THE comments by Tory leadership candidate and current Foreign Secretary about ignoring Scotland’s First Minister come as no surprise; she is simply playing to her audience. It just so happens that audience is the same bunch of people who inflicted the corrupt Boris Johnson government on the rest of us, and of course Liz Truss was a key member of that government.
It’s clear they have no respect for Scotland’s democratically elected First Minister – or for the Scottish voter in general. However, none of this is surprising. That’s why the Tories haven’t won an election in Scotland since 1955 – no-one here trusts a Tory.
READ MORE: Liz Truss Nicola Sturgeon jibe launches Scottish Tory spin machine
This latest cabal have syphoned billions of pounds of public money into their own and their backers’ pockets, they held parties and broke Covid rules while the rest of us couldn’t visit dying relatives. They are beneath contempt. Truss is considered the favourite to become the next Prime Minister, and if you thought Boris was bad wait until she gets the keys to No 10!
She is clearly unfit for the job, she has made a fool of herself in every role she’s had in government, but that’s not the point to those funding her campaign. They know she will be pliable and line up more public money for them, and the Tories will make moves to privatise the NHS.
What more will it take before the people of Scotland say enough is enough, we can’t have these crooks running the country – no matter what figurehead they put in No 10 – we need our independence and we need it now!
Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley
I KNOW Boris was the worst PM on record – a proven liar, charlatan and all-round bad guy – but now we may have Liz Truss, who cannot remember from one day to the next what she has said, and looks like she might steal his title for being the worst PM in history.
First she said she would “put Scotland at the heart of the Union,” then the democratically elected First Minister of Scotland is “to be ignored” and “she is an attention-seeker”.
READ MORE: 'Build a wall!': Tory member tells Liz Truss to block off Scotland and stop independence
Well good luck with that, Lizzie – see you in court.
Thank heaven neither of them were around when the Good Friday Agreement was reached, though Liz looks like she might demolish that too. I think there is worse to come from Liz – no trust.
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
THE appalling behaviour of the prime ministerial candidate Liz Truss and the Conservative audience at the hustings in Exeter on Monday night clearly demonstrated why Scots must must leave this farcical democratic union of four equal partners.
The differences between the systems of government from the electorate upwards are now in democratic terms as different as chalk and cheese, with winner-take-all in the UK and proportional representation in Scotland.
Perhaps the biggest contrast of all is revealed by the selection of the highest-ranked government minister.
READ MORE: Kirsty Strickland: PM Truss just shattered idea Johnson's exit is 'bad for Yes'
The process for filling the post of the First Minister of Scotland is clearly defined in law; all members of the Scottish Parliament are eligible and the candidate who obtains the greatest number of votes from the 129 elected members of the Scottish Parliament is appointed to the post of First Minister.
The First Minister then chooses elected members of the Scottish Parliament to form a government.
The Prime Minister of the UK must be a Member of Parliament and by tradition, a member of the largest party in parliament, which is free to set its own rules on eligibility and the selection process.
The Conservatives are currently holding an election for their party leader under rules and nominee criteria laid down by a sub-committee that virtually makes rules on the hoof. This election consists of knockout rounds for MPs only, leaving the final pair as the candidates for election as party leader by an estimated 129,000 unelected Conservative party and Conservatives Abroad members.
READ MORE: BBC Scotland accused of 'making excuses' for Liz Truss with framing of Sturgeon insult
Unless there is a change of rules in the meantime, the winner will be appointed as Prime Minister of the UK following the expected resignation of the present incumbent.
The Prime Minster then chooses elected members of the House of Commons to form a government; if the Prime Minster feels that there is no member of the House of Commons capable of filling a particular post, they can choose an unelected member of the House of Lords or even appoint a member of the public by first awarding them a life peerage.
The English may be satisfied being governed without a written constitution, but their Prime Minister should not be contemptuously denying the people of Scotland the right to decide if they want to have something different for their own country.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
IN her campaigning event in Exeter, when asked about the question of another Scottish referendum, Liz Truss answered (ungrammatically): “It was agreed it was once in a generation”. “Agreed by whom?” was begging to be asked, but there was no such query from the interviewer. Her statement is a good example of the blatant lying popularised by Trump. Deliver a lie often enough, and to a receptive populace it becomes the “truth”.
Truss trumpeted that Nicola Sturgeon was a mere attention-seeker who she would ignore, and received a raucous response of clapping and cheering from her audience (in Exeter? Really?).
This to Scots might at first seems laughable, but the laughter dies away to leave a chill. The audience reaction was simultaneously disappointing and worrying. Truss seems to think that such fomentation is fair game; she’s reminiscent of a high-heeled, hopeless Hitler.
Ken Gow
Banchory
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