WHY have the news media given so much coverage to the Ukip leadership election? Ukip have spread their poison, achieved their raison d’etre of causing chaos in the UK, and should now disappear.

Hopefully they are in terminal decline anyway. Douglas Carswell, their single MP – who defected from the Tory Party to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, can now return to the fold.

Additionally, why is it that Ukip and other Brexiteers remain unchallenged when they repeat that Brexit “is the democratic will of the people”?

Less than 38 per cent of the total electorate voted to leave, and that’s not counting the 16 to 18-year-olds who should have been given a vote because it’s their future at stake. What’s democratic about that?

Mike Underwood
Linlithgow

I COMPLETELY endorse the article by Caroline Leckie (An indyref2 campaign must stay progressive, The National, October 24), but would go even further. If a foreign power displeased the British Government in days gone by, the answer was to send in the gunboats.

Today’s big world power, the USA, has a more subtle method of keeping nations which step out of line on message, and Scotland must be prepared for this. If the SNP’s policy to remove the nuclear target from the Clyde looks like happening, then Nicola Sturgeon must expect covert visits from American diplomats bearing veiled threats that if Trident is removed, then so will thousands of jobs in American-owned firms.

We must not forget the sinister interference by the CIA in the affairs of many nations, punishing their populations for daring to elect “disapproved” leaders.

Conspiracy? Ask Australians about Gough Whitlam. He was their democratically elected Prime Minister in 1972, but he was far too independently minded for the rulers in Washington, so shadowy government agents told their poodles in Westminster to get rid of him.

In 1975, he was sacked by the governor general, who is reviled by Australians to this day. When indyref2 is successful, we will all have to be very determined to resist the American bullies, especially Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers.

Richard Walthew
Duns

WITH reference to the article by Janice Burns on Scottish tourism (Heritage sites go unvisited by Scots, The National, October 24),

I am a member of Historic Scotland, and was able to tick off all the sites mentioned on your list as having been visited by me at some time.

I decided to to travel to the Outer Hebrides to revisit the home of my ancestors. For a three-day trip, it cost roughly £600. I could have had whole week’s stay in Turkey for half of that. Could this be the reason Scots do not holiday at home?

Margaret Sutherland
Stirling

I HAVE no real problem with the proposed changes to parliamentary boundaries which will reduce the number of MPs by about 10 per cent, to 600. The main reason given for this is a projected saving of £66 million every year. Great to save money, even if it is chickenfeed in the national budget. However, I have a much better idea. Let’s get rid of another 800 legislators, and, by the same calculation, save ourselves about £900m.

These are, of course, the unelected members of the House of Lords who largely owe their places to their donations to the Westminster parties (apart from the 26 bishops of the Church of England who owe their places to archaic religious favour).

They really won’t be missed, and we will thus drag our political establishment a few steps toward a system which will not be a laughing stock around the world. Mind you, to achieve that completely we would also have to get rid of Boris.

James Duncan,
Edinburgh

ON seeing that Bob Dylan had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, I was reminded of these lyrics from his song Blowing in the Wind:

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea
Yes ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free!

Harry Schneider
Newton Stewart

AN article in yesterday’s National said the SNP need Green support to get a referendum bill through Holyrood (Greens leader pledges unconditional support for independence bill, October 25).

The SNP hasve more MSPs than all the Unionist parties combined, so doesn’t need any help to win a vote on a referendum bill. The Greens can abstain or vote for, but as long as the Greens don’t vote against the bill (why would they?) it will pass.

Neil Caple
Aboyne, Aberdeenshire

THE onus is on the Scottish Government to make its case on devolved immigration powers, which are likely to involve border controls (Michael Gray: Sturgeon’s position throws up hurdles, The National, October 25).

In an issue which touches on customs and security, concessions on specifics – visa types, EU nationality, ID systems, etc – might help individual cases but is not likely to reach the overall requirements for the freedom of movement for people, goods and services.

Going through the motions of examining all options to maintain Scotland’s relationship with Europe sounds good on paper but simply plays into the hands of Mrs May’s self-preservation tactics of delay and obfuscation. The quicker the independence bill is passed, the better.

Peter Gorrie
Edinburgh

MEMORIES flooded back when I opened my National to see a photograph of the bow of the most beautiful ship in the world (Queen Mary steamship to return to the Clyde for the first time in four decades, The National, October 17).

Her launch was on a day of terrible rain. It was to be on the radio, but few folk had radios in the 1930s. One neighbour who did said they would open their window and put the volume up loud. I was six years old. Next came a trip to the pictures to see the launch in the news reels.

Some time later, the ship, by then renamed Queen Mary II, sailed to Dumbarton, so you could see her up close. Thank you to Robbie Coltraine for bringing her home.

Margaret Thomson
Paisley


Letters II: Decision to close art gallery shrewd rather than short-sighted