THE posh boys fell out with each other and landed us with a fine Eton mess: a referendum that wasn’t really required. Then the three main protagonists fled the scene: Cameroon, BoJo, and Farage, closely followed by Gove after even his fellow Tory MPs didn’t want him.

Then, we thought there would be much wrangling over the electioneering for leadership of the Tory Party: May vs Leadsom. So who would have thought it, Leadsom drops out, May steps up, Cameroon (almost) hops skips, jumps and hums his way back into Number 10 after telling us he’s got 48 hours to pack.

Very quickly, there were shots of the flitting van. No, not May’s “Go home immigrants” vans … removal vans. Whatever else you might say about the Tory Party, they do handle assassinations, back room deals and coronations rather speedily.

So, does May have a mandate throughout the UK without a General Election? Can the Tory Party continue to govern regardless when its 2015 election manifesto had no reference to negotiating Brexit?

And May’s record needs to be revisited, not least her attitude to bargaining chips, sorry migrants, and her pursuit of the Investigatory Powers Bill, to note but two aspects of a right-wing voting record. Will she pick up on Gove’s alluding to Scotland’s block grant in an effort to placate EVEL supporters?

The Tories are being investigated for alleged election fraud, there’s to be that vote on Trident, and the little matter of the contempt motion in respect of Tony Blair. And in all of this, where is Her Majesty’s official opposition?

Maybe Private Fraser from Dad’s Army was right and the current political system in the UK is “doomed, a’ doomed”. But the answer to the flawed system we currently experience most surely isn’t federalism, as expertly captured by Andrew Tickell (‘Federalists’ need to take their heads out of the sand: The National, July 12). Neither is our independent future founded on a narrow vision of Scottish nationalism; break-ups, and breakaways. It is our ability to articulate, to vision and deliver on the international stage that will enable us to thrive and develop as an independent nation.

With that outward focus and global engagement, and not the inward, austerity, deprivation, me-first Tory ideology, we can reconfigure our own internal policies, budgets, our very future, to create a society that recognises our obligations to those less fortunate, less prosperous; that doesn’t punish, but delivers a fairer society that we can recognise as one we helped create, and one in which we have a stake.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

ALL through the EU referendum campaign I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being manoeuvred by some hidden hand, with the quiet connivance of the British media. Now the last act of the Tory Party’s sordid little melodrama has been played out and the reality is exposed.

Now the good cop/bad cop charade of Cameron and Johnson becomes obvious. Cameron’s feeble attempts to negotiate with the EU make sense.

The last-minute dramatic changes of heart and strange withdrawals of candidates are revealed as the play-acting they all were, just part of the script.

Now Cameron and Osborne can disappear into the shadows, May gets to be Prime Minister for the next four years and Johnston gets a top job to prepare him to succeed her.

What happens to Scotland and Northern Ireland is of no consequence. The Tory Party succession has been secured for the next decade.

Peter Craigie
Edinburgh

Hammond too quick to rule out separate Brexit deal

THE comments made by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, that he cannot envisage a scenario where Scotland has a different relationship with the European Union from the rest of the UK stand in stark contrast to what has been said by David Mundell, Secretary of State for Scotland and Scotland’s only Tory MP.

Mundell has stated in the last few days that he would be open to a different deal for Scotland if possible.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s Government has its work cut out in getting the UK out of the EU, while ensuring a deal that satisfies Scotland’s desire to maintain close links. For Hammond therefore to rule out the possibility of a different arrangement for Scotland at this early stage is more than a little foolhardy.

The Prime Minister has stated that “Brexit means Brexit”. For Scotland, Remain must mean Remain. The Scottish Government would be doing a great disservice to the vast majority north of the Border, who voted that way in the EU referendum if it did not secure some sort of deal that respected the aspirations of this group.

May and the new Brexit Minister, David Davis, should engage as quickly and positively as possible with Scotland, with the First Minister, with the Scottish Government and with Scottish MPs, respecting the fact that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to Remain.

The Scottish Government should also clearly be involved at the heart of the negotiations, but that requires the UK Government not to reject the option of a different arrangement for Scotland with the EU, as Hammond seems foolishly to have already done.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

APART from everything else, Tony Blair has destroyed the expression “in good faith”. Who will ever use those words again?

M Kalugerovich
Whitburn

WHY should anyone want to applaud the achievements of David Cameron, whose panic reaction to the opinion polls took us out of the EU? (Cameron legacy? SNP found nothing to applaud, The National, Thursday, July 14). He is just one in a succession of prime ministers whose legacies are a burden on the heritors.

John Jamieson
South Queensferry

IN this time of incredible turmoil in UK politics, it has been an absolute delight to read the extracts from Harry Reid’s book The Soul of Scotland. Monday’s extract, in which Mr Reid waxed lyrical about the Argyll coast, made me think back on a walking holiday

I took some years ago with some German friends.

As we walked along the single track road to the head of Loch Caolisport and found the entrance to St Columba’s Cave, one of my friends remarked: “ I feel I now understand the Celtic soul.”

Thank you to The National for these week-long series of extracts.

Terry Keegans
Beith

WHEN you look at the state of other countries, it is not difficult to conclude that Scotland has to be one of the safest and most stable nations in the world in which to live, with a First Minister to be proud of who handles herself with the utmost courtesy and integrity.

During the independence referendum, the Yes campaign steered away from playing up all that gives Scotland its identity.

I hope this will change and remind the world of all that Scotland stands for, which makes the nation great and is the reason why Scots are welcomed all over the world.

For family reasons I retired to live here in Australia 18 months ago but can say I am proud to be a Scot.

Billy Kelly
Via email

IN response to Bryan Rattray (Letters, July 11) about a currency for an independent Scotland, any new currency should surely be England’s problem. I suggest the English pound be replaced by the Brexit, made up of 100 Goves (a double-headed, two-faced coin). Another new coin would be worth four Goves, namely a Boris (something that’s not just quite the full shilling).

Daniel Goodwin
Kilmacolm



Letters I: May won’t back indyref2, so let’s not wait around