNP he will have done politics a great service. Scotland is in a terrible mess and we do not have an election until 2026 so we need a safe pair of hands, who has the courage to make the changes to his party that are so necessary. For me John is that man, even if I disagree fundamentally with his core belief.

Mark Tennant

Elgin, Moray