BREXIT and Universal Credit, two of the main topics raised once again at Scottish Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Vital topics affecting us all, which have been raised at every Scottish Questions over the last year and begs the question: are the Tories listening to the concerns of the majority of Scottish MPs at Westminster or are they treating Scottish voters with contempt?

The concerns of Scottish MPs over the Brexit negotiations, are clear for all to see as a divided Cabinet at Westminster with no Scottish voice ponder on a cliff edge. Scotland deserves and demands to be heard at vital negotiations and any future deal for the Scottish Government.

The topic of Universal Credits was also raised again with a call to halt the roll-out of this benefit, because of the distress and hardship this benefit is having on claimants, many of whom are having to go to the Scottish Government’s Welfare Fund for crisis loans and visiting food banks. The Conservatives have been forced to make numerous amendments to its legislation on this benefit, yet claimants are still suffering, so is the UK Government listening or are they totally immune to claimants suffering?

Those two major issues being raised in the House of Commons clearly demonstrate that Scotland is being treated with contempt over Brexit and deserves to be heard. Regarding Universal Credit, the case is overwhelming for full welfare powers to be devolved to Scotland.
Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

THERE’S Ruth Davidson in customary Daily Mail mode at yesterday’s FMQs, using a murder by a tagged offender to decry the offender rehabilitation system and insisting that the neglected and overlooked victims should have a say in parole decisions.

This, I take it, would be the same compassionate concern for victims that led her to defend the rape clause.
Colin Stuart
Saline, Fife

I GENUINELY feel sorry for people living in England. They have to pay university tuition fees, prescription charges, care for the elderly, hospital parking charges and they have to stand by and witness their NHS trusts being dismantled and privatised.

By 2020 the eligible age for free off-peak, yes off-peak bus travel, rises to 66 years in England – it is 60 in Scotland, at any time. They have no parliament, no national anthem and even their national flag has been shunned, preferring instead the Union Jack which is really an English flag anyway. Perhaps for all those reasons that’s why so many English people have moved to Scotland, but I detect a difference between them and those that came before.

Previously it was testing-the-waters caution in Scotland, not really committing, perhaps a trifle uncharacteristically loud for the locals. Now there is a clear commitment to living, integrating and making Scotland their home and they are most welcome.

I can understand why they would want to leave an England that has become almost unrecognisable. A grotesque Farageian cocktail of hate and paranoia grips the UK Government, which is in terminal decline. A government that does unspeakable damage to vulnerable families and communities for the sake of a naked right-wing ideology shrouded in lies. While the Tory government continues to be run by hedge-fund managers, filling the pockets of their pals, the gap between rich and poor widens. The saddest, most depressing thing of all is the complicity of the diminishing mainstream media who know all these things and don’t care.
Mike Herd
Highland

I, LIKE many other SNP activists, was extremely disheartened by the 2017 election results. We knew we were up against it and unfortunately our flame burned out. Losing our own MP to a Tory from Swindon really sickened some in our constituency. It has taken me a while, and retiring from my organiser role, to start to re-focus on the result that we all want: independence.

The Vow was the dam of restraint that Westminster used to hold back the surge of feeling during the 2014 referendum. The fingers that plugged the cracks with promises of wealth, employment and love for our “Scottish cousins”. They threw in the big guns from Westminster and that swung the result.

But now their fingers are becoming too few and the cracks are gaining momentum. Scots are seeing the infighting, the lies and the total disregard for the people and the government of Scotland by the representative of Scotland in the UK Government, David Mundell. Some are just seeing it for the first time and we all welcome them.

Not long now until the dam bursts.
Sheila Marshall
Kinross

IN the current UK Government response to the “doomsday Brexit” reports, it seems we have a rerun of the behaviour of successive UK Governments to the 1974 McCrone report.

Information deemed detrimental to government action is going to be hidden from both the devolved governments and administrations and the general public. It is obvious that civil servants have done a great deal of work behind the scenes while the politicians twiddle their thumbs and whistle in the wind and we are to be denied access to the reports that show just how nasty the result of their arrogant and ignorant approach to Brexit will be.

The UK Government is taking the Scottish Government to court over actions taken to mitigate the effects of the sheer incompetence of the UK Brexit team, so I would suggest that the Scottish Government seeks a judicial review should the UK Government continue to keep secret information which directly affects the wellbeing of the Scottish people.
David Neilson
Dumfries