ONE of the more important things about Ian Blackford standing up and delivering his speech is that it is beamed unedited worldwide.

All those news outlets that congratulated the spectacular independence majority in Holyrood will have been watching, and I rather think that Johnson knows that – hence he did not answer! Well, that, and he is a petulant, spoiled man child that has never, at a guess, had the word “no” directed at him.

Johnson cannot cope with defeat, he cannot cope with having to do the will of others, and certainly does not register in his overly privileged Oxbridge mind the right of the democratic will.

I have mentioned before that Johnson is a populist leader, and like all populist leaders he is only able to function when things are going his way. As such, he now realises that Scotland has at the ballot box endorsed it’s right to hold a second referendum on independence. With that, I strongly suspect that he also knows he has no-one in the Downing Street Cabinet nor at the cross-party level to successfully lead a campaign to keep Scotland in the Union.

All throughout the Oxbridge sow’s manipulative apparatus, klaxons of alarm will be sounding – all except that whimper you hear, for that will be DRoss finally realising that far from being some incarnate of the leopard sent north to quell rebellious lands, he was in fact set up at the ballot box to be the sacrificial lamb.

Expect much propaganda in the coming months, but also expect come August things to go the way of a constitutional crisis – and as Ian says in his address, Johnson will not win his fight with democracy.

Cliff Purvis

Veterans For Scottish Independence 2.0

THE prevalent and obvious tactical voting by Unionist parties raises difficult moral and practical questions for how politics works. Is it the valid exercise of an individual’s free choice? How dishonest is it to vote for a party whose aims you may disagree with to attack another party? And worse, are voters being covertly organised to vote tactically? Will parties start openly advocating tactical voting to achieve their aims? How distorted has politics already become by this behaviour?

And on the nationalist side, could it be argued that parties like Alba are in fact guilty of exactly the same behaviour, of trying to “game” the system in order to maximise the effect of the nationalist vote, in retaliation against the Unionist gaming? The whole thing’s a mess and maybe both sides are looking to shortcut the political process.

You would almost have to ask yourself, wouldn’t it be better – clearer and more honest – if voters were presented not with a plethora of big and small parties to choose from, but with a clear choice between two options: independence and dependence. Hang on, that’s a referendum, isn’t it?

Until a referendum clarifies matters, I think we could all stop wasting our time arguing among ourselves about these process issues. Why don’t we just work away patiently and consistently in our local patches, find the undecided and persuadable voters, and talk to them. That reminds me of something too: traditional political activism. As soon as Covid-19 restrictions allow, let’s get on with it.

Derek Ball

Bearsden

KIRSTEEN Paterson’s excellent article “Scots engineer’s joy as world’s biggest hospital ship passes sea trials” (The National, May 11) raised my hopes and spirits for the rest of the day. Perhaps there is still a hint of humanity left in the world.

The Global Mercy, it seems, will carry out life-changing surgeries on more than 150,000 people during its expected 50-year lifespan. And will go into service in sub-Saharan Africa next year, crewed by 641 volunteers from around the world.

At the heart of the ship, six purpose-designed hospital decks will boast operating theatres and hospital wards for 200 patients plus laboratory, general outpatient, ophthalmology and dental clinics.

Sadly the vessel has been built in China, while what is left of Scotland’s shipbuilding industry is dedicated to churning out warships of various shapes and sizes, including the almost-£7 billion recently spent on the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers which may (hopefully) never see active service.

There is talk of a £200 million new Royal yacht to convey the Royals and their “hingers on” around their former colonies. I think most folk would put this mega vanity project rather far down their list of priorities.

Brian Lawson

Paisley

UNIONIST parties never miss an opportunity to claim that Scotland’s economy is subsidised to the tune of £6.3bn by the rest of the UK. The financial pages in the Tory press applaud the rise in value of the pound sterling and claim that this is partly because independence is off the table because the SNP didn’t achieve an outright majority from last week’s election.

Someone isn’t telling the truth.

Mike Underwood

Linlithgow