WILLIE Rennie has popped up with his usual case for reforming the UK. So far, the LibDems have been silent since they lost their leader in December.

He adds, as a naive innocent, that the UK establishment “needs to understand that the status quo is not sustainable and that voting reform, an elected second chamber, a written constitution and a federal UK is needed”.

It is revealing that Rennie does not realise that he and his party are the UK establishment which failed to follow up the Vow to deliver Devo-Max. His solution, a federal UK, is not a panacea, as the UK-ites such as Rennie never broach separate English devolution and a separate English Parliament with a devolved budget.

READ MORE: Why LibDems should back a constitution for an independent Scotland

As in all UK-ites’ terms of reference to date, and no doubt beyond, the English Westminster still doubles as UK and English legislature and the three current devolved nations are lumped in with “regions” of England in an attempt to solve the over-centralised English state, but keep the incorporating Union of 1707.

This is the usual yawn-a-minute stuff from the relics of Better Together who are in denial that they are now in peril north of the Tweed.

What these misguided Unionists here forget is that the majority in the UK establishment, the English voters and parties, are not interested at all in this. Devolution was a sop to save the Labour party in Scotland, which even in Wilson’s day had devolution imposed on it, to kill the SNP and keep Labour lobby fodder MPs from Scotland at Westminster.

It has not worked because the existing measures are now inadequate and over Europe the Scots vote was ignored, for example. The incorporating Union takes precedent as always.

The vote in England at the last December election has shown that the UK-English majority even in “red wall areas” have moved to the Johnsonian, Tory centralist position and have firmly placed themselves in Britisher camp. Yet the Unionists here keep hanging on to their delusion that somehow the UK establishment is reformable.

It is also revealing to see the UK-ites here aiming for an elected House of Lords. There is no such desire for that either down south, in fact establishment parties such as the LibDems and Labour still queue up to have their failed MPs appointed without any qualms. Johnny Thurso, the LibDem MP who lost his seat, was “chosen” by his aristocratic hereditary peers to enter the House of Lords. No unilateral embargo from them to set a precedent.

As the Unionists in Scotland birl and wriggle to try to save the archaic UK, their inner contradictions and vague soundbites ring hollow.

The federal mantra will not save the Union, as it is a panic measure to save the fading Unionist parties in the first instance.

They wasted the opportunity after 2014 in their hubristic triumphalism. The Smith Commission and their submissions to it missed the point and the paltry numbers of unionist MPs from Scotland now in the Commons are witness to their utter rejection by the electorate in Scotland. The LibDems and Labour are not doing very well in England either. As the devolved parliaments voted against Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement, why then does Willie Rennie not draw the obvious conclusion?

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

READING the letters pages in the Sunday National, I twice had cause to wince whilst reading otherwise well considered letters from contributions based in Aberfeldy and Kilmaurs. May I respectfully remind these and other potential contributors that a significant area of Scotland lies south of the Tweed whilst north of the Border. Towns such as Hawick, Jedburgh, Melrose, St Boswells, Selkirk and parts of Kelso and Peebles, not to mention several smaller towns and villages.

When reaching for a convenient euphemism for England and Wales, please stop using “south of the Tweed”.

Steve Scott
Peebles

WHY has the Home Office refused to say whether ministers or civil servants read a 94- page report by the Scottish Government on proposals for a separate Scottish visa before it dismissed them? A spokesman said that the department “would not be giving further comment or information”. Question 1: Is this a reasonable question? Question 2: Would an answer be a breach of the Official Secrets Act? As the answers are yes and no respectively, the answer is simply that this is yet another palpable ejaculation from the vile Johnson cesspit.

Joe Cowan
Balmedie

“LEAVE a light on for us” reminds me of what the UK Foreign Secretary said at the outbreak of World War One: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime”. It feels as portentous as that but in reverse. The UK is the one to be plunged into darkness. We must not lose touch with what is happening in the EU, especially since we want to return as soon as possible in an independent Scotland. Could you consider making room for a regular column in The National to keep us informed about policies being enacted there which we will be missing out on?

Cathie Lloyd
Letters, Lochbroom

ALTHOUGH concurring with Ruth Wishart’s view in her column (FM must find a way to give succour to the Yes faithful, January 27), I feel the vision and detailed action should be stronger than this! Ruth talks generally, like we all do, and discusses various options. But she also falls short of proposing the precise course of action for independence. Nobody wants to undermine Nicola’s position, but the dithering must stop. I’ m hoping for a Jimmy Reid-type inspirational speech from Nicola with a clear course of action for a Holyrood “sit-in”, leading us to take full control of our wonderful and potentially great country.

Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus