NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the circus is in his blood, courtesy of his father, there can surely be few more eminently suited than Sir John Major to the role of clown in the UK’s current political big top.
This is the joker whose flawed decision to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and adhere stubbornly to it in the face of impending disaster almost brought the country to its knees, culminating in interest rates temporarily rising to fifteen per cent, record numbers of bankruptcies and home repossessions.
In 1997 he was accused by the opposition of proroguing Parliament early in order to delay the publication of a report into the “Cash for Questions” scandal which involved his own government. Hypocrite or not?
Morag Black,
Houston,
Renfrewshire
HAVING read the article by Rebecca McQuillan (‘The Scottish Tories now need to cut the UK party adrift’, The Herald, August 30), one could be forgiven for thinking that all the criticisms she directed at the dignified resignation of Ruth Davidson and the actions of Boris Johnson to get Brexit done were viewed through the narrow prism of Scottish nationalism - and nothing else.
For example, her rant against the “people’s” vote (Brexit) showed little understanding of the real opportunities which will follow once we leave the flawed and doomed EU ,best explained by the ex-Prime Minister of Iceland, David Gunnlaugsson, when, as he said recently, “there was no doubt that Brexit Britain will prosper once the UK has fully cut the ties of the EU”.
Mind you, Rebecca McQuillan’s views were at least consistent with her undemocratic stance with regard to the 2014 Scottish referendum and the 2016 Leave or Remain UK-wide vote. This suggests to me she was on the losing side twice.
She went on to expose a jealous streak about the hard-working middle-class who pay for private education, the perceived privileged few, and the old chestnut about class warfare.
This was unfortunate, as a much more interesting and relevant topic, on whether the Tories could lead the charge towards a Federal system of government in the UK, was almost buried in her desire to promote her SNP credentials and her Venezuelan-type economics.
Ian Lakin,
Milltimber,
THE Prime Minister’s advocated No-Deal exit from the EU will bring the UK to a standstill with food shortages, stockpiles and border checks.
Already, one lane of the road from Dover into London has been cordoned off as a lorry park.
I grow vegetables on my allotment and have started freezing and pickling to ensure my family is well nourished during the winter. We are on a war footing without a war to fight. We are not digging for victory but owing to our reckless government, taking steps to ensure we do not starve.
Meanwhile, perfectly good food from our European erstwhile trading partners will go rotten as it waits in lorries before being dispersed.
Patricia Baillie Strong,
I WATCHED the BBC’s excellent Yes/No: Inside the Indyref and was a lot more impressed by the leadership, strategy and cross party spirit than I was as a lowly leafletter.
Currently I despair at the lack of any focused pro-UK campaign and personalities but if the lunacy keeps unfolding and another independence referendum comes, about I was heartened to see that there are able, talented people like Ramsay Jones, Jim Murphy, Douglas Alexander, Blair McDougall and many battle-hardened others, whose experience could be harnessed again to win a brutal campaign that will make the 2014 referendum look like a Broons picnic at the but an’ ben.
These days we could add the techniques of Dominic Cumming, widely credited as the brains behind the Brexit Leave campaign, and, assuming young Finn is of school age, perhaps Ruth Davidson could be coaxed back to be the leader. I’m feeling Better Already.
Allan Sutherland,
Stonehaven
AN ‘Eton coup’, wails Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, among the teeth-gnashing anti-proroguists.
“He’s right,” harmonises Rebecca McQuillan - entrenched, Boris-bashingly, in the belief that 22 privately educated members of the cabinet (four of them Old Etonians) symbolise a “stranglehold by the class system on British life”.
There is, however, another view: the Rebecca/Rennie duet is wrong.
After all, should it not be a cause for rejoicing, especially in Scotland, that an independent school sector still devoted to traditional excellence, with an unparalleled record of academic and other distinctions is, both in England and Scotland, producing the minds of which the UK, especially Scotland, today stands in desperate need?
Let the current powers-that-be in Scotland adapt their educational ideology to encouraging the highest quality (not elitism) before slinging mud at establishments whose vision of the best for the country’s youth is a beacon to follow.
Stuart J. Mitchell,
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