LAST week, with rumours that a £1.5 billion deal was being arranged between the Conservatives and the DUP, Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, said the following: “I’m not going to agree to anything that could be construed as back-door funding to Northern Ireland.

“There are rules. The Barnett Formula is to Scotland’s advantage. I’m not going to do anything to prejudice it.

“Any funding that goes to Northern Ireland, then Barnett rules will ensure the appropriate funding comes to Scotland.”

Yesterday, the deal between the Conservatives and the DUP was signed (“Outcry over May’s ‘grubby’ £1bn power pact with DUP”, The Herald, June 27). £1bn extra funding to Northern Ireland. Not a penny for anywhere else. This matters because under Barnett, Scotland would have received £2.9bn in extra funding – replacing at a stroke the monies lost through real-term Westminster cuts to the Scottish budget over the last 10 years, cuts that Holyrood has done a great job in mitigating against. Whether this is, however, the best use of a parliament's skills and energies is a matter for another day.

The situation may be summed up thus: in Scotland, we have an ailing government we didn't vote for, kept alive by a party we can't vote for, taking us to a Brexit we don't want. Today, Mr Mundell is nowhere to be found. Ruth Davidson seems unusually quiet, too. Sure, some Tories have been wheeled out and have argued that the deal is akin to that brokered for certain cities and regions, but those were half-funded by Holyrood and didn't include areas like health and education. Make no mistake, this week the UK Government used taxpayers' money to bribe fundamentalists to push through a Brexit that will impoverish us all.

So we no longer have a hung parliament but a bung parliament. Here are the questions that I think it raises.

Given Mr Mundell's statement last week and silence today, he was either misleading us or was being kept out of the loop by his Westminster bosses. Which was it?

If the British government can unilaterally and arbitrarily declare any spending to be “outside” funding agreements then the arrangement is meaningless. Is Barnett now finished?

Will the Scottish Tory MPs ensure that the Secretary of State is good to his word and that Scotland receives its funding as Barnett demands?

With 13 Tory MPs now elected, they are in a strong position to influence a Government with a wafer-thin majority in a way that would benefit Scotland. Will Alister Jack and his colleagues defy the whip on Westminster votes until Scotland gets the deal it is owed? If not, what are you for? If 10 DUP politicians can do it, why not 13 Scottish Tories? If you can't stand up for us now, then when?

Think what this country could do with £2.9bn. So yesterday's deal asks a very fundamental question of the Scottish Conservatives. Will they stand up for Scotland, or will they forever do the bidding of their London bosses, even to the impoverishment of their own constituents?

Their actions in the next few days will, I think, provide some clarity.

Alec Ross,

Lochans Mill, Lochans, Stranraer.

THE implications of the deal struck with the DUP by Theresa May are profound. Not least is the potential impact on the Scottish Conservatives coming from such political chicanery.

Should Ruth Davidson fail to obtain benefits for Scotland equivalent to those now heading for Northern Ireland, she will fall into the trap neatly defined in 2014 by Johann Lamont, in her resignation statement as leader of Scottish Labour.

Ms Davidson will find it impossible to avoid the allegation that she is no more than the manager of a branch office, which is headquartered in London.

Bob Scott,

Creitendam Lodge, Balmaha Road, Drymen.

WE should be in no doubt that the deal that Theresa May has struck with the DUP to cling on to government is an insult to those of us who voted for Jeremy Corbyn and Kezia Dugdale's progressive agenda. Instead of a Government committed to ending austerity across the UK, we now have one that will end it only in Northern Ireland.

This absurd outcome is what happens when minority governments undertake grubby deals behind closed doors. We saw the same in Holyrood in 2007 (SNP/Tory), in Westminster in 2010 (Tory/LibDem) and more recently in Scotland when the SNP needed Green support to cut local authority budgets.

Whilst many will welcome such deals as a step towards consensus politics, they offer parties which have only limited support an opportunity to exert undue influence whilst simultaneously ensuring larger "losing" parties remain locked out of government.

The DUP won just 292,316 votes, but it now holds more power than Scottish Labour (717,007 votes) and the UK Labour Party (12,878,460 votes). Mrs May needs to explain why doing a deal to end austerity in Northern Ireland with a party that won 0.9 per cent of the vote in the UK was just as easy as ignoring those millions of voters who backed Labour's transformative vision.

After all, we should be creating good quality jobs and building sustainable homes right across the UK, not just in Northern Ireland.

Dr Scott Arthur,

Buckstone Gardens, Edinburgh.

ALLOW me to congratulate all those voters who fell for the "Teach Nicola a lesson" ruse and voted for Conservative Party candidates. I am sure they must all be delighted with the consequences of their action.

The 13 seats which were returned by the Tories allowed the incompetent Theresa May to negotiate a sordid little deal with the Democratic Unionist Party. I wonder if voters are happy to be maintained in government by a party with historic links to terrorists and some truly bigoted policies? Do they consider the Conservatives more important than the peace process in Northern Ireland which this action has most definitely put under threat? I am sure Ruth Davidson and her sidekick Kezia Dugdale will attempt to spin this as a positive result, but only the gullible will be fooled.

How clever of these voters to allow billions of pounds to be used as a bribe which will benefit Northern Ireland but not one penny equivalent coming to Scotland. Now I really understand the term NI Contribution.

David Stubley,

22 Templeton Crescent, Prestwick.

FOR the SNP to call the Tory/DUP deal “grubby” is pure hypocrisy.

Were it not for the Greens, with their seats, the SNP would not have any majority itself, the obvious casualty being their respective fixation with independence referendums.

Andrew Lapping,

Hamilton Capital Partners, The Beacon, St Vincent Street, Glasgow.