“BREAKING up is hard to do” – a quote from the Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie to Nicola Sturgeon as he highlights the reality of the UK leaving the EU. Then Mr Rennie tries to turn this analysis onto Scotland’s future, clearly showing he needs some reminders!

During the 2014 referendum on Scotland’s future, voters were promised by the then coalition government at Westminster (in which the Lib/Dems were a partner), “stay part of the UK and we will secure your continued membership of the EU”. Oh really!

Then in the 2016 referendum on our future in the EU, Scotland voted to remain, yet we are being dragged out! Perhaps Mr Rennie should have used his speech at the LibDem conference to apologise to the people of Scotland for the actions of his party on Scotland’s future in the EU and further called for the devolved government of Scotland to have a seat at the negotiation table.

Finally, Mr Rennie has the nerve to accuse the SNP of sitting on the fence regarding a second referendum, a people’s vote on the final deal for Brexit. Is this the same Mr Rennie who wants to deny Scotland a second vote on her future? Mr Rennie, perhaps you should consider getting behind the SNP’s call for representation at the negotiations for the final deal, allowing the voice of Scotland (which voted remain) to be heard.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

READER David Simpson, rightly or wrongly, chooses to criticise Gordon Brown’s management of the economy in the last Labour government (Letters, September 17) He states that Brown had “maxed out on the UK’s credit card and the UK Government couldn’t borrow any more money”.

This was a phrase much used by Conservatives at the time of the 2010 General Election and on many occasions since when they needed an excuse for the state of the economy. But let’s look at the facts.

At the time of the 2010 election, the UK national debt was £0.7 trillion. At the time of the 2015 election it was £1.5tr. It’s now something like £2.3tr. So, according to Mr Simpson, a country which could not borrow managed to treble its national debt.

What people should remember is that we’ve had eight years of austerity in parallel with a trebling of the national debt. They should then ask themselves what they think of the Conservatives’ management of the economy.

Douglas Morton
Lanark

READ MORE: Letters: The next financial crisis will be even worse​

I WANT to thank Bruce Moglia (Letters, September 18) for encouraging me to get back to my history books to read some more about William Wallace. Bruce was replying to my letter of September 14 in which I cast Wallace as “an unprincipled psychopathic thug who slaughtered innocent people for personal gain”. Bruce calls upon me to elucidate further, and I am happy to oblige.

Well, I have to admit that the element of personal gain was inferred by myself, granting the man motives which he may not have had, assuming that he did have an interest in the battles he fought. But the fact of his slaughtering innocents is not in question – as all the books and many online sources agree.

Wallace’s murder of the sheriff in Lanark may be excused by some as a justified revenge for the murder of Wallace’s wife, but nothing can justify his killing of women, children, nuns and monks in Northumberland and Cumberland in October 1297. These are the murders he was charged with when captured in 1305, and they are the actions of a psychopath, I’m afraid.

Bruce says he prefers to view Edward I as the principle thug of the period, which if we are judging by body count alone is indisputable. But my wider point is that we should celebrate and elevate none of the thugs, especially not our own. It’s difficult to take the moral high ground, and criticise the injustices visited upon your country, if you at the same time celebrate those who visited injustices upon others on your country’s behalf. The colour of the flag doesn’t matter if it’s stained red.

Wallace began his career as a hero of Scotland by brawling with English soldiers in Lanark, which he then attacked and burned. I don’t know if anyone counted the innocent killed that day, but like all the many psychopaths of history Wallace’s footprints through its pages are drawn in blood.

It is tempting to view our heroes as wholly good, vested with some nobility of cause that might excuse the odd lapse into barbarity, but by doing so we enfranchise the thugs of today, who will use the same daft arguments about “freedom” and “security” to justify any act of brutality that serves their purpose.

Wallace and his ilk are only a part of the history of Scotland, and what they did in the name of their cause should not be used in the name of ours. We are fortunate enough to live in times where we can aspire to be better than their likes, and we can make a country fit for everyone. So, let’s get on with that job and leave the warmongers in the past.

Stewart Robinson
Musselburgh

READ MORE: Letters, September 18

CONGRATULATIONS to Stuart McHardy for a stirring piece of writing (How anti-Scottish bigotry is rooted deep in the mentality of the British Establishment, September 18).

A full set of Scott’s Waverley novels sits in the bookcase, and their influence in the sphere of classic novel writing is profound. Also a classic is Scott’s marketing of King George III in an Edinburgh extravaganza.

Not only keeping a roof on Abbotsford, it reinforced the imperialists’ use of the “savage Highlander”, willingly or otherwise, at the forefront of Empire-building, replacing any hankering for Norse “Udalistic” traditions with feudalism.

Well done Sir Walter, yesteryear’s BBC Royal Witchell.

Iain R Thomson
Strathglass

READ MORE: Anti-Scottish bigotry is rooted in the mentality of the British Establishment​