THE Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned that leaving the EU will push the UK’s debt to its highest level for 50 years (Think tank issues warning over UK borrowing, October 8). They have advised the Tories not to engage in tax cuts. However, this is exactly what the Tory donor class expect. So therefore it’s what the Tories will do.

The IFS said that under a so-called smooth Brexit, government borrowing would stay at £50 billion per year. Under No Deal this more than doubled. This would mean borrowing £100bn per year as the economy slows. This would push debt to 85% of national income.

READ MORE: Brexit: UK Government borrowing is 'damaging' to Scottish economy

Quite simply, making trade more difficult and expensive with your nearest and richest neighbour means you will do less of it. Less trade means a smaller economy.

Michael Gove is insisting No Deal could be a “success”. He offers no actual evidence for this. Three-and-a-half years after Brexit; the reason the UK has not left is because any Brexit deal will harm the economy.

Although Brexit will be a disaster for the economy, many of the fat cats will make a fortune. Billionaire Boris Johnson backer Crispin Odey will make millions from Brexit. Tory Cabinet minister and arch-Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg’s firm opened up an office in Dublin. All so they could continue to trade with the EU. Rees-Mogg has made £7m from Somerset Capital since the Brexit vote.

Those people who have been paying attention will know that it was always the intention of Boris Johnson and the Tories to leave the EU with no deal. Now this bungling buffoon is threatening to withhold co-operation from European law enforcement and insulting EU leaders. The fault of no deal rests entirely with Johnson.

In 2014 Scotland was promised Devo-max and staying in the EU if the people rejected independence. Since these were lies which influenced the outcome, that result is now invalidated. Since Boris Johnson is going into the next election on a No-Deal platform, a majority of the seats for independence parties in Scotland will be enough to declare independence.

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

AS Boris Johnson turns Britain into a big top and clowns his way around the country, followed by a bevy of bizarre Brexiteers and allegations of misdemeanours involving females in journalism, business etc, a whole country – Scotland – gets on with the general matters relating to its population and awaits signals for a civil return to self-government. And about time too, many would say...

Scotland has experienced a big awakening since the failed indyref of September 2014, though the UK – which desperately grasps hold of our sovereignty – appears no less dogged in its imperialistic grasping. Apart from a few geographic pin-pricks, mainly on remote marks on the world map – such as Ascension Island, Falkland Islands etc, and themselves only attached to the UK by political manipulation and disproportionate UK financial pampering – Scotland is a prize asset. Particularly because of the history between England and Scotland down through the ages and the so-called Treaty of Union, which itself has been systematically abused over 300 years.

Now Westminster is more pantomime than politics and Scotland is Beauty to the UK’s Beast.

Let us have our Christmas wish, and wave the wand of goodwill to all men and women and make 2020 the beginning of a new age for not only Scotland but England and the rest of Britain, including Ireland. The best way to end the panto will be to boo Boris Johnson off the stage and into that obscurity where he well and truly belongs.

Ian Johnstone
Peterhead

YOUR front page on Tuesday “An incredible turnout – but where were the media?”) and features on Monday by Ruth Wishart and George Kerevan have crystallised my mind.

We have a Prime Minister who ignores the law, 14 senior judges (three Scottish and 11 in the Supreme Court) have ruled that the Prime Minister illegally prorogued Westminster and deceived the Queen, but he says that was not right.

He constantly says he will obey the parliamentary votes, but continues to say the UK will leave the EU on October 31.

His personal conduct portrays a shifty and untrustworthy character, foisted on us by rich Tories and not by an election.

I think that Mr Johnson believes that the Divine Right of Kings was not abolished at the time of the Stuarts, but was transferred to Prime Ministers of the Kingdom, so he can do what he wants with impunity, aided and abetted by his own personal Rasputin, the unelected Dominic Cummings.

Expecting any kind of agreement about a Scottish referendum is foolish – Mr Johnson will lie and cheat to avoid this. We should be possibly considering an advisory referendum, which is possible with the current Scottish Parliament; the fact that it would not be seen as binding can be argued from a position of strength. Mr Johnson does not want a Scottish Parliament of any description, so any tactic, short of bloodshed, is acceptable.

Jim Lynch
Edinburgh

THE appalling threat by the Turkish state to invade Kurdish land and kill any who resist has rightly been widely condemned. (SNP MP hits out at US betrayal of Kurds, October 9).

However, where is the challenge to Nato since Turkey is a Nato member? What are the principles Nato is supposed to exist to defend? Is Turkey going to be threatened with expulsion if it implements its threats? Or are humanitarian values simply window dressing for crude power politics?

Isobel Lindsay
Biggar