CAN it get any worse? Undoubtedly it will since either Johnson or Hunt will end up PM, and neither will bring benefit to Scotland, unless sometime in the future, we can look back and say “ah well, at least his getting the PM’s job and the subsequent exit shambles did hasten independence”.

But in the meantime, the promises become more exuberant, the policies less defined, and the photo-ops more predictable. Hunt, Irn-Bru, fish and chips, but what detail about protecting Scotland’s fishing industry? Nothing of substance, actually, nothing at all. However, since he regularly reminds us of his entrepreneurial skills, he is now promising to cancel student debt for graduates who go on to set up their own business. Apparently this will “turbo charge the economy”. Was there anything about start-ups, support, training from central, local governments? Policy, planned, funded? No, nothing. Johnson is good for the hand in the tousled hair photo and the table thumping October 31, out, “come what may”. And now with Raab in his team, is it any wonder Johnson has refused to rule out suspending Parliament with just the proviso that he wasn’t attracted to the idea?

In all of this Brexiteering stand off, my Brexit is better than your Brexit playground tactics, the serious issue of the day job and our future is totally ignored. Scotland doesn’t feature, It continues to be left to our own government to mitigate and protect against the ravages of Tory ideology. So why do we still find the Union apologists striking out against the very wellbeing of Scotland and its people?

The latest being claims that the new £10.00 supplement for low-income families is either “too little”, or being “too late”. Earlier, didn’t Labour want a mere £5.00? Will this mean the last of Labour support will be draining away? Scotland continues to suffer from the ineffectuality of Labour – the so-called official opposition in Westminster – who most recently were not prepared to vote along with the SNP when it really mattered. And at Holyrood they still don’t know their devolved from their reserved. The Tory Party has its own localised dichotomy: Hunt or Johnson? Follow Ruth and her man, or whit’s his name, and his man, as thon MP seeks to replace, you know who, as secretary of state in a Johnson-led government?

READ MORE: Scottish Government's child poverty payment a 'gamechanger'

The LibDems appear not to have learnt from the recent past and the positive politicisation that swept across the country in 2013-14. So now, they glibly condemn the setting up of a Citizens’ Assembly as some “exercise set up to patch up the SNPs case for independence”. Successes for such assemblies elsewhere seem not to have been considered by Rennie, nor the potential benefits we could reap here. With such weaknesses on show across the pro-Union spectrum, why are they still sufficiently confident to continue to heap insult upon insult, upon asset stripping on us: such as the FM no longer receiving Foreign and Commonwealth Office support on any of her official, international trips, and the selling-off of Crown Estate properties, with investments going to England and profits going anywhere other than here? Do they believe we can’t, we won’t, rise up and be a nation again?

As we look at the disastrous future that will inevitably come with either Johnson or Hunt, as we see our government, our FM, do the day job with only partial control, financial and political, and make a success of it, just what will it take to call indyref2, to engage and win over those we failed to convince first time? Camel? Straw? Back? Just asking.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

ALMOST full marks to Lesley Riddoch for her timely warning that Hunt is every bit as bad for Scotland as Johnson. In her scary run-down of Hunt’s political career she could have added that he is on record as wanting to privatise the NHS (Yes Boris is awful. But don’t forget Hunt will be just as bad for Scotland, June 27). When he was English Health Secretary he was accused of misleading Parliament on mortality statistics and was only saved by his pals in the right-wing tabloids diverting attention away by attacking junior doctors. In his protracted dispute with the junior doctors he displayed the worst sort of authoritarianism yet in his current campaign he is boasting how he is a superior negotiator compared to Johnson.

READ MORE: Yes, Boris is awful but Hunt will be just as bad for Scotland

That authoritarian tendency was apparent in his recent statement that as PM, he would not allow the UK to be broken up. That may go down well with the blue rinse and blazer brigade who could make him PM but hardly shows any respect for democracy. Plus there is his instruction to his staff not to

support politicians from the devolved administrations if they diverge from supporting the London policy line.

Just think what that could mean when the UK is seeking a trade deal with the USA and the NHS is very much on the table. The Scottish Government would not be able to defend the Scottish NHS’ interests.

In dealing with Hunt we should well remember the old warning about Richard Nixon: “Would you buy a second hand car from this man?”

Andrew M Fraser
Inverness

RUTH Davidson could be in the Brexit negotiating team, now there is a surprise.

We have a devolution settlement, a government in Edinburgh voted in by the people of Scotland and a wee party leader in the opposition is likely to be invited into the Brexit team.

The constitutionally devolved government party leader and First Minister is ignored, the ruling party at Westminster cannot consult with the devolved administrations. So now we see the Tory strategy laid bare.

It does not matter which party is in government in Holyrood, we will just consult with our party. The next step will be to remove powers from Holyrood and take an MSP from the ruling party at Westminster, give them a seat in the House of Lords and powers in a “Union Office” overriding the democratic vote of the Scottish electorate.

Waive the rules! A quasi-first minister in absentia!

What an insult!

John Edgar
Kilmaurs