THE Unionist anti-Scottish independence campaign is noticeably under way, and simultaneously every effort is being made to divert our attention from the incompetence of the Tory and Labour parties, the former demonstrating its incompetence in government and the latter doing likewise as a “government in waiting”.

The Boris episode must be a welcome relief to Mrs May while she struggles, for example, with the crises of EU negotiations, England’s NHS cul-de-sac, rising English crime figures, terrorist attacks, national security warnings, Grenfell, appalling treatment of immigrants by the Home Office during her watch, and last but by no means least, the strengthening case for Scottish independence from which she cannot hide. Where is the “precious Union” to which she retreats when the going gets difficult?

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The warm, comfort of that Union might well encourage a section of our voting public to oppose our independence, but to the majority of our people loyalty to a Union of truly questionable historical and contemporary worth will pay neither the rent nor the mortgage, will not provide security of employment, will not provide access to meaningful decision-making of government, will not provide the kind of democracy we want or deserve, or permit the population growth essential to the future we wish our children to inherit.

The truth is that the Westminster establishment has no intention whatsoever of even considering the aspirations of Scotland and will ad infinitum resist any attempt by us to augment the decision-making ability of our representatives to improve our condition. That conclusion is inescapable, and our only means of securing the future we want for us and our children is achievement of our sovereignty.
J Hamilton
Bearsden

FASCISM is on the increase. Closet fascists previously content with sharing their views amongst themselves are now openly espousing their foul ideology on Twitter helped by Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

Only Theresa May could appoint a xenophobe to be foreign minister. If the comedy series Yes, Prime Minister had come up with the idea it would have been spiked as being too ridiculous. The fascist cause has been helped by most of the print media and of course the BBC.

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BBC Question Time with its deliberately loaded right wingers on the panel and seeded in the audience has been truly Faraged. The disparate groups of intellectually challenged hatesters are coalescing into a genuine threat. Their extremism has been given the mantle of respectability under the guise of free speech. If fascism becomes a dominant force in this country there will be no free speech. Many Tory MP’s agreed with Boris’s letter box sentiment but not about his choice of words. So it appears being anti-Islamist is alright as long as you employ Rees-Moggian politeness.

As I predicted in The National on the July 17, no-deal Brexit was always going to be Plan A, they just didn’t want anyone knowing about it. Now it’s becoming a reality. The ubiquitous Union Flag, British Nationalism, the rise of anti-Europeanism and anti-Islamism, the fractured state of the Government and the opposition Labour Party is fertile ground for fascism to flourish.
Mike Herd
Highland

YOUR article on the Dundee march raises the issue of filming in a public place (Scotland in Union branded ‘creepy’ after asking Tories to film independence supporters, The National, August 17).

All places are owned and a council or private land owner, depending on the location, could presumably make an order to restrict filming prior to a sanctioned public event. CCTV surveillance in a public area already requires a licence but by way of anomaly laws around the indiscriminate use of mobile camera devices, widely owned, filming members of the public without their consent remains open to interpretation in any given situation.

Laws relating to the control over any images and protection of privacy obtained from such filming are probably also overdue for an update.
Peter Gorrie
Edinburgh

WHO would have thought that one of the architects of the Iraq war, Tony Blair, and one of its bankers (but using our money) Gordon Brown, would have the brass neck to feature on radio and television interviews to sing Kofi Anan’s praises. I for one felt that hypocrisy had reached new levels. And why were they given such an easy time (with the possible exception of Channel 4) by those who conducted the interviews?
Andrew Sanders
Glasgow

CONGRATULATIONS to Charlie Kerr (I’m in shock ... I’ve just found out that I live in relative poverty, The National, August 18) for putting some meat on the bones of the pension question, which most people are reluctant to do. My life seems remarkably similar, except that I finish up with a figure of just over 10k for the year to April.

I have however the compensations of the unbridled joy at receiving that wondrous letter in mid-March telling me that my pension would be increasing in April by £3.51 per week, plus of course the pre-97 pension addition of 10p per week, and to cap it all off another 25p per week for being really old!

The difficult decision I have to work out; how do I spend that 35p? This year we have had three weeks of cold weather payments – where is the Met Office that advises the Government located? I do however feel sorry for Boris et al; it cannot be easy carrying all the cares of the country on their shoulders as they wade through their endless chore of expensive lunches, hedge fund worries, free trips around the world and all the other cares which they so manfully bear!
George M Mitchell
Dunblane