IT was so intriguing to read in Tuesday’s National that the venue for last night's Tory hustings in Perth was still to be confirmed. I must say I had my doubts this was the case and quickly checked out various online information sources that more or less confirmed this detail in your report.

So it was relatively clear that a Tory hustings event would be held in Perth on the evening of Tuesday with a leadership debate set up between Tory democracy-deniers Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. It would be held in front of a good number of local Tory party members who actually represent a minority political group in Scotland and that’s a fact!! And yet nobody had formally announced where this event would take place?

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The chosen attendees/members, a fair number of them, must have been aware of the venue and the arrangements that were in place. Their right-wing media people/backers must also have been aware of the identity of said venue. All “keeping mum”, eh!? I can’t be the only Scottish citizen/observer who perceives the secrecy of the Tories regarding the provision of a requisite detail for such a straightforward event as downright sinister and totally unimpressive!

No surprise, by the way, as the Tories have historical form when it comes to senior party figures visiting Scotland – they hide from the public gaze and there are many examples of unpopular Tory PMs visiting Scotland in the most obscure circumstances, but each event was stage-managed to suit their cynical PR agenda in spite of their leaders’ regular antagonistic comments against Scotland and its democratically elected Scottish Government – a colonialist attitude in full view, and they wonder why they are disliked so much by many Scots!!

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I hope their secretive efforts were systematically undone in Perth by “streetwise” Scotindy supporters who found them and “called them out” regarding their shameless political skulduggery against the democratic rights of the Scottish people and a Scottish Government that represents their interests.

The lead-up to this event was an absolute disgrace in terms of openness and proper transparency, and they have the impudence to say their government is an equal partner in a Union of equals. My response to that line is unprintable!!

Bernie Japs
Edinburgh

I LOVE watching John Ford’s westerns. What attracts me to them is the unadulterated greed of the baddies. The Tories are in that league. So – and it gives me no pleasure to say it – are Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer.

The plot is always of John Wayne coming to the rescue of the working poor. He always, in the end, has to use brute force. Reasoning and persuasion have failed. He’s up against the Westminster snake oil salesmen who will never give up their support of the privileged ruling class.

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Perhaps the Scottish Government should imitate the John Wayne character. Reasoning and persuasion are anathema to Sunak and Truss. I’m increasingly finding myself at the point of recommending forceful protest, because it’s incrementally becoming the only course left for Scotland to take to defeat these Unionist zombies.

As I write this I can hardly wait to see what grotesque nonsense will be spouted at Tuesday evening’s hustings. You can depend on the two hopeless candidates rubbishing Scotland and all those who work for a living. That’s what appeals to the merciless Tory voters of the John Ford films. Reason? Persuasion? Not in their vocabulary, I‘m afraid.

Tony Kime
Kelso

WITH the ink barely dry on my letter of a few days ago, another baleful “no, we can’t” piece appears. Judith Duffy’s analysis (“SNP could turn to international courts to secure independence referendum”) in the Sunday National is one more example of inventing obstacles to independence which simply do not exist.

The stance of the independence movement must be that Scotland can leave the Union if its people so wish. There is no constitutional, legal or practical ground whatsoever for any other view. The Union has no provision for blocking it, and for what it’s worth even Union governments have always taken the consent line.

That being so, only three prime events must happen for Scotland to go independent, and they must be legal and democratic. These are a vote, a win and a secession.

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We are going to get the vote, whether by referendum or by election. If we win it, only secession is required. The constitutional and legal power to secede lies with Scotland’s MPs, its supreme representatives. If the Union government declines to cooperate, that power can be exercised by our MPs leaving Westminster and declaring their body to be the parliament of a sovereign and independent Scottish state.

From the article, it appears that Dr Nick McKerrell is unable to grasp the fact that Scotland already has the right and the ability to secede if we wish, in his insistence that we will still have to beg for help from one international forum or another – a long and absurd garden path. He regards winning a Yes vote by election as merely a preliminary to yet again asking London to be allowed to hold a referendum, a kind of indy Groundhog Day. He talks of getting action. Well, if we already have the right, we don’t “get action”, we take it.

The First Minister’s recent declaration to the Scottish Parliament reviving the electoral method, now endorsed by the Greens, betokens a recognition that independence will only be guaranteed by a route which does not depend on London, with the resolve to proceed to independence following a Yes vote, even in the (unlikely) event that the Union government does not come to the table. Without such resolve, how would we even be fit for independence?

Alan Crocket
Motherwell