SIR – That the SNP changed the face of British politics is one way of describing the election result, perhaps?

Nicola Sturgeon should answer not only to those people who voted for her party but also to those in the Union who preferred a fairer way to run the country than invite the Tories to continue with their socially-divisive, toxic experiment that will see millions, mainly from the North of England, face another term of unnecessary hardship.

The re-emergence of the recently chastised Alex Salmond to mutter “the Scottish lion had roared” was lamely lamentable and only reinforced the perception that this was one exercise in nihilistic voting behaviour that shot everyone in the foot, other than the Tories.

Indeed, the election of a 20-year-old student to oust Labour’s Douglas Alexander only highlighted this fact, but then a set of bagpipes would have had more chance of winning a Scottish constituency outside the SNP, such was the Scottish mood.

Time will tell whether Nicola Sturgeon will be seen as the Scottish heroine that advanced the lot of the Scottish voter or the architect of a shabby display in tribal politics that will have repercussions far beyond Holyrood.

A Waterhouse, Barmby Road, Bradford