WHAT defines the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party?

The Scottish Secretary David Mundell voted against all Scottish amendments to the UK Withdrawal Bill which would have allowed more powers coming back to Scotland.

Mr Mundell and the 12 MPs all voted for the UK Withdrawal Bill with significant devolved powers going to Westminster.

Ruth Davidson after the EU referendum promised Scottish fishermen control of Scottish waters on March 2019, and promised again a week before it was announced that Scottish fishermen will have to wait until 2021 at the earliest.

All Scottish Tory MSPs voted against the Scottish Government’s Continuity Bill, which will ensure powers from the EU will come back to Scotland.

Mr Mundell and Ruth Davidson repeatedly say the Scottish Government will get significantly more powers but cannot name one.

Ruth Davidson constantly says Scotland is the country of high tax when 70 per cent are paying less and Ms Davidson has to pay an extra £3.95 per week on her salary of £62,341. In Scotland we have free prescriptions (going up to £9 in England), free university, free school meals, free personal care and no bedroom tax

Kirstene Hair, MP for Angus South, is complaining to the Scottish Government about the failure of broadband delivery in Scotland when broadband is clearly reserved to Westminster, of which they have invested a paltry £21 million, whilst the Scottish Government is investing £600m.

The Scottish Conservative and Unionist party are definitely Conservative, definitely Unionist and are most definitely not Scottish. They do not stand up for Scotland and are always voting down Scotland.

Jim Stewart
Kirriemuir

LAST weekend was the commemoration of the signing of The Declaration of Arbroath on April 6, 1320.

I attended this event for the very first time, marching from the harbour through the town then gathering for speeches at the Abbey.

There we listened to passionate speeches about the event’s significance in Scotland’s history. While the sentiments of some of the lines from the Declaration are clearly anti- English “...we will never on any conditions submit to the domination of any English...” these sentiments must be appreciated in the context of that time – especially when so many of our English friends and relatives living in Scotland are championing our cause for self- determination.

Therefore there is no excuse for our schools, media and parliamentarians to ignore this important event in our history. It should be given its rightful place each year, as we do for our bard, whose own poetry acknowledges the core of its very existence.

I was asked to sing at the close of this event and chose Robert Burns’s Scots Wha Hae (1793). Outside the Abbey, under a clear blue sky, whilst singing, I could sense the history and energy of the movement for independence which has travelled down through the years from the 14th century, to Burns in the 18th century and in the gathering in this 21st century. The desire for independence has stood the test of time through these centuries – and is as alive and as energetic as ever.

Dave Whitton
Dunblane