Letters: Do we really need a PM who promotes inequality?

In the UK the front-runner to become the next Prime Minister has signalled his intention to raise the threshold for the higher band of income tax to £80,000. While this may have little effect on those chief executives whose basic salary, along with share issues and bonuses, the latter being deemed inappropriate for those at the chalk face, results in their receiving multi-millions, it will rest uneasily on the bowed shoulders of those making their way to food banks throughout many areas in this country.

The electorate in the Ukraine chose a comedian to lead their country. Can the UK afford to do the same?

Malcolm Allan,

Bishopbriggs.

RORY Stewart’s fall from grace at the third vote in the Tory leadership election ("Chancellor warns candidates over Brexit strategy as Stewart voted out", The Herald, June 20), was accentuated by the fact that he gained more votes in round two than round three.

Perhaps his hubristic call for all the others to withdraw so that he could go head to head with Boris Johnson was one fault too much.

He did have some wacky ideas, his People's Assembly was a bit cumbersome and impractical in concept, modus operandi and ultimate purpose, namely to put suggestions to Parliament. His compulsory Youth Social Service would have led to problems when many refused to participate/

He was very much the arch-Tory deep down and his voting record did not highlight any radical difference from the rest of the pack.

His stunts did not really carry much gravitas and seemed more like a ploy to come over as one of the folk.

The Tory Party is aiming to put in a rough guy to teach those EU-wallahs a lesson or two and show them who is entitled to be big boss, call the shots and it thinks so far that Mr Johnson is the very candidate to do that and our-farage Farage. It is more likely to get what it deserves from the EU and the EU has made that clear. Turning up in a Boris Bus is no answer.

John Edgar,

Kilmaurs.

I HAVE to admit to watching the Tory leadership campaign with a high level of cynicism. This has absolutely nothing to do with selecting the best leader to lead this very divided group of nations called the United Kingdom.

This farce is actually to appoint the most malleable puppet leader who can be controlled by the real power base in the Conservative Party. To this end you want someone who has no fixed principles and is willing to kowtow solely to gain position and prestige. It is a major benefit if the person also has skeletons in their closet which can be used to pressurise or in extremis blackmail the person to bend to their will. When looked at through this lens it becomes blatantly obvious why Boris Johnson is running away with the votes.

David Stubley,

Prestwick.

I AGREE wholeheartedly with your correspondents who have raised questions about the calibre of the Tory Party leadership candidates (Letters, June 20). The Labour leadership is just as bad. This morning I heard the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, interviewed on the Today programme. I had forgotten what a sensible adult politician sounds like.

R Murray,

Glasgow G41.

YOUR report on the YouGov findings ("Poll shows Tory members choose Brexit over Union", The Herald, June 19) confirms that Ruth Davidson and her branch office are totally irrelevant to the inner workings of the English Tory Party, as no one is listening. Like the Scottish branch office of the Labour Party, both are irrelevant as England control and implement their agenda on their hapless Scottish colleagues (colleagues might not be the appropriate term).

Unionism is withering on the vine and long may it continue. However, democracy requires strong opposition to hold governments to account, unfortunately in Scotland there’s none currently. Therefore, new independent Scottish parties need to be formed to meet this challenge. Who will come forward and acknowledge the existence of this vacuum in our Scottish political evolution?

Robert Buirds,

Port Glasgow.

RICHARD Lyle, the Uddingston and Bellshill nationalist MSP who called the car park tax "unfair’’ has voted for it and got it past the first Holyrood hurdle. In doing so he merely continues the series of U-turns from the SNP that we have witnessed for many years. Backbone and principle seems to dissolve when the thought of having to get off the SNP gravy train is considered.

Worst still was the outrageous comment from the SNP’s John Mason. He claims only the "elite’’ will suffer from the new tax. So much for the aspirations of the young working class in Scotland trying to better themselves.

Owning a car is clearly, in Mr Mason’s eyes, not for the likes of them.

Alexander McKay,

Edinburgh EH6.

RECENT comments about the working parking levy being for the "elite" and tweets from John Mason MSP stating that those on minimum wage "probably cannot afford a car" belie how out of touch the SNP hierarchy actually is in Scotland today.

Mr Mason is quite correct. As someone who is on the minimum wage, is unable to find a full-time job, and is earning less than I was a decade ago; yet has a solid CV and an honours degree, a car is indeed out of the question.

The SNP bleats about Westminster and "broken Britain" but things aren't particularity rosy in Sturgeon's Scotland. As a responsible, working-age man, who wants a hand up rather than a hand-out, wants a steady career with a modicum of stability and policies that help to this end, I may as well be invisible to the SNP. Labour gave my first real job through the Future Job Fund in 2009. The Conservatives have given me tax cuts, letting me keep more of my earned money. The SNP has made me take my own plastic bags to the supermarket and charge me more for a can of cola.

However, I certainly hope that one day I will be granted the financial means and political stability in Scotland to purchase a second-hand Seat Leon and finally join the dizzying heights of the car-owning "elite" that only exists in the mind of an SNP technocrat.

David Bone,

Girvan.