HERE we go again! (Davis sparks new row with EU27 before key summit, The National, December 11).

We’ve seen it all before! On the same day that David Cameron, Nick Clegg and David Milliband promised sweepingly increased powers for Scotland in 2014, leading on to the infamous Vow, Iain Duncan Smith stood up in Westminster and declared all such promises worthless. They were no more enforceable than any normal election propaganda promise. That has proved to be entirely true.

Now they, the fantasy Wizard of Oz Tories, are doing exactly the same thing with the EU.

Irish chief whip Joe McHugh asks: “Why would there be an agreement, a set of principled agreements, in order to get to phase two, if they weren’t going to be upheld?”

The answer, Mr McHugh, is simply because you are dealing with Tories. Tories are inveterate liars who will tell you anything, without any intention of carrying it out, in order to get their own way. Have a look at what they did in regard to the last Scottish referendum on independence. They told us lies about the NHS. They told us lies about not having access to the Blood Donor and Transplant Service. They told us lies about our pensions. They told us lies about being able to stay in the EU if we voted to remain part of the UK.

And they told us lies about having more power as an equal partner in government only to pass “English votes for English laws” the day after the referendum – thereby making Scotland’s members of the English Parliament into second-class MPs.

The best thing that could happen, for both Scotland and the EU, would be for us both to turn our backs on them – Scotland through a declaration of independence; and the EU through just kicking them out. Then let them come back to you on bended knee and pleading for whatever scraps you are prepared to throw them.

This might, just might, make them realise how they have been treating Scotland for the past 310 years; and might, just might, make them realise the errors of their ways.

There isn’t going to be a British Empire 2. And if the Scottish people have any brains there isn’t even going to be a Great Britain. All there is likely to be is a Little England and a prosperous and independent Scotland – oh, yes, and a United Ireland!

The latest Poll shows 47 per cent say Yes to an independent Scotland, and that’s before any campaign. Last time only 20 per cent were saying Yes before the campaign began. If we could achieve the same gains next time round then we would be likely to see an overwhelming 72 per cent voting Yes to independence next time! Let’s get it started!

Charlie Kerr
Glenrothes

A MORE deceptive and disingenuous news topic than Brexit it is hard to imagine.

It began in the backrooms of the Tory party, frequented by isolationist little-islanders, and was much fomented by the Tory PM of the time, David Cameron, who couldn’t resist after Scotland’s failed independence referendum of September 2014 to stir up the English Votes for English Laws unrest.

From there it deviously developed into an anti-EU movement, and the referendum that the same Tory PM had expected would show a Remain majority backfired against him and showed returned a Leave result instead.

Essentially it was an internal Tory party matter, but since they happened to be in government they repeated one of their traditional errors by confusing what was purely a party issue with what was in the national interest. Fair enough, a majority across all parties and outside of parliament took the Brexit view in the ensuing referendum. The Scots, Welsh, and Northern Irish didn’t, and their majorities favoured Remain.

However, by that lopsided population thing which plagues Great Britain, the English vote predominated and Brexit began on the tedious course it has been on ever since.

At least if it was restricted in its consequences and effects to those who really want it and feel they might benefit by it, few might argue with that.

But it seems fairly obvious to most Remainers that the economic effects will be bad, and the social and cultural aspects similarly bad, and that the Trump dictum of walls and not bridges appears a main characteristic of Brexit.

It could almost have been in the Trump basket of surprises from the beginning!

Ian Johnstone
Peterhead

THE Conservative Party’s dream of a totally privatised NHS draws ever nearer with Jeremy Hunt’s declared intent to allow Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs) to operate in England, as they already do in the US (with little or no evidence of any improvement in quality of care or savings to health budgets).

These ACOs could be awarded multibillion-pound contracts for 10 to 15 years. An absence of proposals to subject any of this to parliamentary scrutiny or public debate should set alarm bells ringing.

It’s not so much creeping privatisation via the back door as a headlong rush.

The dismal record of privatised care homes in the UK has been well-documented. What can one now expect from ACOs?

Mercifully, it’s not likely to happen in Scotland.

James Stevenson
Auchterarder