THE extent of how out of touch the Tories are with those in poverty was seen in their latest party political broadcast.

At roughly one minute into their broadcast, where Angela from Glasgow talks about voting Tory, you can see an out of focus figure of someone crouching down next to a bin in the street to apparently beg.

Are the Tories so blind to the fact that people are begging on the streets that they simply ignored this and carried on filming?

Kenny MacLaren, Paisley

I WATCHED the Scottish Tories’ party political broadcast the other night with a mixture of incredulity and outrage. They were described as ‘a part which puts the finances of families first’. I almost spluttered my mince and tatties over myself.

The when Ruth Davidson talked about how ‘people just want to see the division of the last few years behind them’, I think I know exactly the sort of folk she meant – those cosseted few who are scared of parting with a little of their wealth so their fellow man can live with dignity. Certainly not the person begging on Buchanan Street you could see at one point.

Thomas Shaw, Carluke

Whatever the BBC offer Scots will seem tainted

ALL this chat within your pages the last few days has fascinated me immensely (Lesley Riddoch: Here is the news: BBC must alter it approach, The National, January 14).

I stopped watching and listening to the BBC’s television and radio broadcasts in the days leading up to the 2014 referendum, when it was patently obvious to most guid Scottish folk that the BBC was no longer able to fool the world with its long asserted claim to be reliable, truthful and impartial.

By the phrase ‘Scottish folk’ I refer to those who voted Yes in the 2014 referendum or would have had they been able or of age to do so. If you didn’t vote Yes then you are British in my humble opinion, whatever the reason you voted No. Despite being a long time watcher and listener of BBC4 and BBC Radios 3 and 4 there has been no BBC in our house since 2014 and it shall remain thus, probably forever. I hope most of us Scots agree that the BBC manipulated the media for the benefit of the British Unionist establishment which founded it, controls it and funds it? It makes the radio a pretty bleak place unless you can cope with the Jingle FM-type stations although there is a good mix of programming on RTÉ Radio 1, available at 252 kHz on the AM dial if you are interested.

But back to the main topic, why all the interest in the BBC’s suggestion that they might have to consider a Scottish News at Six? How awfully jolly decent of them to consider such a possibility for us troublesome Scots, or are we missing the point and it is actually being suggested as a comforter for all those people in Scotland, British by vote, who being loyal subjects of Westminster, feel left out in the cold somehow?

No matter what the BBC offer, surely it is one that is tainted, proffered by the same British Broadcasting Corporation who let their mask of impartiality slip back in 2014, showing them to be, along with all other media in Scotland at the time, nothing but a mouthpiece for the Unionist Establishment? A BBC Scottish News at Six? Even if they had Scottish lassies dancing live in the background in real tartan skirts and managed to secure none other than McGlashan from Absolutely as their anchorman I still would not watch it. Let us never forget that the first letter of the initials BBC stands for British. Now matter how ‘Scottish’ they try to make any news offering, or indeed any other programming, their true intent was unmasked in 2014. The BBC and its paymasters in Westminster want Scotland to forever remain a part of their Union. Never forget that.

And of course we should be grateful every day for this newspaper. A lone beacon of light among all the others whose endgame is nothing but continuation of the Union. It is hard to imagine that there was a time when we didn’t have The National. Thank goodness we do.

Cameron Tyre, Largs, North Ayrshire

WHY are we spending so much time and effort talking and worrying about the price of oil, other than as an Establishment smoke screen to hide the real problems (Letters, January 14)? The job losses were a factor of the delay to projects as a result of the tax hikes several years ago. Maybe they thought we had forgotten. Here is the lesson to be learned: Firstly, Scotland’s economy benefits just as much from the low oil price as does the UK economy. Secondly, if Scotland was independent the revenue it would receive from North Sea oil would be at least 12 times more than it receives now. Here endeth the lesson. Also, is it not the case that Scotland’s non oil economy is doing better than the UK’s non oil economy?

Gordon Robertson, Blairgowrie

IT seems the latest Labour policy to be funded by not cutting Air Passenger Duty (APD) is to pay a living wage for care workers. I think this is now the fourth time the seemingly bottomless pit of funds from APD is to be used by Labour. However, if Labour are serious on the Living Wage then maybe the message should go out to their councillors? Labour-led Renfrewshire Council is currently advertising jobs that pay below the Living Wage, including some posts where the pay scale of between £6.49 to £6.69 is actually below last year’s living wage of £7.85. Maybe, instead of moaning at the SNP, Ms Dugdale should have a word with some of her Labour council leaders?

Kenny MacLaren, Paisley

MÒRAN taing airson an colbh anns a’ Ghàidhlig le Calum MacLeòid! Many thanks for the page in Gaelic by Calum Macleod (The National, January 12). I have been pursuing distance-learning courses at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig for two years now and my only regret, at the age of 69, is that I did not start earlier.

This page is very useful for learners and highly motivating. Usage and knowledge of Gaelic is far less than the cultural importance of the language merits, thanks largely to an educational system that has accorded value to the works of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and others in a rigidly defined canon to the exclusion of everything else, to the extent that Scots and Gaelic, if they have been considered at all, have been seen as inferior. Faced in the 19th century with a decline in their language and culture, one of the ways the Catalans countered this was in the field of literature. Catalan writers were published and disseminated. Look where they are now. There are no complaints there about road and shop signs in the local language! And their independence campaign rolls on. Scotland has a wealth of linguistic history and culture – Gaelic, Scots, Latin and English. It is a real shame that the image projected by the media is so limited. Good luck for this excellent initiative.

Douglas Howkins, Broughty Ferry