LESLEY Riddoch’s column (Sudden outbreak of honesty from Porton Down contradicts Boris’s fibs, April 5) makes a lot of sense in its reference to the stupidity and recklessness of Boris Johnson and the May government’s attitude concerning the Skripal nerve agent case, in light of recent revelations from the Porton Down CEO.

However, when I’d got about half way through it I came across commentary that wouldn’t have been out of place on some neocon-inspired BBC propaganda piece on Russia: “Let’s be clear. Putin is an unpleasant, macho hard-man who has invaded the territory of neighbouring states and brought others to their knees by cutting off oil supplies. Russia is backing Assad and its illegal use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians.”

I’m curious to know when Lesley Riddoch personally met Putin. Surely she wouldn’t just form some kind of opinion based solely on what she’s read and heard from mainstream “news” outlets? She must know him personally, otherwise surely she wouldn’t have made such a comment based on spurious gossip?

And where did she find out the “facts” about the Russian invasion of neighbouring states, presumably a reference to Crimea? Could it have been the ever impartial and trustworthy BBC by any chance? Because it sure sounds like it. The people of Crimea voted to be repatriated into Russia, they weren’t “invaded” into doing so. True, Putin wouldn’t have held the referendum unless he could be almost certain of the result, but the result was a certainty because who in their right mind would vote to remain under the rule of the US-backed neo-nazi government of Ukraine rather than vote for Russian protection?

And regarding Assad using chemical weapons against Syrian civilians? Oh yes, sure, he’d definitely do that just when the war was going his way, just so that he could bring down international opprobrium on himself and his government and start making things more difficult again.

Genuinely well-informed commentators who are routinely shunned by mainstream media outlets are unanimous in their conclusions that chemical attacks in Syria are perpetrated by Isis “rebels” and their ilk with the aim of giving the US – the real threat to world peace and security – an excuse to up the warmongering ante against Syria and ultimately Russia.

If Lesley Riddoch wishes to pontificate on geopolitics it would be a good idea if she looked for her information somewhere other than the biased sources she so eloquently lambasts in the first part of the article, instead of making a fool of herself with this tripe. For what it’s worth, in future I’ll be taking anything she says with a large pinch of salt.

Kenneth McRae
Glasgow

REGARDING the ongoing debate about whether Russia orchestrated the attack using a nerve agent in Salisbury, Lesley Riddoch does a good job of drawing together the various strands of duplicity and hypocrisy evident in the behaviour of UK ministers.

However, in the welter of disinformation issued by the UK Government you will never hear that when North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un had his half-brother Kim Jong-Nam assassinated in Hong Kong, his agents used a nerve agent manufactured in Britain. A fact confirmed by MI5.

Can you imagine the furore if the Chinese authorities had concluded that the place of origin of the nerve agent conclusively indicated the involvement of that state in the administering of the poison?

Douglas Turner
Edinburgh

THE gullible and naive continue to babble on about the lack of definitive proof of Russian involvement in the Salisbury outrage. There will almost certainly never be any outright proof in this matter, and to expect it is in itself naive. Can there be the slightest doutbt that “Rasputin” and his government are somewhere involved in this?

Russia has shown itself over the last few years to be dangerous, aggressive and shameless, matched only by the USA in this respect. Russia must be shown on every occasion that the laughing stops here.

R Mill Irving
Gifford, East Lothian

WHETHER it’s lying about EU money during the referendum, racially insulting President Obama, spending eye-watering amounts of money on the Garden Bridge project in London or – most recently – failing to follow protocol in the nerve agent/Russian ex-agent saga and then dangerously overstating sensitive information from Porton Down, it must be obvious even to Theresa May that Boris Johnson is currently filling a job he is entirely unsuitable for.

Britain has a long list of ex-Etonians and old boys from other private schools who have trampled this country in recent years. When is enough enough?

Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

I CANNOT imagine what “dirt” Johnson has on the PM, but it must be something pretty significant to prevent her from booting his useless backside off the front bench, let alone the party.

I can’t think of any other reason why he is still rolling around like a loose cannon.

Peter Sansom
via Facebook

I HAVE a friend who lives in Surrey, and gets no Scottish newspapers. Almost every day he calls me to ask: “What’s on The National front page?”

When I told him this morning it was a Yellow Warning on Boris Johnson and the sub-heading was: “Foreign Office admits deleting tweet after ‘proof’ of Russia’s involvement is undermined”, he came back with the riposte “It’s not the tweet they should delete – it’s the twit!”

Jim Lynch
Edinburgh