IN his open letter in the Sunday National Michael Russell offers some excellent advice to Alister Jack, but I fear it will be wasted as our new Secretary of State will have as little influence in this Cabinet as his predecessor had in the last one.

We all know how Boris Johnson feels about Scots after he published that appallingly racist poem by James Michie during his stint as editor of The Spectator. Since his succession as prime minister he has appointed upwards of a hundred ministers to his government, approximately one in three of all Tory MPs, but only one out of 13 Scottish Tory MPs.

Is it possible that this situation has arisen because Boris Johnson feels that he cannot totally rely on any Scottish MP in any office ?

In spite of having the choice of a dozen Scottish Tory MPs who are no doubt capable of carrying out the junior office, he has appointed a quintessential English Tory MP as Jack’s shadow in the Scotland Office.

John Jamieson
South Queensferry