AS we get closer to the final countdown in the Tory leadership battle race ("It's Hunt v Johnson: Now the real fight for No begins", The Herald, June 21) it has become increasingly likely that Boris Johnson will become the new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unfortunately much what has been written about him in these columns (and elsewhere) have been without foundation and disingenuous to say the least.

Take for example the quote from Nicola Sturgeon when she claimed it was "deeply concerning" that even the Conservative Party would contemplate him as Prime Minister, conveniently disregarding the fact that he was a very successful Mayor of London (one of the largest multicultural cities in the world with an eight-times-larger GDP than Scotland) in a Labour stronghold for two consecutive terms – no mean achievement, especially when one takes into account the highly successful Olympic Games in 2012.

Furthermore those who have concerns about his knowledge on Scottish affairs appear to have discounted a role for the talented and experienced Michael Gove in the new Cabinet – notwithstanding the undoubted regular ear-bashing he will get from Ruth Davidson and her trusty band of Scottish Conservative MPs and MSPs lest he forgets the legitimate concerns of the Scottish people.

With regard to Brexit; if you read between the lines the likelihood is that Mr Johnson (although a tougher negotiator than Theresa May) will be much more pragmatic than he sounds, which after all, is the essential quality needed for a successful outcome to our future relationship with the EU and for the UK to grow its global export market (£650 billion) with the rest of the world.

Finally, with all the apparent overwhelming support by fellow Conservative parliamentarians and members we should all give him the benefit of the doubt with a fair hearing and wish him well.

Ian Lakin,

Aberdeen AB13.

MALCOLM Allan (Letters, June 21) points out that the Ukraine electorate chose a comedian to run their country and asks "can the UK afford to do the same?". My answer would be that there is nothing remotely funny about the front runner in the contest to become leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister who claimed that "government by a Scot is just not conceivable in the current constitutional context" and that "a pound spent in Croydon is of far more value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde".

Boris Johnson's offensive comments about Muslims revealed him as a suitable apprentice to Donald Trump, but I doubt if Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is laughing after Mr Johnson's comments, as Foreign Secretary, made her awful situation worse.

It seems incredible that with 10n candidates to choose from, Tory MPs have put Mr Johnson, the worst of a bad lot, in pole position to be the next tenant of No 10. One can only hope it would be a short stay, as the potential damage he could wreak is mind-boggling; not so much a comedy of errors, but a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions lies ahead if Tory members inflict Mr Johnson upon us all. The UK in general, and Scotland in particular, cannot afford him.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

THOSE who will crow over Boris Johnson's inevitable victory over the pusillanimous Jeremy Hunt may well come to rue their paean of praise for their man.

His history does not fill the citizen who has not fallen under his spell with any confidence in his ability to lead us out of the economic wilderness into which a no deal Brexit will thrust us.

Tightening our belts in the face of a shrinking economy, collapsing tax receipts and the reduction of public services to a flimsy safety net will be the country's reward for placing any faith in the self-seeking and duplicitous master of the misspoken word.

Don't hold your breath for a miracle.

Faith may well move mountains but bad faith is going to send our country's economy careering over the cliff edge into freefall where the man in the street will have to stomach the grisly fallout.

If you thought Theresa May was poor, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.

LOOKING back across the decades as I approach 80 I can think of no British politician to whom I warmed more than the late Rab Butler – exposing a life-long weakness for clever, cynical but fundamentally decent men. The title of his memoir employed Bismarck's incomparable description of politics: The Art of the Possible.

The two key questions the likely next Tory PM Boris Johnson must answer are "How do you intend to take Britain out of the EU by October 31?" and "What is your plan should you fail?" The whole scenario is darkened by the fact that Europe's political leaders, on the Continent and in the archipelago, think he's a rude, unserious buffoon.

There's no way Mr Johnson can produce an orderly exit from the EU by October 31 and if Plan B is a no-deal Brexit the Tory Government will collapse into a General Election they will lose. If we end up in the dread clutches of Jeremy Corbyn and his Marxist fellow travellers it will be a fitting end to this period of national imbecility.

Rev Dr John Cameron, St Andrews.

MARK Field is simply the latest victim of so-called " peaceful protestors". This is yet another manifestation of the way society is going.

It is perhaps most exemplified by the attitude of political parties who deny the majority verdicts of the people because it does not suit them and seek to overturn the results. At the other end of the scale it can even be found on the blocked streets of Edinburgh. Laws and "rights" are being used for unintended purposes to promote dissent. Without rules, a society ceases to exist. We are in grave danger of sleepwalking into just such a situation.

When the actions of Mr Field polarise the entire country and split it 50/50 as to who was wrong and who was right, just as we are experiencing the same in many other situations, then common sense has to prevail. The protestors went to that dinner, no matter the urgency of their cause, with the specific intention of disrupting those who were innocently there. That cannot be right.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow G77.

Read more: Sturgeon: Johnson would be a disaster and Brexit risk is rising