A Mhairi Black SNP special

Recent articles on CapX about the SNP and Mhairi Black MP – The problem with Mhairi Black’s maiden speech, and so on – have attracted a considerable number of letters in response, many of them from SNP supporters. Sadly, some of them are not polite enough to reproduce on a family-friendly website. But here are some of the others.

Iain Martin, Editor, CapX

Black Magic

So, by Iain Martin’s logic all of us who came from Labour supporting backgrounds should instantly reject the SNP and their social democratic polices the moment Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader of the Labour Party? Because of course Corbyn will be able to whip the 80% of Blairites that form the Labour Party MP’s back into the left?

Craig Martin, Midlothian, Scotland (UK)

Iain Martin says that conservatives “reject the idea of attempts to socially engineer a remodelling of human nature, because, again as history suggests, this usually requires coercion which threatens freedom, saps innovation and kills prosperity.” He has obviously read a very different history to me. What is neoliberalism if not an attempt to socially engineer a remodelling of human nature? The adopted worldwide consensus that humans are altruistic at heart (something proved repeatedly in studies) flew in the face of a neoliberal doctrine based on Ayn Rand (who despite railing against healthcare from the state died poor, relying on state benefits) and the selfish game theories of Nash and Chicago boys economics.

Forcing market economics on countries such as Iraq post invasion, or on Russia post collapse of the Soviet Union, (and plenty of other examples – e.g. overthrow of Allende in Chile or democratically elected socialist governments in Nicaragua), is nothing short of coercion – the results of which certainly sapped innovation and freedom, and fuelled the rise of oligarchs while the majority of people suffered.

Of course there is wariness of revolutionaries – as Isaiah Berlin rightly pointed out, you can’t force anyone to be free. Yet Mhairi Black is obviously not going to be the leader of any violent revolution. As with Corbyn, she’s evidently a democrat, and a believer in democratic principles, which is something many conservatives clearly aren’t, considering how willing they are to sacrifice national democratic sovereignty to massive international corporations via the TTIP deal.

Anyway. Thanks for posting about Mhairi Black. It was an interesting, if disagreeable, read.

Sam Dodson, Bath, UK

I take Iain Martin’s point about the structure of the Paisley economy. I’m a capitalist at heart; who else is going to provide jobs? However, and it’s a big however, he like many people doesn’t dwell on Black’s story about benefit sanctions.

There are people in his hometown who literally dont have enough to eat partly because a KPI driven bureaucracy has allowed it but mostly because of extreme callousness and lack of understanding of hardship, particularly invisible disabilities. And there is zero excuse for this. It is a stain on conservatism and I can’t believe you would condone it. It’s just vile.

Diana Gordon, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

What a lot of s**** on Mhairi Black. You must be really short of things to write about.

Judith Delissen, Stirlingshire, UK

Black mark

What an excellent piece on Mhairi Black. It demonstrates the ludicrous situation we have when a wet behind the ears student can become a mouthpiece of the electorate. What experience does she have? Very little, which is a dangerous thing. The SNP could have put a tailors dummy up for election in the majority of the seats and still triumphed due to the lack of opposition. Their most notable political action to date is to make a laughing stock of themselves with the infantile about turn on voting on the fox hunting bill. If that is the measure of what they have to offer then God help Scotland.

Jim Allison, North Lanarkshire, UK

I find it disgusting just how low some SNP supporters can sink. On a recent Facebook thread an SNP supporter stated that the Westminster Government had abolished Disability Living Allowance and were crucifying disabled people. No mention of the fact that DLA has been replaced by PIP – Personal Independence Payment and that disabled people are not being left without financial help. This from the people who accused pro-Union supporters in the referendum of scaremongering. They know no shame.

Lesley Hawksfield, Ayton, Berwickshire, Scotland

When I read the clamor to congratulate Ms Black on her speech I was eager to hear the fresh insight this young and idealistic politician of would bring to a chamber beset by old prejudices. “Sensational” said The Guardian; “tears apart the Tories” said The Independent. I was to be disappointed.

Instead of youthful forward thinking we were subjected to a self-serving regressive diatribe on why the Tories are entirely to blame for everything in Scotland from the injustices set upon weavers in Kilbarchan to the dehydration of a man in Paisley town centre. For God’s sake, even William Wallace got a mention.

The bulk of Ms Black’s sermon though was devoted to telling us about herself. Her background and voluntary work, her hatred for Thatcherism and her struggle for social justice. But by making herself the main subject matter Ms Black underlined the arrogance and egotism the SNP has demonstrated since May. The overwhelming majority of the UK doesn’t hang on every SNP proclamation and isn’t interested in Ms Black’s ancestry. It simply views them as another left wing protest group we have to put up with until Scotland wakes up.

The overriding emotion elicited by this speech wasn’t admiration as Ms Black seemed to hope, nor was it hatred for the gratuitously evil Tories; it was dismay. Dismay that if Ms Black is an example of young Scottish MPs then they are lost. By being as infected by same hostile prejudices, entitlement culture and desire to re-write history that cursed her predecessors Ms Black and our next generation of politician risks being more poisonous that the last.

Colin Goldsworthy, Northumberland, UK

Tales of yesteryear Paisley

With reference to Mhairi Black, the new MP from Paisley, I briefly worked for the local authority in Paisley back in the late 1970s. Start at 9am, get work assignment, head out after tea break. If two people required three would go plus a driver since we were not allowed to do it our self (wrong union or something.) Stop at cafe for coffee on way; do an hour of work while driver sits in van; lunch at nearest pub. Afternoon do another hour, maybe two, head back. Stop at cafe for coffee (if Friday go via supermarket so driver can do his shopping and take it home.) Back in time for afternoon tea break. Do some paper work, general time-filling, go home. One staff member would turn up totally drunk at about 11am every day and never get the sack.

I hope they are a little bit more efficient these days.

Ronald Todd, Glouscster, United Kingdom

Editor's response

Thank you for this Ronald, but you say that they were drinking coffee in Paisley? In the 1970s? Coming from Paisley, I find that highly implausible.