IT is simply not acceptable for Jeremy Corbyn to justify his opposition to Scottish independence on the basis of it allegedly being a slippery slope to austerity, and as a slight to social solidarity.

Firstly, it will be up to an independent Scottish Government what economic policies it pursues, within the parameters that any country has to operate within. The bold assertion by Labour requires facts not fiction.

Secondly, everyone accepts in an age of globalisation that workers will have transnational interests that unite those from Clydebank to those from Coventry.

Yet these same transnational interests unite workers from Coventry with those from Cork, but Corbyn is not suggesting that the Republic of Ireland should be re-united with the UK or that the Irish Labour Party should be incorporated into the British Labour Party?
Councillor Andy Doig
Renfrewshire

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Tory slogan laid bare by U-turn on ‘dementia tax’

APROPOS Andrew Neil’s question about what the dire consequences (May’s words) of a bad Brexit would be, May could only conclude with the now (in)famous rant – no deal is better than a bad deal — without outlining the parameters.

Any deal will not have the advantages of being within the EU. That cannot be gainsaid.

So what are we left with? Brexit means Brexit? Almost one year on from the EU referendum, where Scots voted to remain, the government still has not configured for the electorate, let alone parliament, to decide on what Westminster is aiming for on Brexit in this hasty election, itself a U-turn. The SNP government has clear plans and parameters. Yet, we are asked to “trust” an untried and fumbling post-Cameron ragtag of politicos, mouthing support for May as a strong leader who cannot lay out any details or, as we have now seen, is incapable of formulating a manifesto which is stable, and which has been destabilised by a U-turn within four days! May has truly been laid bare.

When challenged by Neil for details on aspects of policies, the strong and stable “leader-to-be” defaults to the cop out of “consulting” on it. All will be open for consultation. Yet, there is to be no consulting with MPs on aspects of Brexit. Strong leaders do not go round in circumlocutions constantly. May does and the more she is now forced to open out in interviews, we see more clearly that she even blethers incoherently.

The one who would not debate is now seen as vacuous and pointless. Tory poll ratings slid prior to the dementia debacle, they will now, no doubt, slip as May has been found out. Hung parliament at Westminster and what next?
John Edgar
Blackford

UNCERTAINTY from Theresa May, a wobble perhaps, as she performs a monumental U-turn on social care only four days after she launched her manifesto (Strong and stable goes all wobbly, The National, May 24). A manifesto she hailed as the way forward for social care!

But this is not the only inconsistency. Glaring differences have emerged between the UK and Scottish manifestos with Ruth Davidson declaring free prescription charges are OK in Scotland (SNP abolished charges in 2011) despite the UK manifesto clearly stating prescription charges in England will continue. Then there is the Conservative manifesto pledge to introduce means-testing for winter fuel allowance. This would not go ahead in a Conservative Scotland, Davidson claims! So are we witnessing internal wrangles within the Conservative Party, a scenario I thought was reserved for the Labour Party?
Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

THE campaign agenda for each of the Tory, Labour and LibDem parties in the recent local elections was to polarise attention on Scottish Independence. Every Unionist party leaflet concentrated on this with little if any indication of interest in local issues. The popular vote was overwhelmingly supportive of the SNP whose independence stance is recognised as in favour of a referendum, not “now”, but as indicated clearly and transparently by our First Minister, acting with the mandate from the Scottish Government.

What part of that position is not understood or accepted by Davidson, Dugdale or Rennie? The answer is they want Scotland to be forever in the thrall of Westminster and no amount of pseudo-patriotism or altruistic protestations by any of them will detract from that.

The reality is that we have not benefited as we should have since 1945 in the tender care of Westminster, nor in fact since 1707.

Being truly patriotic or nationalist is neither extremist nor racist, but has a nobility to be proud of.
John Hamilton
Bearsden

IRONY indeed in Ruth Davidson’s Orwell Lecture last week. She seems to fit terribly well with the depiction of Mr Parsons in George Orwell’s 1984: “one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom … the stability of the party depended.”

With a campaign style resembling a protracted “two minutes hate”, its mania mercilessly fixed on the SNP and a second indyref, it could remind one of that ideological aimlessness voiced by O’Brien in the same novel: “We are interested solely in power” for “the object of power is power”. Might we conjecture that Ruth’s political profligacy is nothing more than a servile and de-personalising devotion to the pursuit of that “strong and stable leadership” that we hear her big sister babbling on about from our own equivalents of Orwell’s telescreens?

Ruth on the rampage: a future with the Tories is unimaginable. Yet hope in a discerning Scottish electorate — in a nation with a long history of liberating “erroneous thoughts” — should help us desist from seeking comfort in the Victory Gin.
Patrick Hynes
Airdrie

FOR those who are thinking of voting Tory — be afraid. If May is given an even stronger mandate imagine the horrors she will impose. It is evident from her stance on social care that she is prepared to unleash all sorts of taxes on the elderly. Forget the consultation ploy and potential cap she has voiced today, it is just a ploy to buy time until after the election. Don’t get CONned by the CONservative & Unionist Party, or as they should be know the CON-U Party.

May is looking for votes and wants to turn the north blue. With the cut in winter fuel allowance there are many elderly who will turn blue!
Roy Bertram
Kemnay