MUCH has been written and there will be more to come regarding the PM’s first (and last?) visit to Bute House, not least his scandalous skulking out via the back door. But in the round, I truly fear the man, his machinations, Cabinet and spin doctors, and what ill might be caused to us.

Since they have taken power we have seen the gung ho spirit of faux optimism being spread, causing more than just the “Boris bounce”. We’ve seen the normalisation of the words “no deal” and the beginnings of less fear and worry surrounding the prospects of no deal that appears to accompany this normalisation. “No deal” is “no prob” now that we’ve got this happy band, united around this year’s Halloween. Great tricks and no treats, all being performed by this energised, doing the job, government.

A fine government, worthy of some examination, since if nothing else there is the speedy forgiving of past errors, misdemeanours and lack of principles. Patel, sacked earlier for her freelancing with Israel, and Williamson, sacked for “leaking” from the National Security Council, both now back around the table. Mogg and Raab complete this inner MP circle, with their economic and social plans close enough to Farage’s to keep him quiet at the moment, but still hovering in the wings.

Such a Cabinet, aided and abetted by those unable to hide their ambition: Morgan, Rudd and Hancock, so quick to say aye to a seat round the table, and bye to their earlier principles of never working with Johnson. Not content with that, Johnson appoints his brother whilst his father seems to have inner knowledge and his son’s blessings to spout off about Iran and bridge building on one of their Iran’s own propaganda channels.

Just imagine if someone like a former politician/FM had the nerve to appear on some “dodgy” TV show: oh wait. This may be democracy in action, but it’s truly stretching “democracy” to the limits. And who cares if Vote Leave campaigners, supporters, including MPs, along with Farage and his Leave.EU group, are still of interest to the Met. Obviously not the Unionist opposition; not a murmur, nothing coherent, nothing said.

Worse still, could it all be a finely calculated gamble on the part of PM Johnson and co? Get it done by Halloween; we’re out and this government is in for possibly that fixed-term period, post a snap General Election. And the no deal? No probs, since it was all the fault of the intransigent EU, unwilling to meet, to compromise. How tidy, how convenient for the Tory party. Out of the EU and in power, dealing a killer blow to Farage and his group, emasculating any potential threat at the ballot box. Perhaps just a few scraps: a knighthood, or that ambassador’s post?

The speed with which this Tory government could bring disaster to rUK and Scotland is worrying. I do hope that those in whom I place my trust are working away, just as we in the grassroots movement continue to work at every opportunity, street stall, march and meeting.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh

I AM prompted by Brian Quail’s excellent letter (July 30) to express my disgust at the spectacle of Boris Johnson aboard one of HM submarines like a wee boy with a new box of toy soldiers while the Royal Navy cannot even defend our merchant fleet in the Gulf.

The Clyde as a commercial port was deliberately destroyed to ensure free movement of the weapons of mass destruction. The once internationally important Clyde Port Authority is now little more than a privately owned estate agency.

READ MORE: Letters, July 30

Like Mr Quail, I cannot understand the mindset of Unionists who believe that this offers a better future. It does not even offer a better past. The Boris appeal to the Dunkirk nostalgia, or to the age of empire, is entirely false. Statistically more soldiers died of disease during the great imperial period than fell in action, while their families suffered appalling working conditions and tokens which were akin to the slavery from which many of our current landowning families derived their wealth.

The nostalgia for the good times and Vera Lynn is understandable for the companionship derived in peaceful moments by a generation who, in my mother’s words, had their youth stolen. That nostalgia is inexcusable in her succeeding generation, or generations hereafter in the knowledge of Auschwitz, Hamburg, Belsen, Dresden, Hiroshima, the Burma Railway, Nagasaki, and Szebreniska. To say nothing of Africa, the Middle East, or the partition of India.

In virtually all of these atrocities, one way or another, HM Government had a hand either by complacency or by activity. That is the reality of the empire Boris, who is a classical historian, wishes us to espouse. Chaos, misrule even uprisings.

I do not see Boris leading the defence against the angry populace. But I see a platoon of frightened young men, who signed up because no other work was available, led by the pride of his decent Tory family (of modestly respectable means) facing the choice of opening fire on the rage we all feel on behalf of Boris and his ilk.

I hope to God we are shed of this Union before we get there, but that is where Boris and his evil successors are taking England (we are mere appendages), and we need to be rid of him and his ilk now. Independence is our only hope for a decent society.

KM Campbell
Doune

I READ with interest Steve Bullock’s article (This is why Nicola Sturgeon is right to believe Boris wants No-Deal Brexit, July 31). It was a good read and insightful, but the Tories are/were not just running scared of Ukip!

READ MORE: This is why Nicola Sturgeon is right to believe Boris wants No Deal Brexit

David Cameron announced his “in/out referendum” within weeks of the EU 27 announcing a clampdown on tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax exemption on offshore companies and political expenses that are tax-free. Everything, in fact, that would hurt a wee Tory!

WJ Graham
via text