SCOTLAND has long been a land of hope as well as strife and conflict. But of late, in the last couple of decades, that hope has been growing to become an independent nation standing among other nations on the interdependent world stage.

However, that is now seriously under threat from the Johnson cabal and likely thought up by Cummings, the Machiavellian power in Number 10. Why do I think that? The answer is in the new Queen Elizabeth House building, located near Waverley Station in the heart of Edinburgh. A seven storey, 190,000 square feet, ultra-modern office space. It will bring together nearly 3000 UK Government civil servants from a range of UK Government departments.

Why such a behemoth of administration when there is already in place a working devolved administration? In my view, it is there to supplant the administration provided by Holyrood.

Another reason for a threat to Scottish hopes for independence is the Internal Market Bill, where it will allow the UK Government to spend in areas it prefers bypassing Holyrood, effectively removing the powers it currently holds, and make no mistake, this will lead to funds being withheld by this hostile UK Government as it will be able to say that the money is already being spent by them to “benefit” Scotland. Ultimately, the end game will be to close Holyrood or turn it into a debating assembly with no powers at all.

Brexit – when that hits hard with all the implications of businesses going under, job losses, loss of workers rights, job insecurity, benefits insecurity, etc, the Tories are aiming to make people in Scotland too busy or concerned about their basic needs being satisfied to worry about independence. Ultimately, my fear is that the Tories want to “take back control” much as they had in the 18th and 19th centuries, where Scotland was purely an asset to be exploited and little more.

Now you may think I am worrying too much, but my other concern is that our political class seem to be sleepwalking into this dire situation playing by their rules and focusing on other areas that should be addressed after independence.

My message to them is we are running out of time. Be more robust with the UK Government and start campaigning very soon, or we will be assimilated by the establishment into a Great Britain that really means a greater England.

Bill MacGregor

Scottish Borders

HAVE most of us not learned over half a lifetime that our first duty is to go to work? Now we have a new duty: if possible, not to go to work, especially if we test positive.

In itself, this can be a serious conflict of the new instruction versus the automatic response expected of us. “You shouldn’t go to work with that cough, George.” “But I’m due at the office, Mabel. I must go!”

Does the SNP have someone for an MP or MSP to turn to for immediate advice? Any laid-on pastoral care?

I asked someone who had had Covid-19 what it felt like. “Weird, is all I can say – not like anything I recognised.”

Margaret Ferrier said she didn’t know why she decided to go to London. Is it right that we expect someone to actually know how to act responsibly when under the influence of a strange virus – to think straight when feeling not themselves, possibly very weird? It is also an automatic response when frightened or ill to go home to isolate oneself.

In the circumstances, should we not be helpful and forgiving? Don’t we all make mistakes? Is it not enough punishment to be expelled from one’s party? Perhaps it would be well for Margaret to stay on as an independent MP, having learned many new lessons from the impact of Covid.

I always felt that kindness was one of the hallmarks of the SNP’s policies. Let it still be so!

Valerie Waters

via email

WHAT Margaret Ferrier did was unbelievably stupid, incomprehensible and wrong. The only person who really knows the circumstances that allowed her to make such an error of judgement is herself.

What is happening now is entirely predictable and also wrong. The unsavoury clamour for her head by friends and foe feeding the voracious appetites of delighted Unionist journalists needs to be reined back.

She is suffering from an extremely deadly virus and who knows what her mental state was and is. What if as a consequence of mass media hounding, her life, or the life of her friends and family, were put in jeopardy? Reports by Scottish newspapers that she is “clinging to her position” and “resisting calls to resign” are everywhere. How do they know this? There is time in hand for Margaret Ferrier to decide where her future lies, but one thing is clear – politics is not only getting uglier, it is getting dirtier and more dangerous.

Mike Herd

Highland

IN all the song and dance about Margaret Ferrier’s unforgivable actions, one aspect has been forgotten.

The Tory Government, with the support of the House of Commons, has decreed that all those who can should work from home and employers should facilitate this. Had this rule been followed at Westminster, Margaret Ferrier might well have been working at home and her decision would not have needed to be made.

So does the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, not bear some responsibility for this fiasco, by refusing to allow MPs to obey the Government instructions?

P Davidson

Falkirk

MUCH as I agree with the content of the letter regarding the Christmas Island nuclear tests from

L McGregor (“Would Patel do this to her parents?”, October 3), he makes a common mistake. Any argument which leaves a glaring inaccuracy as a hostage to opponents is going to be slated on that one fact, regardless of the accuracy of the rest of its content.

Huntington’s Chorea is a genetic condition. No other cause is known. Evil as the tests and the use of National Servicemen as guinea pigs was, they did not cause this condition,

Les Hunter

Carstairs Junction