MY word! Just what was it those Conservative Party members were hoping for when they selected Liz Truss over Rishi Sunak? Have they got what they were hoping for? Mebby a slice of cake with the cherry on top before they lose the next election? Did they really expect the turmoil from the collective tax cuts that Kwarteng and Truss have brought about between them?

I thought Johnson was pretty much a press party pooper when he disappeared down back-door alleyways and even into frozen storage areas, or so we were led to believe. But Truss is an even bigger party pooper, and coward to boot, than ever Johnson was.

READ MORE: Douglas Ross ‘concerned’ about his mortgage – but backs Liz Truss's tax cuts

Until yesterday she had not been seen or heard of since that extra large mini-Budget was released last week. Yesterday the whole world was told she has appeared, or rather been heard, on a few local English radio stations. Not one to brave TV cameras, Truss has resorted to radio interviews. Or should that be “we have heard it all before” statements?

The recording of her monotone summary of why tax cuts were necessary to solve the UK’s fiscal problems created by her former government colleagues over many years concluded that the Putin war in Ukraine has been ultimately responsible for the financial disaster, not only in the UK but worldwide.

Well that’s OK then. Not only has import and export business been wrecked in the UK through those tax cuts, but any sign of the world trade we were promised with Brexit has just been floated down the swanny without a paddle, no thanks to Putin.

It’s never the Tory government’s fault. Aye, that’ll be shining bright.

Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife

IS anyone really surprised that the BBC wouldn’t miss an opportunity to tarnish the Scots reputation with their latest pathetic attempt in one of the worst TV shows in history, EastEnders?

The BBC have been doing it as far back as we can remember with the famous Dad’s Army portraying the token Scot as a miserable, penny-pinching, whisky-imbibing, god-fearing clown. It would be bad enough if it was only in sitcoms but nature shows don’t miss a chance to besmirch us either, with Countryfile recently completely cutting out the part from Bill Gates speech where he was waxing lyrical about Scotland and the Scottish people being the most innovative nation in the history of the world.

READ MORE: BBC EastEnders episode sparks complaint after Scottish culture ‘mocked’

Try as they may to try and blacken Scotland, the rest of the world now sees England as a backward-looking, greedy nation, and Scotland as an open, friendly, forward-thinking nation in chains we are desperately trying to unshackle.

It’s really noticeable now though that one of the two countries in the hugely pressurised, underhanded joining of the two countries in 1707 is a hugely innovative, highly educated, hugely resource-rich country, and the other is England.

Like us they could be an amazing country but they will sadly NEVER prosper whilst being controlled by a tiny, backward, inbred, landed clique and establishment, stuck in medieval times, who control the media and feed the good people of England 24/7 lies and daily tarnish the reputation of all political parties bar the truly grotesque and openly crooked Tory party.

Independence cannot come a moment too soon. We can then get back to being friends and neighbours and not master and servant.

Iain K
Dunoon

THE next time you hear a Unionist MP, MSP or commentator claim that the block grant received from the UK Treasury should be cut, please bear in mind the following.

The block grant received by the Scottish Government for 2022/23 is just over £39 billion (to run a country of more than five million people).

READ MORE: Liz Truss tells BBC Radio Scotland Tory tax cuts would 'turbocharge' Scottish economy

The failed UK Test & Trace scheme cost an estimated £37bn. Brexit is costing the UK economy £21bn per year (Financial Times reporting Goldman Sachs research, Oct 2021). An estimated £1 trillion worth of assets has moved from the UK to the EU following Brexit (The Independent, April 2021).

And, if they mention the Calmac ferries, how about £3.2bn spent by the MOD on a contract for new armoured vehicles – number produced and operational to date: zero (Pubic Accounts Committee, June 2022).

Roddie Macpherson
Avoch

THANK heavens the First Minister didn’t follow Kwasi (kamikaze) Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-Budget as the Tory Party insisted. UK pension funds were almost wiped out due to Tory incompetence.

Of course, in 2016 Mr Kwarteng was quoted as saying “Who cares if Sterling crashes?” Little did we know he’d take this attitude into his job as Chancellor (or should that be chancer?) of the Exchequer.

Now both he and Truss intend to continue their tax cuts-for-the-ultra-wealthy policy. Truly the lunatics have taken over the asylum. There’s never been a clearer case for independence.

Stephen McCarthy
Glasgow

SEVERAL occurrences have provoked this letter. Covid is NOT over. Everyone with lower than normal antibodies is still at risk. I learned yesterday morning that someone whose partner is at high risk, and who has been undertaking risky outings on his behalf, has now been in hospital for three months after catching Covid.

I am the secretary of a community council. The insistence on “live” meetings means that two members are effectively excluded from meetings. The general population seem to think it’s all over. It clearly isn’t. Our First Minister at least seems to understand this.

Covid-19 is the presage to the collapse of the earth’s human population. Whenever will we begin to understand this? And when will Elizabeth Truss? The only hope for Scotland is to escape from the insanity of this Westminster government.

Tony Kime
Kelso