CAN I give my wholehearted support to Ruth Wishart for her contribution (Age against the machine: The lesson of voting trends, April 10)?

If I can also take you back to your issue of March 26; the first three letters on page 26 from Andrew Cameron, Ian Richmond and myself were all from members of our society whom some of the “smarter” elements of our population consider well past our sell-by date.

Well, we are not. We certainly should not be harbouring any ambitions for political influence, but hopefully we still have something to offer to the ongoing debates involving our country and the conditions pertaining therein.

I also have my “battle bus” almost ready to roll again when the time comes, although it is just a normal semi-vintage wagon with a full Saltire bonnet.

My main worry about all of this is that we wrinklies just manage to hang on long enough to see it all happen. At the end of the day the main important voting element in all of this are the youngsters, 16-year-olds onwards. They are the people who are going to have to live with it all and make a success of everything. It is a sobering thought in a way that the batch of young voters who took part in the last independence referendum are now in their early twenties.

We must appreciate the good sense of all of the young people out there – they will make a good job of it. Just think of Mhairi Black as an example.

George M Mitchell
Dunblane

SPOT on, Ruth Wishart. Are you looking for more feisty companions of a certain age for your Yesmobile? Just show me where to sign up.

Max Marnau
Selkirk

GOTTA love a bit of Ruth . . . Wishart, not Davidson!

But that gets me reflecting on Ruth’s article and the age of the leaders of the government and opposition parties at Westminster and Holyrood: Nicola Sturgeon, 48; Ruth Davidson, 40; compared with Theresa May, 62; Jeremy Corbyn, 69.

“There is a serious point to all this – which is that healthy nations, just like healthy communities, are smart enough to refresh themselves with new leaders, new ideas and fresh thinking unencumbered by too much personal baggage.”

Thom Muir
via thenational.scot

RUTH, I would very much object to Joe Biden or any other male feeling up my pre-pubescent daughter’s chest. I suspect you would too.

If you think it was only about “hugs”, you haven’t paid very close attention. As for Bernie Sanders’s age, I think it is fairly irrelevant. I don’t vote by age any more than by gender.

Jeanne Tomlin
via thenational.scot

IN her most recent letter to President Tusk, Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to organise European elections, due to take place on May 23 in case Brexit legislation was not wrapped up by then. Should this legislation be agreed, even as late as May 22, according to Mrs May this would somehow avoid the UK participating in those elections which are due to take place the following day.

Putting aside the fact that we could potentially see ballot boxes removed from polling stations at the eleventh hour, Mrs May’s comments are rather curious as it should be noted that millions of people will actually have voted by then. At the last European elections in 2014, for example, almost 30% of votes were cast by post. Of the 16.45 million votes cast across the UK, 4.78 million were postal votes according to the Electoral Commission, some sent out three weeks in advance.

The election will already therefore already have started in the first week of May. Destroying millions of uncounted ballot paper will only serve to reduce faith even further in our already deeply damaged political system.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

THE EU are considering a longer extension or “flexstention” for the UK. However, given the threats from the ERG to be disruptive over any period of extension, this has made the EU look for a solution and it will propose a mechanism to check the departing UK, aka Tory Government, from interfering in future internal EU-wide developments for the 27.

Looked at from the vantage point north of the Tweed, it is a format that Westminster can truly understand as such a variant does exist within the Westminster Parliament. It sounds like a EU-variant of EVEL – let’s call it EVELO, European Votes for European Laws Only! No doubt the Tory ministers will welcome this adoption, only this time such a format excludes them!

It looks like the Anglophiles in the EU, soon to become non-Anglophiles, have been watching carefully the machinations within Westminster for a while.

Clever chiels, these EU politicians!

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

IN your report on Ross Thomson’s slurs over Ian Blackford (Blackford calls in lawyers over ToryMP’s ‘arms dealer’ jibe, April 10), you quote Lesley Laird as saying: “Ian Blackford should either divest from these companies or, better still, resign his chairmanship of Golden Charter and provide his constituents in Ross, Skye and Lochaber with a full-time MP.” Blackford is noted as spending 32 hrs/year on Golden Charter.

Let’s have a quick look at the Register of Interests for Ms Laird’s Labour colleagues: Hugh Gaffney “Councillor, North Lanarkshire Council, Hours: 10-50 hrs A WEEK.” Don’t his constituents deserve a full-time MP? Ged Killen: until last April “Director of Sennit Construction Ltd” Didn’t his constituents deserve a full-time MP? Lesley Laird herself. Until last year, Councillor, Fife Council. Didn’t her constituents deserve a full-time MP?

Nigel Callaghan
Machynlleth, Cymru