AFTER outrageous filibustering and last-minute ambiguous promises to her rebel flock last night, promises contradicted outright by her spokesman on the Radio 4 Today programme first thing this morning, Theresa May has apparently staggered away once more, temporarily, from the yawning abyss of constitutional and economic chaos effortlessly prepared for the UK by her divided, incompetent apology for a "Government team" .
Railway chaos, farce, across the south and north of England; the Windrush scandal, created by Mrs May's very own " hostile environment", costing Amber Rudd her career but more importantly destroying the lives of many British citizens and their families and preventing the NHS from employing vital, desperately needed specialists from Commonwealth countries; the crazy, desperate plan to have Northern Ireland declare itself simultaneously both within and outside the EU customs union; the inhumanity, not least towards the mental and emotional wellbeing of younger children in poorer larger, families, of the rape clause: these are just some of the more obvious ghastly consequences of our continued toleration of this appalling administration.
The retiring leader of the CBI was also interviewed this morning, about Brexit. He was extremely articulate about the dangerous mess that we are now facing, again created by an irresponsible divided Conservative administration, leaderless – fighting among themselves, unchallenged by a prevaricating official opposition.
About articulacy: this Prime Minister, to return briefly to the unfortunate Ms Rudd, was apparently aware enough of her own lack of empathy, her own inarticulacy, to have used her as a replacement in all major party leader debates during the last election. Her attempts to "meet the people" have been, without exception, grotesque – behind the closed doors of empty warehouses, surrounded by lackeys and bodyguards before sweeping away in a convoy of darkened windows.
Throughout this nightmarish period the Scottish Government, with limited powers and the help at times of Green and Labour MSPs, has successfully mitigated the worst viciousness and harm of Tory diktats from Westminster. Meanwhile, the Tory contingent has sustained smirking, shameless disgraceful diversion and denial.
So, when you print a letter, like the one from Alasdair Sampson today (June 13), the morning after our Holyrood Parliament was treated with absolute contempt by an inarticulate, cynical UK Prime Minister and her totally out-of-control incompetent Cabinet, removing powers to protect our environment, our key industries and our people from the worst of what will now follow as we are led over the Brexit cliff edge, the irony is extreme.
There will be consequences of events yesterday in Westminster. As a first step, I hope reality finally breaks through for people like Mr Sampson and the false basis of Ruth Davidson's political persona and her mantras in Scotland are absolutely nailed.
Frances McKie,
20 Ash Hill, Evanton.
I HOPE that when I unfold Thursday’s edition of The Herald I read the banner headlines “Ruth Davidson slams the Westminster Government’s treatment of Scotland.
It would be ironic indeed if the silence of the Leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party were to contribute in no small way to the break-up of the United Kingdom.
John Milne,
9 Ardgowan Drive, Uddingston.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here