SO, according to current leader of the Tories in Scotland – Douglas Ross MP, MSP, linesman – politics in Scotland is failing because the SNP focus too much on independence.

What absolute nonsense, if anything the SNP don’t push the independence enough. However, what is failing in Scotland is trust in politicians such as Douglas Ross.

Let’s remember his track record – he was going to resign as a linesman (assistant referee) but instead it is alleged he used his MP’s expenses to help subsidise trips to run the line.

Then he wasn’t going to stand for Westminster again to focus on leading the Tories to “winning” the next Scottish Parliament election.

Of course that didn’t happen. He stuck the knife into an ill colleague and then put himself forward as his replacement (in a constituency which had a higher Tory majority than his own).

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Only then do the allegations about his MP’s expenses come out (barely reported by mainstream media and the BBC) and this annoyed so many of the few Tories left in Scotland that they plan to ditch him as leader!

All through these lies, Ross has wholeheartedly supported the genocide of the Palestinian people, has supported the theft of public funds by Tory donors and members via the VIP lane created to syphon off public money for dodgy Covid contracts. He also echoed every comment by any UK Tory leader from Boris Johnston to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

Ross is a walking example of the poor state of Scottish politics and while people like him continue to be elected we will continue on this downward spiral.

Cllr Kenny MacLaren

Paisley

ALL of the General Election TV debates to date that have included the SNP have gravitated to (or been led by the host or via pre-selected audience member questions) discussion of devolved matters such as the NHS and education.

Yet the only yardstick for measuring the SNP Scottish Government’s performance in devolved matters, the Labour Welsh Government’s performance, has barely been mentioned.

One in five people in Wales is currently on an NHS waiting list, which is equivalent to 40% more possible patients than in Scotland where the ratio is one in seven.

While the UK’s recent PISA scores have dropped (lowest levels in maths and science since 2006), Wales, which is not pursuing the broader aims of Curriculum for Excellence and is more focused on test results, is at the bottom of the UK rankings in all three measures of maths, science and reading.

Across the UK public services are broken and even local council services are failing with a number of council authorities in England, including its second largest city Birmingham, effectively bankrupt.

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The use of food banks has exploded across the UK and while the Scottish Government has sought to mitigate the worst impacts of austerity and has lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty an incoming Labour government at Westminster, avowedly bound to the Tories’ fiscal rules, will prolong austerity.

Regardless of what Anas Sarwar attempts to dupe Scottish voters into believing, Keir Starmer himself has declared that it will probably take at least two terms of government (10 years) to “fix the mess the Tories have made”.

The SNP must now lead any debate on devolved matters into comparison with the dire situation in Wales and argue that there is a better way forward via serious constitutional “reform” and Scotland’s independence.

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry, East Lothian

THE Prime Minister and Tory election candidates never tire of promising to cut taxes if they are elected. What they studiously omit to mention is that tax cuts mean cuts in services.

Less tax collected automatically means less money available for public services. So be in no doubt that it is not a case of either/or – a vote for cuts in taxes is a vote for cuts in services.

Peter Swain

Dunbar

I READ with increasing dismay your report that the SNP’s Edinburgh East candidate, Tommy Sheppard, has said that it would be “reasonable to assume” that the SNP would continue to advocate for a presumption against oil and gas licences.

This is a deeply unhelpful comment. There are three constituencies (at least) which, by any standards could be considered marginal up here in the north-east.

In the 2019 General Election Stephen Flynn took Aberdeen South from Labour with a 3990-vote majority.

In nearby Aberdeenshire West, Fergus Mutch came within 743 votes of ousting the incumbent Tory. This year Glen Reynolds is hoping to build on this result and take the seat.

Up the coast in Aberdeenshire North and Moray, the result was similar.

The problem is that both the Tories and SNP have been in office for quite a while and there is a hint that supporters of either party may not bother to vote. In this respect it has been a good week or so for the SNP. The PM gave us the gift of D-Day and hundreds of likely Tory voters are rightly disgusted. Add to this the fiasco over the selection of the Scottish Tory leader in Aberdeenshire North and Moray and the list of scunnered Tories could only have increased.

The SNP, on the other hand, have two issues up here. The electorate are not overly impressed with the results of the SNP/Green progressive policies. It is likely that some independence supporters will just not bother to vote.

But Sheppard’s ill-advised musings that the SNP would “continue to advocate for a presumption against oil and gas licences” may well have lost us these seats as thousands of oil and gas workers consider where their bread is best buttered.

Mike Power

Kemnay, Aberdeenshire