Strike threat
I listened with growing concern to the exchanges during First Minister's Questions on the issue of whether MSPs should cross a picket line next Wednesday. Whatever one's view on the merits of the strike, which I support, there is a first principle involved that needs to be stated, and followed.
Parliament is not a workplace. It is the heart of a democracy, and nothing should stand in the way of it functioning. Those MSPs who are thinking of not crossing a picket line next week, because they are in sympathy with the strikers, are mistaken; and are wrong in establishing a dangerous principle that a parliament can be stopped from functioning by any external body.
This is not, as Alex Salmond said, a matter of being sensitive. All MSPs should be aware that if a left-wing organisation can stop a parliament, so can a right-wing one, and that by bending to one or the other, they pave the way down a dangerous road.
JIM SILLARS
Grange Loan