IN your article headed “Douglas Ross set for coronation as latest Scottish Tory leader today” (The Herald, August 5) he and Ruth Davidson are reported as proclaiming that “we are passionate about wanting to see our young children grow up in a country which is optimistic, exciting and united in nature”.

These two are representatives of a party which has brought down upon the UK a nationalism of the most divisive and destructive variety. The current Westminster Government is promoting an English nationalism dressed up as British Patriotism, the purpose of which pretence is no doubt to keep Mr Ross, Ms Davidson and the dwindling number of Scottish Conservative voters on board.

The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party has no chance of breaking out of its north-eastern and borderland refuges until it condemns all that Johnsonian Conservatism stands for.

Both of them would do well to pay heed what Iain Macwhirter says (“How a New Union could keep us living apart together”, The Herald, August 5); “something has to be done. Britain finally leaves Europe in the New Year”. Both Mr Ross and Ms Davidson need to convince Boris Johnson that he “can’t just pretend it’s business as usual”.

John Milne, Uddingston.

IAIN Macwhirter’s column offers the most sensible suggestions for Scotland going forward after Brexit I have heard to date. I hope the Scottish and English cabinets take note. The last thing Scotland needs is another independence referendum with all the misery and division that caused. So, give the Scottish Government full autonomy and I am sure with goodwill on all sides of the political divide, we in Scotland are capable of managing all our own affairs while maintaining cordial relations with Westminster, keeping the pound and being recognised as a sovereign nation. This would allow us to do our own negotiations to rejoin the EU which is what we voted for in that other ghastly referendum.

I am all for this New Union. Bring it on and let’s fold away the banners, the stickers and the placards and live peaceably with our neighbours.

Celia Judge, Ayr.

IAIN Macwhirter is correct: “A line has been crossed since Brexit. The Union … is no longer viable.” However, his remedy, a new Act of Union, is a lousy idea. A new Act of Union would not have prevented the disaster that is Brexit. Under this arrangement, Scotland would be tied to the UK internal market, meant to replace the much larger and more prosperous EU internal market that Scotland did not vote to leave. Scotland would be unable to set its own food, environmental, safety and labour standards and would be subject to weaker UK standards in order to secure a US trade deal, a veritable race to the bottom. Devolution would be demolished.

Why would Scotland agree to a new Act of Union if it means we must continue to tolerate nuclear weapons on our soil and if it means we would have no control over immigration policy?

Why would Scotland agree to be leashed to sterling, a currency that has been depreciating consistently over decades and is tethered to a rotten international banking system that makes the rich even richer? Iceland, with a population the size of Edinburgh, wrested control of its monetary system from the big banks and today manages its economy perfectly well. Scotland could do the same.

Finally, the UK has a mind-blowing public debt greater than 100 per cent of GDP that Scotland has been dragged into servicing when we didn’t generate it. Let’s not forget that the UK Government has already conceded that Scotland has no legal obligation to pay any debt at all. It makes no sense for Scotland to tie itself in perpetuity to this failing, indebted state.

A nw Act of Union is an idea that’s dead on arrival. Scotland must break away and reclaim its status as an independent nation.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh EH10.

IAIN Macwhirter suggests a new Union for Scotland and England, rather like a couple renewing their marriage vows. However, on reading the small print, it is the same old abusive relationship dressed up in Union Jack tat.

Can the foundations of your house cope with a nearby fracking operation?

Are the pictures going to fall off the walls? You will soon find out.

What are the long-term health outcomes of a diet of chlorinated, genetically modified chicken, and beef pumped full of steroids? You will be that guinea pig. If it doesn't turn out well, you will be paying for the medical care.

Strip away the bombast and this is the reality of Scotland staying manacled to a Brexited, US-controlled Britain.

Jim Daly, Edinburgh EH10.

ALLAN Sutherland is, I am afraid, whistling in the wind if he thinks George Galloway can unite an anti-SNP coalition from the Labour Party, the LibDems, Brexit voters, No voters, and furloughed workers. The figures he quotes are delusional and he is guilty of triple counting.

The simple reason the First Minister and support for the SNP are riding high in the polls is one Boris Johnson and his band of supine supporters. I trust Mr Sutherland does not choke on his toast, on the morning of May 7 after the next Holyrood election.

Alec Oattes, Ayr.

SOME of your unionist correspondents are fond of making references to “Scotland’s one million Brexit voters and two million No voters”. May I ask Allan Sutherland what makes him and his kind think all the people who voted No in 2014 or Leave in 2016 would vote the same way today? Personally I would not risk the price of a tattie scone on that particular chance.

Derrick McClure, Aberdeen AB24.

IT seems Boris Johnson and the UK Government are damned if they do and damned if they don't, in giving out a clear message to every scenario that arises during the fast moving and changing conditions during this Covid pandemic.

Contrast this with the Alistair Grant article ("Sturgeon says photos of pub crowds made her want to cry", The Herald, August 4) while Nicola Sturgeon keeps up the appearance of concerned matriarch at the same time SNPs Kenny MacAskill is telling SNP supporters that now is the time for "a huge rally" and "as lockdown eases it's time for the independence movement to get its boots back on and prepare to start marching again" ("MacAskill calls for Indyref marches", The Herald, August 4).

It seems all Ms Sturgeon needs to do is win a popularity contest between herself here in Scotland and an English Tory toff at Westminster and she is home and dry at next year's Holyrood elections. Failed policies of the past years here in Scotland are washed away as she immerses herself in the daily Covid pandemic show and makes "non-political " false claims of PPE being diverted from Scotland to England and England under-reporting Covid deaths, which is a bit like a judge telling a jury not to consider a hearsay statement, after it is made. Too late – it sticks and the damage is done, the point is scored.

Boris Johnson may be an English toff but he is throwing everything at this virus in an effort, while protecting people's health and livelihoods, to strike the right balance in easing and imposing regional restrictions wherever spikes in Covid manifest themselves as we are now seeing across Europe.

Scotland needs to see and hear more than contrived attacks on persons rather than their policies and independence being the snake oil cure for all of Scotland's ailments. The SNP should show us its build plan before the demolition.

Allan Thompson, Bearsden.