THE UK press and the Tories are all agog over the leadership stramash. Boris Johnson would suffer an internal Tory coup over no-deal stance and his government would be brought down probably before it got started. The Scottish Tories’ Operation Arse, launched last February to keep Boris from ever becoming PM, has obviously flopped and unlikely to be revived as Ruth Davidson, backer of failed Sajid Javid, says she could work with Johnson!

Such severe threats and possible actions from within a current governing party at Westminster are unprecedented in living memory. To add to the confusion, Nigel Farage has publicly stated that he would enter into a pact with the Tories to effect a no deal, but he has no MPs yet, so obviously an election would need to be called.

He has also pointed out many Eurosceptics had joined the Conservative Party in the past few months to ensure Johnson became prime minister. Since about 46% of Tory members in a poll would prefer Nigel Farage to be their leader, one is left speechless!

Jeremy Hunt claims that an election would lead to a Corbyn government! His team also upped the nasties by calling his opponent “Bottler Boris”! As the two remaining Tory contenders for leadership slug it out, it is obvious that the Tory Party is fissuring.

Both contenders are ipso facto “no-dealers”, so how the internal Tory chaos is going to pan out is anybody’s guess. Hunt has recently said “no deal no problem”!

Parliamentary party, local associations, financial backers and individual party members are swirling in a maelstrom, rudderless and without life jackets! Theresa May has now stepped into the fray rubbishing Johnson’s no-deal Brexit implementation phase.

According to Simon Jenkins of the Guardian, Jeremy Hunt has described his rival, Boris Johnson, thus: “Cowardly, untrustworthy, disrespectful, unmanly, slinking into office through the back door.”

The knives are out!

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

AS an avid follower of conspiracy theories I rather suspect that we will shortly find that Mr Johnson will decide that he would not wish to put his “loved ones” through the mangle of public opinion.

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He will chicken out of becoming leader of the Tories as he did following the referendum.

This would be the natural path for a blustering coward. He will wait until things have settled down and then strike again.

Bets?

John Cummins
Via email

IT seems that Ross Thomson and his two Tory pals have little experience of midges (Johnson will swat the SNP like midges, claim Scots Tory Brexiteers, June 25).

READ MORE: Scottish Tory MPs claim PM Johnson will 'swat the SNP' like midges

Had they ever tried to get rid of them by “swatting”, they would know that is impossible. What a terrible analogy!

Sheila Humphries
Portpatrick

GORDON Brown is perfectly capable of recognising the fundamental differences in the self-determining, outward looking “nationalism” espoused by the SNP and that of Farage, Johnson and 63% of Tory Party members, despite his protestation to the contrary in his recent speech. If, as Brown would have us believe, the SNP is now pursuing a more “extreme” version of nationalism, I have to wonder if Brown is capable of reflecting on his own contribution to this newly described phenomenon.

As the architect of the now infamous “Vow” he failed to protect its guarantees. When the Cameron government cast its assurances aside, where was he? When the false claim of “fully delivered” emerged, where was he to hold all signatories to account? If the SNP are more “extreme” as he claims, does he even wonder why that might be?

I reject his statement outright, but I am frequently bemused by those, like Brown, who have an expectation that the SNP will abandon their raison d’etre.

Independence is independence! There is no sliding scale.

Gordon, it is not extreme to aspire to independence and self-determination. It’s normal!

Iona Easton
Glasgow

IN his letter in yesterday’s National, George Morton adds his voice to those who appear to be pro-independence supporters but who are against an independent Scotland being a member of the EU.

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Alternative viewpoints are always good to have, and provide us with perspective on any issue, but I wonder if I am alone in thinking that “now is not the time” to keep loudly banging this drum?

We are potentially on the verge of a second indyref – arguably the most important event in our long history, with our FM poised to pull the trigger using a policy that’s backed up by huge, consistent, overall, public support for Scotland to remain in Europe.

Regardless of whether or not a person agrees with the pros and cons of it, the EU is the path that Scotland the nation has voted for, as recently evidenced by the best yellow map we have ever seen!

I would therefore respectfully ask the Eurosceptics among us to please lessen the beat of that particular drum at this point in time and use their communication skills instead to highlight the dangers of not winning indyref2.

Otherwise, it’s a bit like players in a football team trying to change the manager’s game plan while edging ahead in a World Cup match just before the final whistle! Just saying ...

Dennis White
Lanark