Labour and the Tories remain two sides of the same coin

Not withstanding their chief executive is a former Labour MSP, it brought to mind former Labour MP Tom Harris, who now finds himself ensconced in the Scottish Office taking the “King’s Shilling” (apologies to Jacob Rees-Mogg).

Your feature on their job search also references that once, in his own head, titan of the “Home Rule” movement George Galloway, who has gone from Labour firebrand to a position so beyond the pale of British Nationalism that it makes even Boris Johnson adherents blush, hence his risible Holyrood election vote share and subsequent southward scuttle with another party handle to tout.

But not to worry, Labour is able to replenish its stocks with former Tory MPs who, despite voting with Boris’s government 99.9% of the time, have suddenly had a damascene conversion and now believe themselves to be heirs to Ramsey MacDonald.

Oh, my mistake...

It is rather the case that you could not place a fag paper between Labour and Tory and no ideological volte face is required as, to paraphrase Billy Connolly, Sir Keir Starmar has more in common with the Bullingdon Club Boys of Boris Johnson than he does with the working class Scots that for so long placed their trust in Labour.

So whilst we may baulk at the way the way top echelons of the Tory Party speak about Scots Tory politicians, what reaction will the Labour leadership’s attitude to Scottish voters elicit?

Henry Malcolm

Dundee

SUCKING the joy right out of an announcement!

The Westminster Government is teetering on the abyss, the UK economy is standing beside it and the Johnson Administration stands beside that.

All of those are actually happening right now, not that you would think that given the line adopted by the London-centric parties on the announcement of the Wind Farm deal.

Everyone of them, be they Tory, Labour, Libdem or Alba, have attempted to belittle the achievement by manipulating it into something bad.

Each and every one of those parties got their ass handed to them at the Scottish General Election in May, yet they all seem to think they are relevant to modern day Scottish politics. Imperial egos run rife in all of those political branches of the same tree and we here in Scotland want nothing to do with them.

Our future is bright, independence is right.

Cliff Purvis

SNP Armed Forces and Veterans

THE cultural secretary’s announcement that the BBC’s licence fee is to be frozen for two years is nothing more than a smokescreen to get Tory supporters thinking they can con the rest of us that Conservatives care for the poor.

Her claim that the pensioners and the poor will benefit from this callous attempt to shut down the troublesome BBC is hypocritical in extreme. The pensioners and those living with poverty will save a measly 13p a day. When the appalling withdrawal of the £20 a week universal credit benefits will mean these folks have their living costs deminished by £2.86 per day.

All this smoke and mirrors PR exercise, is about protecting a lying, cheating, immoral, narcissistic, rule breaking, disfunctionally, Tory elitist toff, whose Eaton education led him to believe that he was born to lead and was not required to follow any of the laws or rules his party create.

It is time up for Boris, the sooner he goes the better, even if his replacement may be of the same elitist clone pool. Those in the red wall English constituencies who wasted their vote will soon let him and his ilk know it is time for real change.

Max Cruickshank

Glasgow

IT is ironic as well as disappointing that contributors to the letters pages of other newspapers continue to make derogatory remarks about “Scottish education” while someone who represents the pinnacle of “British education” has been found wanting on so many levels, not least of all in the areas of professional competence, morale integrity and compassionate humanity.

It is evident that although all political parties in Scotland supported the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, some who would deny Scotland self-determination still apparently do not understand that state education in Scotland reflects more ambition for our children than the simple assessments of the past. Academic advancement is of course very important, but neglecting the wider development of our youth not only betrays them but betrays society.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who attended Eton before studying at Oxford University, epitomises many of the serious limitations of a private school education when children are removed from local communities and often from the day-to-day realities of modern living confronted by the general public. Unfortunately for Mr Johnson, he has surrounded himself with many of a similar background who not only are also self-interested and have questionable competences in their designated government roles, but who are also far removed from reality and the honest principles that the public expect to guide their decision-making.

There is good reason that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has been broadly supportive of the Scottish Government in making the bold decision to aim higher in the education of our children and future generations, and this latest “party debacle” at Westminster should hopefully enlighten some who seemingly struggle to appreciate the aspirations for Scottish education of both the OECD and the Scottish Government.

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry, East Lothian

WE’VE all by now hopefully picked up examples of professional political news management but while you might have become suspicious about why certain stories get traction out of nowhere it might not be entirely obvious that this is being deliberately managed on a significant scale and so cynically.

Towards the end of the week when we heard the Prime Minister say that he attended a party without realising it was actually a party; Ian Duncan Smith tells the House of Commons that MI5 are investigating a Chinese “spy” regularly engaging with politicians in the lobby of the commons.

The unkind among us might conclude that the government have just been made aware that a Chinese lady representing her government … might be Chinese. Perish the thought Carruthers, what is the world coming to?

The more worldly among us will realise that this is just the most recent attempt to get something other than Boris Parties off the front page by any means.

The Chinese government (and many others including our own) expend a great deal of effort attempting to influence other governments and our Security Services are well aware of this. As a past Leader of the Opposition; Ian Duncan Smith would have been briefed on the external threat many times.

More critically as a Minister of a government which was desperate to have the Chinese fund our critical infrastruture including nuclear power stations and 5G communications; he was regularly briefed on the potential risks by both MI5 and GCHQ. His government had to be talked out of their 5G funding aspirations by ALL of our key intelligence sharing allies. So of all people to “recognise” the spying risk its more than a bit rich coming from his good self.

Let’s all recognise that when a politically damaging story is shunted rapidly off the front page this is not an accident. There are people who are paid a lot of money to manage the attention of voters … and they are busy on a daily basis earning their pay.

So the next time you see Boris on the front page talking about Peppa Pig....start looking more carefully for what the blighters dont want you to talk about.

Gus McSkimming

Ayrshire

WITH the occasional flurry of letters concerning the choice of a national anthem for an independent Scotland, I wonder if the most egalitarian method of reaching a decision might be conducted via a nationwide poll at some point in the wake of the hoped-for Yes to indyref2 vote.

This might also encourage a sense of coming together for everyone, a starting point for the process of healing, which will be vitally important in the immediate aftermath of the referendum.

Jennifer Rodger

West Kilbride

ANENT the letter from Alan Hind in the Sunday National (16 January) seeking a mechanism to Recall an MP, as the process to remove an underperforming elected person is called.

In our Model Constitution which is open for comment at www.constitutionforscotland.scot please see Article 6 for MPs and Article 12.18 for councillors.

John C Hutchison

Secretary, Constitution for Scotland

LIKE a stopped clock, even Jacob Rees-Mogg is capable of being right sometimes. Probably nowhere near as often as twice a day but you have to hand it to him, he is absolutely bang on with his assessment of Douglas Ross being a lightweight.

I certainly don’t make a habit of agreeing with Jacob about very much, but have been surprised by the levels of support that Douglas has received because of their fall-out from the unlikeliest of fans.

Can anyone name a significant piece of legislation that Douglas Ross has ever been personally associated with? I’d struggle to think of any campaign, issue or concern that Douglas has raised that wasn’t a simple knee-jerk reaction to the SNP government’s stance.

Indeed the only truly genuine policy statement I can remember him coming up with almost got him fired by the SFA for offending the travelling community.

Douglas’s weight is demonstrably of such little consequence that the only real surprise is that Rees-Mogg didn’t simply say “Douglas who?” when questioned.

The fact that I cannot fault Douglas Ross’s assessment of Boris Johnson’s character either is doubly disturbing. Agreeing with two Tories in a week is something of a record for me, but my views haven’t changed. I’m chalking it up as just a symptom of their party’s meltdown, long may it continue.

Michael Cameron

Beauly

IT does not say a lot for the Scottish Tory politicians that they have not raised their voices to defend Douglas Ross when he was insulted by the leader of the House of Commons. If not Ross himself, at least one of them should have touched a glove to the man’s cheek and challenged him to a duel (rapiers, pistols, or footballs), which would be appropriate considering the time Rees-Mogg lives in.

Perhaps, on the other hand, there could have been a sharp reminder from the House of Lords that his remarks are being noted by a certain Baroness, and he could find himself on the dojo mat in her protege’s defence!

James Ahern

East Kilbride