IN these final days of campaigning the intense pressure on all party leaders has reached the desperation stage.

Ruth Davidson accuses Jim Murphy of being a liar over his alleged apocryphal account of a constituent's treatment at the benefit agency ("Respectful debate is adhered to as promised, until thorny issue of welfare cutbacks is raised", The Herald, May 4). The next day Jim Murphy encounters mob heckling in Glasgow city centre. The Labour cry of Nationalist intimidation is immediately repudiated by Nicola Sturgeon ("Leaders unite to condemn Labour street rally abuse", The Herald, May 5).

Meanwhile, Nick Clegg reveals, via a Liberal Democrat peer, that his erstwhile coalition partner David Cameron had recently confided "a clear Conservative majority was doubtful" ("LibDem leader in decency attack on Osborne", The Herald, May 5).

Such unnecessary broken confidences do not auger well for any future coalition deals regardless of composition. Perhaps our politicians should occasionally pause and reflect on the Bard's words "as ithers see us". Such action might just restore some trust and confidence with the electorate whom our politicians purport to serve.

Allan C Steele,

22 Forres Avenue, Giffnock.

SO now we reach the finishing post of this long drawn-out and in many ways depressing General Election campaign. What have we learned?

Firstly we have discovered that negative campaigning is alive and well. All the Unionist Westminster parties have been falling over themselves to tell us what a terrible financial position we will be in without them even though the circumstances they describe will never be allowed to come to pass. They have harped on about a second referendum even though that has nothing to do with this election.

The major Unionist parties have displayed either a stunning ignorance of the workings of Westminster in relation to the right to form a government. Either that or, God forbid, they may actually have misspoken. To listen to Jim Murphy utilising erroneous facts to bully former Labour supporters back into the fold was certainly educational and underlined just how far we have moved on from Westminster politics which Murphy so plainly represents.

However , the steepest learning curve for most people was the realisation that to the Westminster elite we Scots are not only irrelevant but positively corrosive. I doubt that there can be many people left who still believe the Better Together love-in and any that still do exist with their head in the sand should read the English press and media with their constant attacks and denigration of everything Scottish. It is not by coincidence that every interview by the BBC in Scotland features Rab C Nesbit stereotypes.

For those who will sell their principles for the purpose of negative tactical voting I hope they can still look at themselves in the mirror.

David Stubley,

22 Templeton Crescent,

Prestwick.