I AM giving away my age here, but there used to be a programme on TV called That Was The Week That Was and I can honestly say to compare those weeks with almost any week in the last 18 months would be impossible. Any week examined now would be classed as fantasy and simply not believed.

We have a serial liar and adulterer as PM and the persons who tell the truth about him are told to retract their words or leave the chamber. We have the Leader of the House Rees-Mogg claiming he did not know the phrase “yellow peril” was derogatory – I want to know what he thought it meant, as he sits there with his Union Jack face covering while we in Scotland are not allowed to take a Saltire into our own parliament – I have never had an explanation for this despite writing several letters requesting one.

READ MORE: Jacob Rees-Mogg sorry after 'Yellow Peril' comment in the Commons

We have Ruth Davidson taking up her place in the House of Lords – to “reform” it – she’ll change her mind about that just like she has about everything else. She is just being positioned to lead the “no referendum” brigade.

Then to cap it all we have Farage mocking and “othering” migrants often fleeing for their lives. This is the same blame game that gave us Brexit – blame others anyone except the people we should be blaming: the government that fails to act fairly for every citizen in this country and rewards areas that vote for them and people who donate to them with contracts, investment etc and leaves the rest behind. That is not fairness or justice, it is just the Tory version of government.

Winifred McCartney
Paisley

I KNOW that many people enjoy the hobby of making brass rubbings, and when I was a child I felt privileged to be allowed to clean the brass rails of our local lifeboat, but now it is clear that the Scots Tories are world champions in polishing brass – on their necks!

Where were the howls of “concentrate on the pandemic” when Boris went on a pal-paid luxury holiday, as the virus was obviously becoming a pandemic and reaching our shores? Where were they when he was so busy redecorating his grace-and-favour abode and setting up a self-promoting media room at our expense that he did not even have time to count the cost or worry about how to pay for it?

READ MORE: Ignore the spin, this Baroness has done nothing for social mobility

Worst of all, where was the outcry about all the work going on to negotiate, agree and sign the final documents for the “great deal” of Brexit, and all the preparations for our leaving date, while the virus was at its most rampant? In the Scottish context, which should have been of greatest importance to Scots Tories – elected to represent such folk as fishermen, crofters, and farmers – why were they not shouting about ongoing trade deals as “a distraction” from dealing with the virus?

When have they complained about the “distraction” of pushing through the Internal Market Bill to allow Boris to impose what he likes on Scotland, to overrule Scots laws he does not like, and to withhold, for his priorities, money that should come to the devolved administrations for their priorities in devolved matters? What, no outcry on behalf of their constituents, even when he takes the Scottish Government to court to strike down two bills legally passed unanimously – ie including the votes of Tory MSPs?

Meanwhile, the Tories have a Union cabal within Cabinet, research going on into Scottish attitudes to the Union under the guise of a pandemic-related contract, work on plastering Union Jacks on anything that does not move – and some of them as well! – and ministers and minions being sent here to counter independence.

Where in all this is the Tory government “concentrating on the pandemic”? But that is all they think our government should be doing. Are we really to believe that the Scottish Government alone, with a full team of ministers etc, is the only one that cannot do or concentrate on more than one thing at a time?

When will the Scottish Tories start doing the job they were elected for, to promote and protect the interests of their Scottish constituents? There used to be a good word for those who fall on their knees and worship their masters for personal benefit – lickspittles.

L McGregor
Falkirk

I’M still stunned at the story that was covered in Thursday’s National regarding proposed changes to the Official Secrets Act that could lead to journalists facing 14 years in prison.

To quote the article: “Their proposals suggest journalists who deal with leaked documents should be treated the same way as the people who leak the information, or people who have committed espionage offences.” Reading it made my blood run cold at what is effectively a gagging order to prevent anything that might prove embarrassing to the UK Government, the same government that also wants to limit the reach of the judiciary.

READ MORE: Official Secrets Act proposals could see journalists jailed over 'damaging' stories

The subject may only be at the consultation stage, but the very fact that this change is being mooted at all shows a type of thinking that runs contrary to democracy and has more the feel of dictatorship. If leaked information that is in the public interest can’t get out there through fear of repercussions and the public remains ignorant of those things the UK Government would rather we didn’t know, who will hold them to account?

It may have been a short article, but the subject is one that, should it go unchallenged, will have huge repercussions for us all.

Hilary de Vries
Inverness

READ MORE: Official Secrets Act: What are the proposals and how will they affect journalists?

LISTENED to a debate between Edwina Currie and Ian Blackford on Iain Dale’s show on LBC on Saturday morning. She suggests us Scots should make up our loss of £20 in Universal Credit by coming to work in the English hospitality sector. Plenty jobs. Has she no thought to how this sounds? Are Scots merely to fill a gap for England? Do they really think we are all on benefits, eager for any crumb? Ian advised her we had our own troubles to seek in filling posts in the same sector. They just don’t get Scotland. Roll on the time we don’t have to listen to their p**h. My blood pressure needs independence!

M Macdonald
via email