IS nothing sacred? It would appear not since currently the consumer group Which? and The National have something in common. Which? has just revealed that Amazon’s security systems have been hacked on occasion and fake reviews inserted in relation to certain products. And on Saturday we read in The National that the new Robert the Bruce film was getting panned via a potentially hijacked website, with negative one-star reviews placed.

Now, creating a negative film review, if you’ve actually seen the film in question, based on that experience, is one thing, but to set out to rubbish said film for political reasons is a step too far, surely. And who would do such a thing, tell a lie, manipulate the facts, spread fake news?

Ah well, when you get the on-her-last-legs PM condescending to visit Scotland and condescendingly attempting to talk away the known benefits and successes gained through devolution, our own parliament, and then deny us our sovereign right to decide our own future (refusing a request for a Section 30 order), you can almost touch the fear emanating from Westminster.

Lidington has refused to publish their own polling vis-a-vis support for independence, under the guise of policy development and government planning.

Their own party members and voters claim to prefer a break-up of their precious Union to not Brexiting, and the two twats trying to outdo one another with their promises, including maintaining the unwanted Union, leaves only Farage out of the toxic mix.

But wait, he too is now acknowledging that “breaking up the Union would be the price worth paying for Brexit”. Never have the unloved, unwanted, been clutched so hard to an uncaring, unequal so-called “partner”.

The last three years alone have demonstrated the inability of the Tory party to govern across what was the “United” Kingdom. They failed to learn from the outcomes of the EU referendum, to understand the social, economic and political aspirations of the peoples of Northern Ireland and Wales, and made no attempt to address the differences.

Equally, they wanted to continue to believe their own propaganda of “no appetite” here for independence. And now as well as that inability to govern, it transpires that the Tory party infrastructure can’t handle the very process of fairly electing their leader and future PM. Double ballot papers going out is either an attempt at a “fix” or a “failure”. I doubt the former and plump for the latter, as just another fine Tory mess. But like the other “messes” they’ve got us into (austerity, the emergence of “working poor”, the rise and continuing rise of food banks; draconian, family-splitting immigration policies), the outcome of the race to become PM will have devastating consequences for us here post-Brexit.

We can’t afford another Tory Eton mess. Hiding poll results, creating negative reviews, attempting to “deny” us what we vote for via majority pro-indy MSPs and MPs won’t last much longer. And now, they know that for sure.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

SORRY folks, but on this occasion I must make common cause with the forces of Yoonery – call it an iteration of the infinite monkey theorem; even idiots

have to make sense at some point. This movie is indeed a huge pile of steaming crapolla. Low-budget, poorly directed, poorly scripted with awful performances.

We don’t have to leap to the defence of bad cultural products just because they align with our political preferences. We ought to demand more and be far more critical of those who claim to make “art” on our behalf.

I’ve said it before but both Outlaw King and Mary Queen of Scots were not perfect but were professionally produced and directed IN SCOTLAND with decent budgets and good casts.

Derek Bryce
via thenational.scot