SITTING tight, encompassed in gloom, scared to look up, but hanging on – that was the Government Front Bench during Prime Minister's Questions yesterday, and no wonder. The sleaze and mismanagement of the Conservative Government is breathtaking. Now we have the tale of Christmas past, was there a party, were Covid rules broken?

Can the country cope with any more sleaze from this despicable Government, a Government which is treating the public with contempt? While the current headlines are all about a party or no party in Downing Street in 2020, the country is drowning. Drowning from the effects of austerity, drowning from fuel poverty, drowning on the way to the food bank.

So are the headlines of Christmas parties past merely a distraction from the real Christmas many hardworking families and households are about to experience this year? A Christmas with gift-wrapped choices delivered direct from Westminster: you can choose eating or heating, choices that will have many households in despair.

Catriona C Clark, Falkirk.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

I HAVE written to you many times before about the sad situation of having someone of the calibre of Boris Johnson as this country's Prime Minister. I have continuously asked the question as to why there are so few with any intelligence, gumption or guts in his own party, to stand up and demand that he resigns from the position of PM. Until this happens – and the question and suggestion and demand must come from his own party – this self-centred, ignorant and smirking individual will continue to "lead" the United Kingdom in the distinguished and unique role of Prime Minister.

Enough is enough; as I write this letter to you this morning, at 8.30 am, I wish beyond hope that at today's Prime Minister's Questions, not only will the Leader of the Opposition, the leader of the Scottish National Party at Westminster, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the leader of the Green Party, but also ministers and elected members of the Conservative Party, will all stand up, one after the other, and demand that Boris Johnson stands down as PM, and allow someone else to take his place. That is what democracy and politics should be about – and used to be about – but sadly is not in 2021.

Enough is enough.

Walter Paul, Glasgow.

* RESIGNATION is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly. Resignations from high office may be rare, but history shows that leaders have resigned for various reasons.

The names of Neville Chamberlain and Anthony Eden come to mind when one thinks of a particular crisis which required the leader in post to stand down and hand the responsibility of leadership over to a successor. Others, such as Harold Wilson and Henry Campbell-Bannerman, resigned because they considered the responsibilities of the office were too much of a burden for them to bear. On some occasions the leader has lost the support of his or her own party, as happened with Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May, while others have lost the support of the electorate, with Gordon Brown and John Major being the latest examples.

In the United Kingdom the resignation of a Prime Minister, rather than a Cabinet minister, due to a relatively simple error or indiscretion, is rare and has not happened in the last 100 years. Further afield Richard Nixon resigned as the President of the United States of America because of the so-called Watergate Tapes and nearer to home Henry McLeish resigned because of the so-called Officegate affair regarding his constituency office.

The question for Boris Johnson might be which gate is about to open for him.

Sandy Gemmill, Edinburgh.

SNP ENTITLED TO CIVIL SERVICE HELP

NORMAL practice in UK politics is that parties put forward a manifesto in which they commit to implementing a number of different policies if they become the government. The role of the civil service is to assist the winning party to implement these policy commitments.

As early as Page 4 in its manifesto for the 2021 Holyrood election, the SNP committed to “an independence referendum after the Covid crisis”. On page 10 of the 2019 General Election manifesto, we find this: “There is a clear mandate to hold a referendum on independence during the current term of the Scottish Parliament."

However, Jill Stephenson (Letters, December 8) asserts: “If the SNP wants a separatist prospectus, let it pay for it”, no matter that the commitment to independence has been made by the SNP in the last two elections, in each of which it won a majority (2019) of seats, or was easily the largest party (2021). I think it's fair to say on both occasions those who voted spoke clearly, and that it is only democratic to allow the SNP to use civil service resources for this purpose, no matter one’s view of independence.

It is clear the Unionist clique will use any means, fair or foul, to frustrate independence. Super-majorities (another instance of breaking with UK tradition) and manipulating the wording of the ballot paper question have already been widely trailed at length. Ms Stephenson’s intervention is no more than another example of this fundamentally undemocratic tactic.

Alasdair Galloway, Dumbarton.

SO WHAT IS BEHIND THE NHS CRISIS?

THE SNP keeps telling us that the NHS is on the verge of being overwhelmed by Covid. A Google search reveals that there are approaching 13,000 beds in Scottish NHS hospitals. There are currently just over 500 people in hospital in Scotland with Covid. That means roughly only four beds in every 100 are occupied by Covid patients. Is this really what is causing the crisis?

I accept that the NHS in Scotland is being overwhelmed, but it is easy and simplistic for that useful catch-all excuse of Covid, that we get in many walks of life every day, to be made. The NHS was in crisis before the pandemic as a result of cuts implemented by Nicola Sturgeon when she was Health Secretary and which have continued under her administration. Does the percentage of beds occupied by Covid sufferers really justify further restrictions, especially now that a very large proportion of the population are double-vaccinated and the booster programme is well under way?

The pandemic has certainly provided a useful distraction to enable Ms Sturgeon to deflect attention from her many failings in education, drugs deaths, health, the bGupta steel scandal, ferries fiasco and more as well as giving her a platform on BBC Scotland to boost her profile and exercise her penchant for publicity and control.

Donald Lewis, East Lothian.

A MATTER OF DUTY

I READ with interest Robert Buntin's letter (December 7) questioning anti-vaxxers' motivations. This group of people are calling on their "human rights" for this choice. However, I agree with Mr Buntin and seriously question the wisdom of such a decision. In fact, I would like to take it a step further. The words "human rights" are often quoted, but "human duty" is rarely mentioned. Surely it is everyone's human duty to keep everyone safe and get vaccinated.

Tony van Breugel, Kilbarchan.

RICH COUNTRIES MUST GET TOGETHER

JUST a couple of weeks ago the World Trade Organisation was to be holding a summit in Geneva, one of the main issues for discussion being whether the wealthy countries, including the UK, would finally drop their opposition to suspending Covid patents, so that manufacturing could be ramped up, and vaccines and treatments distributed more fairly across the world.

Unfortunately the summit was cancelled at the last minute, ironically because it was too late: the genie was already out of the bottle, the feared new Omicron variant was already spreading across the world.

And now, it is reported that, in Scotland, cases of the new variant have risen from nine cases a week ago to almost 400, which, if it were to continue to spread at that rate, would have about 120,000 cases in Scotland by Christmas.

And, in the unvaccinated south, there will already be another variant brewing, ready to sweep across the world early in the new year.

If not for humanitarian reasons, then just as a matter of self-preservation, the rich countries need to get their act together, and enable all our neighbours on this increasingly small planet to get vaccinated, before we collectively brew a virus which cant 'be tamed.

We can't go on like this.

Les Mackay, Dundee.

IS COVID BOOSTER A SECRET?

I AM convinced that Covid booster jabs are important but it appears that the Scottish Government has put them in such a high category of state secret that they can't be shown on our NHS Scotland Covid status app.

Just in case anyone is tempted to call the information line on 0800 22 44 88: I was defeated by 600 repetitions in 30 minutes of "Please wait while we connect you to a member of our team".

John Burton, Thornhill.

Read more: Why aren't the Scots allowed the same fervour as the English?