IS their any limit to the madness of this Tory government?

With a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice, the worldwide pandemic will have abated by the end of the year.

Throughout the world, industries and employees that have been supported by their governments will be starting the long haul back to normality.

Unfortunately, in the UK industries that have survived will be facing repaying £300 billion of new bank loans as they struggle to reconnect with suppliers and rebuild their customer bases.

READ MORE: Tories double down on Brexit deadline despite Michel Barnier contracting Covid-19

Employees who were laid off due to the pandemic will be looking forward to the economy expanding again and the chance of returning to work again.

The last thing they all need is the prospect of shortages and further disruption to supply chains when the UK leaves the EU, with either a cobbled-together deal or perhaps without a deal (Tories double down on Brexit deadline despite Michel Barnier contracting Covid-19, thenational.scot, March 19).

READ MORE: Coronavirus: UK's chief Brexit negotiator goes into self-isolation

There is no chance that any company with a significant manufacturing capability inside the EU will risk getting involved with UK companies facing the prospect of more disruption at the end of this year.

Boris Johnson should have already approached the EU asking for at least a year-long postponement of our exit from the EU to allow for recovery; if he sticks to his present policy then UK industry will emerge from the pandemic with the additional millstone of Tory dogma around its neck.

John Jamieson
South Queensferry

I AGREE with Peter Thomson’s letter “Oligarchs should be last in the queue for cash from taxpayers” (March 20). I would suggest that any individual or company using overseas tax havens to avoid paying tax should not be allowed to apply for grants or loans funded by the UK taxpayer. They should seek help from the respective governments of the tax havens upon whom they depend.

The PM should give an unequivocal assurance to the British people that grants or loans will only be payable to those who pay their UK taxes.

Perhaps the amount actually paid out to individual firms should be influenced by the amount the individual firms have paid in corporation tax.

Thomas L Inglis
Fintry

WAS only thinking over last couple of days that access to your digital output should be opened up in these troubled times in case we are no longer able to access our hard copies, and lo and behold I have just been able to get three months’ digital subscription. After all, if our news access is reduced to BBC we’re all in deep, deep trouble.

However, one tiny flaw. How on earth am I going to light my fire with a virtual paper!

Kris Murray Browne
via email

I AM on my first day of the digital subscription and am very impressed. Whoever designed the website is worth their weight in gold. It is easy to manipulate – five minutes and I had found lots of ways to work the pages, and the ability to print the crossword page for my husband was fantastic. I also cut out the word spirals and send them to two grandchildren along with other activities to do for granma. For those with sight problems it is easy to increase the size of the print – great job.

Winifred McCartney
Paisley

IS it not time for the Presiding Officer to re-iterate his recent request for leaders to keep their questions brief and succinct? If Jackson Carlaw’s long preambles were curtailed there would be more time for supplementary questions, surely critical at this time.

R Clark
via email

MR Heggie and Mr Anderson (Letters, March 19-20) have added a touch of humour to the dismal scene, and reminded me of my late father’s tale from his childhood. He and his pals, living opposite a park bordered by bushes, played “chicky-melly”.

With a long string tied to an elderly person’s door knocker, they hid in the bushes in the dark, pulled on the string several times and then let it go slack before the door was answered – no-one there! That was until one wise old bird looked out, shut the door from the outside, and silently followed the string across the road. Bet some lads didn’t sit comfortably that night!

P Davidson
Falkirk

TO follow up on Donald Anderson’s enlivening letter, we used to go up closes on Paisley Road and on the first landing we would tie the front door handle on the right with a length of string to the front door handle on the left (leaving a little slack), knock both doors and run away. But this was bettered by the invention of the little rogues I taught in Hamilton who inserted cacatus (or keich) into a paper bag, laid it at the doorstep of one of the posher homes, set the bag on fire and giggled from behind the hedge as the man of the house came out and stamped furiously on it.

David McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll