Letters: It is good that the SNP is now being challenged

This is what all First Ministers and Prime Ministers should concentrate on - working for the good of the people whom they represent, and who have put them in their positions of power to start with.

Walter Paul,

69 Coplaw Street, Glasgow.

THE Scottish Greens have a huge problem. They have propped up the Scottish National Party's independence drive. They have also abandoned their nationwide political outlook by only standing in three parliamentary seats, all of which they failed to win. They therefore have no up-to-date democratic mandate to dictate the future course of Scotland. If Nicola Sturgeon will not remove her SNP threat of another independence referendum then Patrick Harvie of the Greens is duty bound to withdraw his support from the SNP if he still wants to claim to be a man of the people.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Road, Glasgow.

OUT of the unholy mess of the recent election has come some good. Nicola Sturgeon's endless posturing about independence for Scotland has been brought to a grinding halt.

We who live on or near the Border and who have been extremely worried, can now breathe a sigh of relief.

I live in Berwick-upon-Tweed, two and a half miles from the Border. Over the years, apart from changing hands between the Scots and English innumerable times, Berwick has largely been forgotten and neglected.

Employment is in short supply, so a number of Berwickers work on the Scottish side of the Border. There was considerable anxiety about whether this would still be feasible if Scotland became independent. As one local put it, Nicola Sturgeon wants lots of immigrants to come to Scotland. The present UK Government has pledged to curb immigration. Without a border crossing there would be nothing to stop immigration into England via Scotland. People from England working in Scotland would have to go through passport control to get to work, and vice versa for Scottish workers coming south. Also, the influx of immigrants envisaged by Ms Sturgeon would probably take the few jobs available to Berwickers.

If the question of independence for Scotland is raised again, and I am sure it will be if Ms Sturgeon has her way, is it too much to hope she will give some thought for those of us who live on the "wrong" side of the Borde?.

S Trainer,

Meadowhaven, Pier Road, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

AFTER the General Election the SNP finds itself with 35 seats and, 24 second places, several of those clearly winnable in the not too distant re-run.

The Tories, Labour and the Liberal Democrats (collectively), would give their eye teeth for a result like that. Can you imagine the rampant triumphalism from a Tory Party that got anywhere near it?

In addition, the SNP is within a whisker of an overall majority in Holyrood, where the system was specifically designed to prevent just that, and it has a record number of councillors.

Much has been made of the leadership shown by Ruth Davidson, but Labour and the LibDems also picked up seats, led by Kezia Dugdale and Willie Rennie (neither quite the political equivalent of Erwin Rommel).

A further blow to the Unionist parties was the demise of Blair MacDougal, the doyen of the No Campaign, who trailed in third in Renfrewshire East.

It seems decidedly strange that the BBC and other mass media can paint such a gloomy picture for SNP supporters ... or does it really?

Joseph G Miller,

44 Gardeners Street, Dunfermline.

AS the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties came second, third and fourth respectively at the General Election in Scotland, with their combined number of seats 11 less than that won by the SNP, is it not time that Unionism was taken off the table?

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

I AM unaware of the long list of political pundits who were even close to predicting the result of the General Election. Perhaps there was a hermit in a cave in the wilds of Glencoe who in a vision saw Scottish Labour and the Tories rising triumphantly to their knees, but he kept this to himself.

However, in the week the following the result a plethora of commentators have emerged from the shattered debris of their "expert opinion", unashamedly predicting that a second independence referendum is "off the table", "dead in the water", "gone to meet its maker'" and , not to put too fine a point on it, resembles a certain Norwegian Blue from a Monty Python skit.

Joining these modern-day Mystic Megs are assorted Scottish politicians who have made losing elections such an art form that they were short-listed for the Turner Prize this year. They have become so inured to losing that, after vociferously proclaiming that this election was a proxy vote on independence, they declare themselves the "winners" because they won more seats than Ruth Davidson has positions on Brexit.

What this election did show was that in Scotland if you are the SNP, unless you win all the seats available, the Monte Carlo Rally, the Miss Universe contest and score the winning goal against England then you will be labelled losers by people who have proved themselves worthy of this accolade.

James Mills,

29 Armour Square, Johnstone/

YOUR correspondent William Scott (Letters, June 15) writes yesterday that nobody foresaw the election result.

At lunch with three friends on Wednesday, June7 I stated it would definitely be a hung Parliament.

This was pooh-poohed as they had all referred to the bookies’ odds - all forecasting a comfortable Conservative win, but I maintained my assertion.

I just wish I had put a bet on....

Alan Dickson,

Newtonlea Avenue, Glasgow.