Whose integrity?

For sanctimonious twaddle Alex Gallagher (Letters, 2 May) takes some beating. The people in Scotland who are lauding Ed Miliband’s actions are virtually all Tories. The rest of us know that it’s a desperate last throw to try to recruit the undecided, but if folk like Alex Gallagher got out more they would see that away from the mainstream media, there is a torrent of disapproval and some extreme abuse being directed at the Labour leader from Labour supporters. They consider him reckless and he will never be forgiven if this gamble fails. For his part, this tactic has reinforced the impression that Scotland and its citizens, including Labour supporters, are of little consequence to him – an impression which first gained traction when he booted Jim Murphy out of his cabinet and dispatched him to North Britain.

Alex Gallagher, in common with most unionist contributors to these columns, can find no trace of honour or integrity in the SNP leadership or membership and prefers to propagate a lie when he says Nicola Sturgeon is “in a pact with” Rupert Murdoch. Mr Gallagher also naively, or desperately, wants to believe that the SNP will be “totally ­impotent at Westminster”. He clearly has not been doing his electoral sums. 

Two scenarios come to mind. If the Conservatives win, Ed Miliband will be toast. If the Tories can’t form a government, Mr Miliband will horse-trade to get into power and will employ the Groucho, rather than Karl, Marx approach to principles when he said: “These are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have ­others.” 

Douglas Turner 

Derby Street, Edinburgh