DESPITE all the current panic among high-profile Conservative Party members – I refrain from using the word senior – to bolster the Union, none of them, or indeed commentators, interviewers or editors, seems willing to come clean and explain the truth behind their determination to hold a tight grip on poor wee Scotland.

While Tories see support for Scotland’s independence rise, they are running out of options.

For generations the truth has been denied or deliberately overlooked in all public discourse. Not only the actual economic strength of Scotland, but its usefulness as a nuclear arms base for those who want one. The UK establishment grip on Scotland’s land, and economic development as a consequence, are key issues largely kept quiet.

Most significantly, a highly effective in-house media projecting a false image of Scotland on both sides of the Border is a key player in the withholding of actual truth. The table in the Sunday National giving figures for June on the abysmal representation (“BBC is ‘Tory TV’ as SNP members vanish from airwaves”) confirms. This is not surprising given that every truth-telling piece from the SNP, or indeed the Green Party, is contrasted against the increasingly suspicious and unlikely web of deceit from Unionist panelists and selected audience plants. Elgin and Motherwell were memorable examples, as are Brewer and Marr struggling to keep the occasional SNP figure at bay by constant interruption to prevent major revelation of truth. Clearly BBC heid yins would prefer to avoid such possibility. Countless newspaper editors follow similar lines of denial and deception.

Now we have multitudes down south happy to be rid of us in the belief that ignorant, poor and barbaric Scots are the cause of their economic and social problems, rather than holders of the asset maintaining their only hope.

Yet those in the know clearly daren’t admit the genie has left the bottle, “to the last drop of blood in my veins” has flowed, presumably. The others are scrambling, too little, too late, with their own pathetic attempts to show united commitment.

However, inevitably, the UK will be well and truly hoist by its own petard. The truth will out, culminating in Scotland’s independence from Westminster. And about time too, as all on these islands will be the better for it as living the lie ultimately benefits no-one.

Tom Gray
Braco

HAS anyone noticed how Unionists no longer enter into a debate on the merits of remaining shackled to England?

It would be impossible to resurrect Project Fear given that it was proved to be all lies. They know now that there is no grown-up argument for remaining and simply rely on refusal to “allow” Scotland to have a referendum. It is rather like a worn-out parent after losing a long argument with a child then just saying no.

The willingness for most media outlets to allow the lie that Scotland doesn’t have a mandate to hold a new referendum was a trap for the unwary when these same politicians met Iain Dale and Colin McKay. When Hunt repeated the lie, Dale told him that there was a mandate because of the majority of MSPs at Holyrood were in favour of independence. He replied that was just the SNP, and had to be reminded they had been voted in.

The result of the secret poll on Scottish independence commissioned by May’s government must have focused Tory minds given the flurry of activity and speeches attempting to promote the Union. It is widely seen in Scotland as panic on steroids.

Mike Herd
Highland

ONLY by staying in the EU can we have any influence on European affairs, and if the EU is collapsing – as some would suggest – then that is an opportunity for Britain to take over and mitigate the damage its collapse will cause.

Here is a chance to call the shots over 28 nations, rather than hiding in the cupboard under the stairs and hoping the EU will go away, because – strong or weak or broke – it will not go away, and its effect will be felt no matter what happens.

Brexit, in political and economic terms, is simply running away from a problem rather than taking charge of a situation, and – as usual – a forward-thinking Scotland has seen this and voted accordingly.

Malcolm Parkin
Kinross

I READ George Kay’s Long Letter on Friday, and concur in spirit with what he says. When they constantly go on about “it was a once a generation event”, I always ask myself “yes, but what is a generation? I see a whole swath of young folk coming of age to vote when previously they couldn’t, and think “they are the new generation that they say we need before we can vote on indy again!”

I am of the generation that left while young because our country offered few prospects and we had little chance of developing them for ourselves; we just did not have control over our own future. And I think: “I never want the young of our country to feel as I did, that they have to leave their country because there are no opportunities and their country has no control over its future”, and to be honest, I vote consistently and doggedly against the wall of Unionism to make that not be true and hope for change.

I am now reaching the generation of trì fichead/three twenties, and in reality I feel genuinely that it is the younger generation, the 18, the 20, and yes the 16-year-olds, who have the greater right to vote as it is their future. If there was a choice between the older and the younger generation being able to vote.

I vote a lot so that things are not as are and as they have been. The young vote for the way things are and can/should be! So to say they should not have a right to vote in their future, in their country’s future, is frankly insulting!!

Crìsdean Mac Fhearghais
Dùn Edideann